Well, today was a day for relationships as well as work. I made a whole bunch of eyelash yarn scarves for my clients to choose today. I went there and let them each choose their own scarf. It is always interesting to see who picks what.

I also took a birthday present for my primary contact person, as her birthday is just before Christmas and I think it is extra important to celebrate someone when their own holiday tends to hide in the shadows of the big holidays that more people celebrate. For her, I took one of the journals by Susan Hensel that I got at her moving sale. The book was perfect for her… blue embossed paper cover with stars, blue ribbons to close it, and turquoise pages with a few white pockets to hold treasures. It’s sort of a magical thing, the journal. You have to untie the bow and it seems as though you are peeking into a secret space.

The boas went over well. I think they are great fun if not super practical. They feel good, they are pretty colors, and they just feel like a little luxury. I am glad I could do that for these lovely friends who also choose to work with me from time to time.

After the client, I went to work at JoAnn Fabric. I was surprised by a visit from the grandparents of one of my CityKidz who I’m teaching to knit. I knew they would probably stop by, but thought they were just picking up a scarf from me.

The surprise was that they brought me a gift! A gift basket (the basket is a very nice wire one that I will use often) full of homemade cookies (M&M cookies and oatmeal/raisin, comfort food rather than froofy holiday sweets). And on the bow there was a little snowman ornament. The snowman is swinging in a swing, from a snowflake. Very nice. On the bottom of the swing they wrote my name and her name and the date. I’m very touched.

I just LOVE my kidz. Love ‘em very very much. This child knows how I feel about her and she loves me as well, though we never say those words out loud. We just pay attention to the other person while we’re together. She is one of my younger kids but she knits a lot at home with the support of the family and is really doing well, learning in a very big learning curve these days. It is a delight to spend time with her.

I guess schoolteachers get gifts frequently and are used to them. For me, this year I have been gifted with a yarn gift certificate, an ornament in the shape of a musical note (with a bell as part of the shape) and now the basket of cookies and ornament. It means so much to me! These kids are the highlight of my life most weeks, and clearly I make a difference to them, as well. Sigh…

I’m staying busy today… I was at Foster for six hours (I adore my knitting kids, have I said that lately?) but before and after, I have been cranking out eyelash yarn boa scarves on my HK100 knitting frame/machine. I have a longterm computer client (perhaps 10 years now, I started when Windows95 had not come out yet) which is a small office, only 5 people. We have exchanged gifts for a long time. We really do like each other a lot, work or play, and they are very creative folks who appreciate my handmade items.

One year I gave them polymer clay keychains, two years polymer magnets (one year Millefiori and one year printed with a block print). One time I hand-carved erasers into personalized rubber stamps with their names/initials on them. I have made them packets of hand-blockprinted greeting cards. I think it was two years ago I made them tiny socks as ornaments/pins to wear. I think last year I tie-dyed silk scarves for them if I remember right.

So this year they get boa scarves. I always make a variety and then I let them choose. I like to make at least one more than there are people, so even the last person gets a choice. My contact person gets first dibs and then they sort of pass things around. So tomorrow I’m going over there with a basket full of boa scarves. It is always interesting to see who picks what.

These ladies are mostly practical folks. I’m pretty sure they would never buy themselves boa scarves. But I learned from my Mother that sometimes people just love extravagances they wouldn’t necessarily buy for themselves. So I’m hoping this will feel like a little splurge for my friends at the office down the street. If not, they do appreciate the time it takes to make things by hand. And most of them are new knitters in the last year or so, so they really understand.

I’m tired, but it has been a productive day. I’ll hope to get some photos taken before I give up the goodies tomorrow!

It is real! The article Carla Kucinski wrote about me was published in the NOISE today.

The NOISE is a free paper (owned by the newspaper giant Gannett) geared to the under-35 crowd in Lansing. It’s sort of nice to know that a woman like me (age 45, with bifocals and gray hair) would be interesting to this magazine. I was delighted that they were interested.

Someone who works at the NOISE found my weblog online and passed the address to Carla. Somewhere down the line she decided to write me and ask if I would consent to an interview.

She (and I) almost missed out twice. One, I actually deleted her email because at first glance the subject “Interview Request” looked like a junk email. Then I thought I’d better go get that message out of my trash and see if it might be legit. It was.

Then, I was worried she would misquote me. For one thing, I talk fast. For another, I know how hard it is to distill a long, lively conversation into black and white words. I sort of challenged her to not misquote me. She brought a tape recorder to the interview, undaunted.

She thought we’d talk for less than an hour. We talked for two. I don’t know how she sorted through all those words to make this article, but I think she did a very good job. Thank you, Carla.

Oh, and the photos by Jeremy Herliczek turned out very nicely as well. As mentioned in a previous blog entry, he owns a print I made several years ago, purchased at an art exhibit where I was not present. We clicked very well.

I have sometimes been critical of the NOISE for a few reasons, one being their fixation on whether things are cool/hip or not (I’m old enough to not care if I’m cool, and ironically now more people think I am), and another because they appear to not have any folks with dark-skinned faces on their staff (we all know there are plenty of cool/hip 20-35yr olds in Lansing who have dark skin, but they seem to not work for the NOISE).

However, this time I gave into the vanity of someone wanting to know about me. I mean, I love to talk about myself, I think my life is very interesting. Face it, lots of us like to talk about ourselves, it’s a common human trait.

Today for this article, I must say that quality is in place at the NOISE. Carla and Jeremy did a good job.

I feel like the song “On the Cover of the Rollin’ Stone.” I need to get 5 copies for my mother!

Today I had time to dabble in a few different possibilities. I knit swatches in three different yarns on my HK100 knitting frame, preparing for possible projects. I hope to do the Sally Melville Not Your Mother’s Suit Dress (from her Purl Stitch Knitting Experience book) so I swatched with two mohairs I have had in stash waiting to become sweaters for over a year.

I had really wanted to make the dress in the Hot Fuschia and I did get gauge on one of the tension settings, but the yarn is very fine with not much brushed fuzz, so the fabric after wetting and air drying is perhaps too sheer for a dress. I don’t feel like sewing a custom full-length slip in order to wear the dress, though I could do it.

So I swatched the other mohair I have in enough quantity to do the dress. It is a hot turquoise (again I am frustrated by the web’s inability to handle turquoise) which is very fuzzy and dense. On the labels, these both can accomplish the gauge Sally recommends for this dress, but I’m thinking the turquoise will be more appropriate for a dress. A floaty mohair sweater is one thing- when it floats and is sheer, I can wear a turtleneck under it. However, if it is a floaty dress I need a full slip which I would rather not bother with.

I’m still waiting for the turquoise swatch to dry. If that yarn works out, I hope it goes with the three yarns I had chosen for the “Not Your Mother’s Suit Coat” to go with it. I wanted a pink dress and turquoise coat. I have chosen three yarns that have three different turquoises (intense medium turquoise, teal and aqua) as my possible combination for the coat. That means either it will look wonderful with the dress or look like a mismatch.

It’s too soon to know since I haven’t dyed the teal yarn yet for the coat, but it doesn’t look promising. The aqua and medium turquoise I have already put together are warmer greenish turquoises, and the mohair is more of a blue. Unless the teal really unifies things in a magical way I think I won’t be able to wear them together. That is not to say I won’t make both projects and just wear them separately but it would be a little bit of a disappointment.

While I was at it on the HK100, I also swatched some wool/cotton/unknown fingering weight yarn for some possible longjohns or leggings. It’s boring natural with taupe but I don’t care what color things are if they are hiding under my jeans! I have two HUGE cones I got for I think $1.00 a pound in Eaton Rapids at Davidson’s annual warehouse sale. Nothing to lose but some time… although learning will come out of it even if it doesn’t work out.

Right now those wool/cotton swatches have been through a long machine wash cycle and are in an extended extra-hot dryer cycle to see if I can get a fabric I like that is washable. We’ll see how that goes. If it works really well, I’ll try to overdye it and see what 50% it is that is wool (I’m guessing the natural is cotton and the soft taupe is wool). I would love to make it “my colors” so I can make knit pants for outerwear as well. Maybe the taupe will overdye as a nice teal or eggplant. Time will tell.

Late Breaking News:
The wool/cotton swatches just came out of the hot dryer. I’m really pleased with how the fabric feels. It fluffs up to what feels like sportweight after washing and drying. I’m delighted. These longjohns will be soft and WARM Warm warm….

As promised, today’s pictures are from Sharon P. who is in my Mid-Michigan Knitting Guild. It’s funny how things go… she and I have several mutual friends. We probably had been in the same room at the same time but did not know one another. Then she started reading my weblog.

Well, one night I was at the guild meeting during show and tell, and I mentioned something about my weblog. She exclaimed out loud: Oh, YOU are LynnH! I have been reading your blog! (Remember, there are between 25 and 50 people at these guild meetings, so we don’t all get a chance to meet everyone.)

And thus a friendship began. Now it is interesting to see how often we are at the same music parties, for instance. In a crowd we tend to notice familiar faces, so I wonder how many times we missed one another in years past.

So… several months ago Sharon purchased some of my Cushy ColorSport yarn in the now-sold-out colorway called Seaside. She does a lot of sox so I think she imagined first that she would use it for that. But then she took a look in her stash and found a gorgeous ribbon yarn in similar colors, but a little more intense. She decided to make a scarf for a friend.

As she got going on the scarf, she asked me if I had any more of that yarn left, and I was all sold out. However, when she was at my house for my birthday party, she found some mohair loopy boucle yarn in the same colors. She made this hat with the boucle and some other stash yarns, to go with the scarf for her friend. I think she did a great job.

I just love hearing from folks when they have used my yarn or my patterns for anything. Even if you started with my pattern and changed a lot, but it inspired you, I’d love to get your photographs. Please feel free to send me photos and I’ll be delighted to give you your own 15 minutes of fame, right here on ColorJoy!

Oh, for the record, Sharon has recently started a small knitting group at the elementary school where she works. She wrote me this week to tell me that two of her kids had finished their first projects: wristbands. I really know what a victory that is! It is so rewarding to work with kids and knitting.

Off to prepare a blackeyed pea salad to take to the Knitting Guild holiday meeting. There will be loads of sweets there and things I can not eat, so I need to make sure I take food I really love eating. I’ll probably take some black licorice, one of the few prepared sweets I can eat, so that I can eat something sweet while others eat holiday cookies and goodies of that sort.

Well, today I actually finished my Maximum legwarmers (by Sally Melville from her Knit Stitch book, with several changes to suit my taste). It’s like wearing a rainbow!

I have to admit how picky I am about color. I am OK that they are a little different as expected, but I really had a problem with the yellow-orange that happened at the bottom of the legwarmers, especially on the one that started with a very bold blue. It was like a college team, the contrast was so bold. I actually went back with some of my leftover yarn and duplicate-stitched three rows on one legwarmer and one row on another, to make it less gold and less contrasty. I don’t mind a pinkish-orange with a strong blue, but I just couldn’t live with the yellow-orange.

Funny, I was worried that that much handwork would be a drag, but I rather enjoyed the hand needlework. I don’t like working in ends particularly, but the clean rhythm of rows and rows of duplicate stitch was very calming. Oh, then I went in underneath the duplicate stitch and took out the old yarn (it was very stiff with both yarns in place) by picking out each stitch one at a time. That was a little tedious. However, my results please me much more and it was definitely worth the fuss.

Tony tells me I’m too picky with my knitting. I say that this is my artform and it makes sense to be picky and specific about your desired results when expressing yourself in your art. I can see being too picky about housecleaning or about yardwork, unless those happen to be your artforms. But for me, color is my primary expression and being particular is why I succeed at what I’m trying to say.

That said, I don’t really like knitting with Kureyon very much. I love that it has more color than most Midwesterners usually wear. I love that people are celebrating color in this way. But it’s very thick/thin and very scratchy, and the colors change so differently from one skein to the other. One of my blue/purple skeins really changed color subtly, mixing colors together for long stretches. The other went from one bold color to another without any heathered spots between. I like color to be consistent in its intensity and the blue/purple yarn was not. I felt that the pink/orange skeins were much more consistent (thanks to Rob and Matt and Sarah for picking such a good set of skeins for me, they did a better job than I did on my other skeins). The good news is that the pink/orange skeins sort of unified the legwarmers even when the blue skeins were different.

I wore them to the allergist’s office today, my only public appearance of the day. With my voice gone I tend to feel invisible, but these legwarmers guarantee that I am not!

Tomorrow pics of Sharon P’s creations. Tomorrow I’m staying home and not talking until it’s Mid Michigan Knit Guild holiday party time. Last year I took a bunch of my CityKidz Knit children to the gathering but it was so stressful as I borrowed my mom’s car and picked them up and dropped them back off at home. This time I’m just taking care of me. Tony is on vacation so I’m going alone.

See you tomorrow.

Today I started my day with seven hours at JoAnn Fabrics. As usual, I really enjoyed it. There is something satisfying about hearing people tell their creative plans. I also love the puzzle of putting things away. It is a very big store, and there are so many items we carry that I may never know them all, but it’s fun trying. In the morning when it’s still a bit slow, we put away buttons and snaps and needles and other goodies of that sort. It is so interesting to me, to figure out how they organize things. I’m sure the newness will wear off, but for now it feels like a crossword puzzle missing one important word.

After work I just decided to really go for the total relaxation experience. I already had a warm bath this morning or I may have enjoyed one after work. Instead, I took a little nap right on top of the large heatvent on the floor. I just love my heat vent, I must have been a cat in a previous life. I wrap myself up in a blanket from Mexico (beloved, wonderful Mexico) and prop up on a few of our many pillows, and read until I doze. Today I got two magazines from JoAnn, and I read my Spin-Off until I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer. What a luxury, to have good reading about fibery things (imagine that, Spin-Off at JoAnn’s? Who would have thought?) and then doze when it hits me. Sigh… a good thing.

Brian went to a music party tonight but I just didn’t want to tempt myself to talk. My voice is feeling a little better today, probably because the ground has been frozen for two days. I didn’t want to push it when a few days of rest could maybe make the difference for me. So I stayed home and made comfort food: pasta with red tomato sauce and soy-italian sausage. OK, it sounds funny but it tastes wonderful and I adored every bite! Then I had some soy ice cream (chocolate almond) for dessert, a real treat..

I’ve spent the rest of the night listening to Annette Hanshaw and Sophie Tucker, fabulous singers from the 1920s, and knitting. I may finish my Maximum Legwamers yet tonight if I keep cranking. I forgot how fast I can knit if I just sit still and knit. This yarn is knitting up on large needles for me: size 5 for a small part (to hold up the top edge) and size 8 for the rest. The colors are wonderful. These are very much fraternal twins, these legwarmers, but that was expected… and I like them very much.

Oh, as I was leaving JoAnn Fabrics and going to my car, I looked over and there was Zia, the dancer who received my red scarf this last Wednesday at the Habibi holiday party. She was wearing her scarf and she looked so glamorous! She’s quite an elegant lady and I am delighted that she loves the scarf. It sort of floats along with her. She had no idea I would run into her, so it was a great pleasure to “catch her” wearing my gift. Whew. I did it right!

Coming Soon on this Blog
I have a couple of pictures of a hat and scarf knit by Sharon P. out of some of my handpainted yarns (and a few other well-chosen yarns) and I need to edit those pics so you can see them.

I also have some new exciting news about my teaching schedule, coming here soon. But for tonight I am going to end here and go back to knitting my legwarmers. Since I’ve had this retail job, I think I haven’t had a full lazy day off, so I am savoring my hours tonight.

Well, I let myself spend time napping today, and knitting. I acted like I had a sick day of sorts, even though I’m not really sick.

I did go to see some Working Women Artists friends (There were six of us, high schooler to retired… what a great group WWA is) for a little gift exchange and meal at Altu’s this afternoon… but only for about 45 minutes so I wouldn’t be tempted to talk much. Seated left to right, Me, Marguerite, Eva (of Eva’s Sox fame), Jane (she owns the first pair of Turkish Zig sox I knit), Marian (Eva’s mom, she has semi-matching sox) and Beryl.

I got the gift Marian brought for the exchange. She had bought some larger collaged/bound books from Susan Hensel’s sale and I got one. Mine has a wonderful collaged bound cover with two signatures hand bound in with beads on the edge. I was just thrilled with my gift.

Marian got my gift (funny how gift exchanges can work out) so she got a Cha-Cha scarf like the one I did for Sara, but Marian’s was mostly purples and blues. Cha-Cha is a curly nylon eyelash yarn that is very soft. She liked her scarf.

Last year she got my gift, too, and it was a pair of purchased gloves onto which I knit eyelash yarn cuffs (see picture). I actually used two strands of eyelash, a dense hot pink and a sparse purple. She says she wears them with a black leather jacket, which really makes the texture stand out.

I went home, changed into “Lynn Heftone” and went back to Altus with Brian, to sing as The Fabulous Heftones. That is, Brian sang and we both played our instruments. It was actually very nice… tonight one couple came because they knew they would hear live music at Altus but they didn’t know who we were. It turns out the man used to play ukulele and play some of the same songs Brian does. He sat in with us a little, singing harmony on “Just Because” and singing a little piece we had not heard before on his own. That was pretty fun.

I didn’t get any pictures of us singing at Altus tonight, so here is a pic from a previous performance there.

Wow, I just couldn’t post yesterday. I really try to keep things on my weblog upbeat and yesterday was just not an upbeat day.

It started well, as I had lunch with my dance friend Marie (who is also one of my supervisors at JoAnn) and her son Roland. After lunch we got some sockyarn, as she just finished her first pair, a shortie pair in red for herself. Now she wants to make some for her Dad. It’s such fun to have another knitting buddy I already sort of had in my life!

During lunch I gave my camera to Roland and he spent a bit of time pushing the buttons. Most of the pictures were of the floor or his lap, for none of them did he bother to use the viewfinder. He was just pushing buttons. But he got this photo of me talking with my hands behind my cup of anise tea. I think it’s a darned good shot! It has not been cropped or altered in any way other than lightening it up so that it can be seen better on the web. Go Roland! (Yes, I did get permission to post his work.)

I worked at JoAnn from 3pm to close (just after 10pm). My voice is really suffering. They were wonderful and let me put away fabric most of the time, which requires less talking than working the cutting counter. However, sometimes they need all hands on deck, so to speak, to cut fabric because of the long lines. And even when putting away fabric, customers approach with questions and it’s my job and my pleasure to help them. I love it when people ask questions about knitting! But that means I had a 7 hour shift where talking was not optional.

I got home and my voicebox actually hurt. Mind you, I’m not sick. This is a result of allergies. I have figured it would pass by now, but the weather has not frozen hard until yesterday. I have whispered on and off since the day before Thanksgiving, over two weeks. And my voice was starting to lose strength in October. I’m tired of this.

Last night I had a good cry over the loss and powerlessness I’m feeling. I do think it helped me feel better but the voice is still gone. Tonight will be the second singing engagement Brian and I have had, where I just had to play bass and we either play instrumentals or Brian sings. I really adore singing, I love being on stage. And a silent person in many ways, is an invisible person. I do not handle invisibility well at all.

The last time I needed to be silent it was because I had overused my voice on top of this sort of laryngitis. I mean, I was ordered to be totally silent, sign language and handwriting only, for 31 days. Doctor’s orders. That was before I started dating Brian, about 8 or 9 years ago.

Today I cancelled my intended trip to Spinners Flock guild. It was their holiday party today. I would have been tempted to talk to Tony in the car, and it’s a two-hour round trip drive. Then when I was there I would have wanted to talk to all the folks I knew (the guild often has over 100 people attending). So I told Tony I couldn’t go. I also cancelled my lab at Foster Center this afternoon. That is two more hours where I’d start out whispering and end up talking too loud for my voice to heal.

Tonight I’ll be at Altus and there will be some whispering involved. Tomorrow I have to work 9:45 to close (sometime around 7pm) at JoAnn. I’ll have to talk at least half of that time.

Luckily, on Monday I have nothing scheduled in public at all and will spend the day in my dyeing studio. Tuesday I have nothing scheduled during the working day but the Lansing knitting guild is having its holiday dinner/party in the evening, and I will go. I’m hoping that most of a silent day today and two silent days Monday/Tuesday, plus the colder weather which is freezing the mildewing leaves which cause my voice loss, will help me get back more to normal.

I have to keep remembering that this is a loss, but it is temporary. It’s not anything life-threatening. It chips away at my vanity and my feelings of belonging, but it is a small hiccup in comparison to other possible challenges I might face as a human being.

Thank goodness for the man who loves me. He can enjoy my company without much talk. In fact, at home we don’t talk a lot. This is a good thing, a real comfort. He loves me just as I am, animated and interactive or not. What a gift Brian is, and I know it.

I had a very good but busy day today. I spent the last morning with a computer client today, we said our goodbyes after working on this project for over a year. I’ll probably take them some baked goods for the holidays as a thank you for their business. It’s a small nonprofit where I did a database to manage their membership address lists. They won’t have the funds to hire me to come out, at least not much. I wrote them an instruction sheet and they have my email for questions. I’m going to miss them, they are fine people.

I then took myself to lunch at Aladdins where I had green bean stew and rice. That is my “I am so cold I’m unhappy” food. It cheered me right up!

After that I had Foster Center computers and CityKidz Knit! program. One girl brought her grandma who was knitting a scarf. Later a couple of dancers wandered in for a chat, and then another dancer popped in with my belated Christmas present (from last night’s party… the package arrived in the mail from Chicago after our party was done). It was so pleasant. I have somehow created this great space where people enjoy just being there, enjoying one another. I had 9 people today who stuck around, and 3 were adults. The kids really enjoy that, actually.

One girl is about 4th grade but she has really mastered textured yarns. Items some grown up knitters can’t handle, she knits in stride. She made a beautiful wristband today with four strands of yarn. One was a soft mohair and three were cotton or rayon blend yarns with a bit of texture and a lot of color. She is prolific at these small projects and really loves sampling all the textured yarns that arrive.

Another girl, the one who made a backpack not long ago, has decided to make slippers out of garter stitch rectangles (for herself). I think it will work just fine. Garter stretches well and will adapt to her foot. She wants to make a little knitted rosette as well and we talked about different ways she might do that.

I had to cancel my adult computer class that I was to teach tonight. I just didn’t have enough voice to even use my microphone and have them understand me. I’m praying I’ll have more of a voice next week.

So since my friend Marie, who is also a supervisor at JoAnn’s, stopped by my room tonight, she found out I wasn’t working at Foster. She told me they were short handed at JoAnn tonight and suggested I pop by if I wanted some hours. So I went over there dressed in my tunic-length mohair sweater, leggings, hand knit socks and hightop converse allstar shoes (we are supposed to wear a white shirt with collar and sleeves, and black, navy or khaki pants with athletic shoes). And I offered to work. And they took me up on it.

I had a blast. I don’t know why, but I had the time of my life. They were busy at the cutting counter but I couldn’t talk much so I only stepped in there once when the line got long, for a few customers. The rest of the time I was putting fabric away, tidying up, finding things that were put away incorrectly and moving them to the right places. Some customers asked me questions and I helped them. It was clear that they had been short handed and busy at the same time, because I had a lot to do. It was so rewarding. I mean, there is nothing like work where, once you have done it, you can tell what you did. And sometimes there is a fabric you don’t know anything about. It’s like a puzzle to figure out what it is and where it belongs. I just am loving this.

Off to sleep. I’m so tired! I guess I worked three jobs today, no wonder. See you tomorrow.

Today was the Habibi Dancers’ annual holiday party. We got a private room at a restaurant with good food (this is our third year at this location) and we ate and gifted each other until we were silly.

It’s not required or expected, but typically all the dancers bring a little something for the other dancers. This year some of the small gifts included earrings, bracelets, Michigan Mints (yum), soaps, homemade candies/cookies, eyeshadow, and more. I had been able to purchase some of Susan Hensel’s smaller journals in her moving sale (she is going all the way to Minnesota) and gave those. They were far nicer than a typical “little something” gift but last year I did not bring anything except the one gift for the one woman whose name I drew… and I knew that the dancers are a group who really appreciate well made handcrafted items. It seemed everyone came over to ask me a little something about the journals.

Phaedra again did a super job of noticing what colors everyone loves. She gave us all triangular pieces of shiny stage-worthy fabric, and a headband for stage. I love mine, she picked purple which of course was perfect. But you should have seen… everyone’s fabric color was perfect for them. Phaedra also brought me a belated birthday gift which was very sweet of her.

The woman who had picked my name is dancing in Chicago this month and so I didn’t have a gift to open… but heck, all those other little gifts made me not even notice until I started writing it here. It will be when it will be, no big deal. Holidays aren’t about stuff anyway…. although it was touching to see how thoughtful the gifts were tonight, and how much effort folks did to make sure that the gift matched the recipient.

I started to knit a stole for Zia (the woman who loaned me the silver costume last week for my Aladdin’s dance gig) weeks ago. I then moved all my yarn into boxes into the basement studio in order to make room for the party… and then I just could not find that yarn. Until yesterday! I had knit all of two rows (it’s over 100 stitches) and wanted to finish a stole in less than 2 days? Well, I gave it the old college try. I knit on it for several hours last night and most of this morning and early afternoon, until I had to go to Foster Center.

In the end I had enough knitting for a wide scarf. I decided to just bind it off and then it would look like a finished item when she opened it. I couldn’t bear to have her open a gift with knitting needles in it. When she opened it, I did offer to take it back and make it into a full stole. However, she said she loves wearing scarves all the time, even on fairly warm days, and she loved it just the way it was. Whew! I guess I made the right move there!

Here are pictures of the scarf. It didn’t photo particularly well but the item is gone now so these pics must do. The yarns are Patons Cha Cha; Lion Brand Fun Fur, Glitterspun and Kool Wool; and Bernat Boa. The Lion Brand yarns are all a sort of tomato red, intense and beautiful. The Boa is a darkish purple with touches of burgundy, and the Cha Cha is lighter red, pink and pale purple. I’m pleased with the result.. I love red and purple. Since I don’t wear red much at all, it is fun to knit the combination for someone else.

Knitting for Myself
Tonight when I got home I spent about an hour knitting on the top cuff of one of my Maximum Legwarmers. I think I have figured out the magiic number of stitches and which needles to knit with, so that the legwarmers will stay up. I’m now trying to decide a few other things, such as whether the legwarmers are long enough as they are right now. I need to rip out a little over an inch on one of the legwamers, the one that has a number of stitches which was a little too small. I’m so tired right now I’m falling asleep at the keyboard, though, so that must happen another day. I have a client to see in the morning first thing.

Tired Voice, Still
My voice is still wavering, sometimes I can talk and then sometimes I can not. This is the first day it has felt too tired from whispering. I was so glad to come home to Brian who is doing musical editing and therefore wearing headphones and not talking much. Perfect!

Tomorrow and the next day it is supposed to snow and the high will not go over freezing, so maybe that will save my poor voice. I surely hope so. This is getting old by now. I started losing notes in my singing range in late October. I miss singing! But I do remember that this, too, shall pass. It is not illness, just weakness of my voice mostly due to allergies. Could be much worse.

See you tomorrow.

Well, I had a long list of errands to run today and I actually got most of them done. While out and about I needed some food. Unfortunately, I was not in an area of town where there were any restaurants where I can eat with my food restrictions. Fortunately, there is a very good grocery store… so I went there and picked up some fruit I could eat right away.

I sort of enjoy grocery shopping, especially when I can get to the local ethnic markets. I never buy a cart full, I tend to go “hunting nuts and berries” as Brian and I say… getting a few things that handle the current needs. I love food. I really dislike the time and mess that cooking involves, but I love the results. Actually, cooking is a little more interesting now that I am restricted from eating a very long list of foods that most Americans eat a lot… it gives me a challenge within which I can create. It’s sort of like when I would run out of my favorite color or two of polymer clay… I would experiment with other color combinations and it was good for my creativity.

As I was getting my immediate needs met, I looked around for staple items, things I use often and therefore run out of frequently. I found a handful of goodies.

Of course, I read every label on every food I buy in any store. In a restaurant I have to ask a list of questions from the cook or someone who knows the ingredient list well. Therefore, I notice how many of our foods have many extra ingredients, things that take the food further and further from the form they took when growing. It’s great to eat foods as close to the way they come out of the ground as possible. It’s not always realistic (I don’t know what I would do without flavored, baked tofu, it is a staple in our house), but it is a good goal. Fresh is first priority, then frozen (but our freezer dries out foods so it is for short term storage only). If not fresh/frozen, I go for dried or canned, but with as few extra ingredients as possible.

Today I was gratified with my finds. Two of my canned foods had one ingredient, and one had two but the second was water. Gotta love it. (By the way, we have no trouble with salt in our household.) Here in the picture from left to right, I introduce:

Mott’s Natural Apple Sauce -Apples, water.
Libby’s Pumpkin – Pumpkin.
La Preferida Vegetarian Refried Beans – Water, Pinto Beans, Soybean Oil, Salt.
Favorite Tomato Paste – Tomatoes.
Valley Fresh White Chicken in Water – White Chicken, Water, Salt. (This ingredient list is just incredible when you compare to other canned meats/tuna, which have a handful of flavors and/or yeast and/or starches added.)

The pear I got for immediate consumption also had one ingredient, I guess! It was quite refreshing. I wish you could have joined me.

I feel much better after two good nights of sleep. I do have a list of things to do that can not possibly be done today, but I took yesterday totally off and it was rejuvinating to say the least.

In the morning I just spent time cleaning up the rubble I left behind when preparing for the Art for the Soul show. Then I fussed with cleaning the kitchen some and I also did a little knitting and listening to music.

Eventually I started to make spaghetti sauce and decided to see if Tony was home and whether he wanted to come over for dinner. Brian had gone to a historical society meeting, related to his genealogy research in West Michigan. So I convinced Tony to come eat with me even though he had started cooking lamb curry already. I’m sure his curry will taste better the next day, anyway.

Tony stayed several hours and we had dinner and drank tea and knit. I got out my Maximum Legwarmers again (from Sally Melville). I can’t knit those in public easily because they have four balls of yarn constantly tangling themselves.

I’m done with the body of the legwarmers, I am just trying to get the cuff to stay up. Sally made hers curl as knits do, but then she suggests putting elastic under the curl if they don’t stay up. I wear legwarmers far too often to fuss with something that lightweight. So I’m knitting an inch or so and then trying them on to see how they fit, then if they don’t (they haven’t yet) I rip them out and knit again. When I get the first one figured out I’ll do the second.

I have learned to do a band of very firm knitting underneath the folded over cuff. The cuff will be ribbing and help keep it up a bit, but that very tightly knit band underneath really keeps the legwarmers from falling down. So I’m willing to knit and rip and knit and rip, knowing how often I wear legwarmers and want them to not be fussy to wear. They are so close to done, I’m not worried much, but they just need good attention at this point.

Tony also asked me a bit about my knitting on the Singer frame and the Ultimate Sweater Machine. I just made ten eyelash scarves for Art for the Soul on the Singer, and not long before that I finished the front, back and two sleeves of a toddler sweater on the USM. I got the sweater pieces out to show him. It will be just adorable. You know, I don’t mind working in a zillion ends on socks, but the prospect of sewing together this sweater sounds so incredibly boring I am putting it off. It’s not even a big project, really. I need to do a collar and assemble, and the whole thing is complete. I’m thinking of doing the collar last, knitting that part by hand.

There are a couple Habibi Dancers with toddler girls and one of them will surely fit this sweater. I’m rooting for the sweetie who started life at 3 pounds 1 ounce. I’ve knit for her three times before, a sweater and two fruit hats. I love knitting for her, and the colors of this sweater would look great on her. However, it’s probably too big for her, so the other little girl I showed you in a photo a few weeks ago, may end up getting it.

Many errands, few hours in which to complete them. I’ll check in again tomorrow.

Oh… News flash! Jillian is the cover grrrl on today’s new Knitty. Here she is with new baby Henry. Aren’t they beautiful? You’ll definitely need to check out the new issue.

Well, I’m plain tired. I have had a great time the last two days being a public person and now I’m going to do my best to be a private person for at least one. My voice is really wiped out, I can talk some but I can not sing at all. I am delighted to see that the temperature went below freezing about sundown. I’m praying for a good freeze tonight to help my voice.

Saturday morning and afternoon I went to Art for the Soul. I had a great time being with my artist friends. We had fewer folks browsing this year (last year there were times it was very crowded). However, the folks who came out knew what they wanted and bought what they planned. I had a better sales day than last year, with many fewer customers. I’m not complaining. It appears that my extra planning ahead this year did indeed net me better sales. I was pleased.

I sold my eyelash boa scarves (see pic of one familiar customer who got two scarves, one for herself and one for a daughter), one set of wristwarmers, a fulled beret and a good selection of yarn. (Next picture is of Marlene Cameron who I mention here a lot… in front of her handainted silks, and our friend Nell wearing a purple beret she got from me.)

After the sale I rushed over to Foster Community Center where Ulyana was having her birthday bash. Brian and I performed for about a half hour. I couldn’t sing at all so Brian sang my most-requested song, Paper Moon. We did a few vocal pieces and a few instrumentals. It was well received.

Then I did a very short belly dance for Ulyana as well, just a little special girl-to-girl gift. She said that was the icing on the cake. It was too big a crowd and the tape player wasn’t very loud so some people didn’t see me dance, but Ulyana did and that is what counts.

I didn’t stay for the contra dance. I didn’t have dancing shoes with me, just rubber-soled boots (I did my solo dance for Ulyana barefooted but that does not work for contra dancing). I actually had been fighting a headache all day, probably from a lack of sleep in addition to the allergies, and so I headed home… well, I stopped at Altu’s restaurant for 5 minutes to congratulate Temesgen Hussein on the nice magazine article about him, and then went home. (Altu said it was busy tonight and she thought the article probably was a contributing factor… I’m glad it worked out well for both Temesgen and Altu.)

*Then* home for a cup o’tea and a hot bath. And an early bedtime for the first in a long while. I hope to sleep in tomorrow, and if I’m lucky I’ll connect with my knitting friend Tony who has been out of town for a week. I’ve been missing his company.