Whew! It’s Sunday. I had only one obligation today, to work at JoAnn for a short shift. I was glad that on Sunday we open a little later, because one extra hour of sleep meant a lot after that late night!

I was glad to be at the store, especially when I saw that the new Interweave Knits magazine had landed since last I looked. I love that magazine! You must know by now, that I don’t knit sweaters from magazines. I rarely knit sweaters at all, and the two adult sweaters I knit for myself (in addition, I’ve knit one lace baby sweater and that’s the total of my sweater output) I knit to fit without a printed pattern. Yet I get so inspired by the shapes, the colors, the yarns, the creativity in knitting magazines. And I really love the Interweave Knits magazine for artful inspiration. For technique, I love InKnitters and Cast On. But for joy of knitting you can’t beat Interweave.

I am trying to get my ducks in a row so that I can lounge on the couch with a cup of Kukicha (Japanese roasted twig tea) and my magazine. I am looking forward to much of it, but especially the profile on Debbie Bliss (I love personal stories) and Beth Brown-Reinsel’s article on differences in knitting style/technique.

Brian and I went out to eat again at Gourmet Village, because I keep craving their garlic sauce. They didn’t have eggplant tonight so I had broccoli with garlic sauce, which tasted exactly right. Now I feel like a snake who needs to curl up and digest for a while! The magazine is the perfect excuse to do just that.

Here is (finally) a picture of my Zitron Trekking Sport yarn socks (yarn purchased at In Sheep’s Clothing in Marshall, MI where my friend Sue is part-owner and where I met my friend Lili last month). This is my pair number 88 of handknit socks, since about May 2001.

I knit these as afterthought/peasant heel socks, top down with rolled edge. I used the formula I gave to my students in my class at Heritage Spinning, and these fit just right. I’m very pleased. Good thing, too, because the next pair I did with a peasant heel I experimented with a little, and I can not get the heel to fit well after many reknitting experiences.

On the yet-unfinished pair, I’ve knit 5 toes so far and three heels. Ugh. I was trying to do star toes (with six sections rather than a wedge) and they just don’t work well for me, at least in this yarn. So I have ripped once again and I am crossing fingers if I do the wedge heel (like a wedge toe but decreased more slowly) that the sox will finally turn out well. The yarn is Mountain Colors Bearfoot that I got at Yarn for Ewe in Okemos (wow, it has been too long since I’ve been there, and I have two gift certificates burning a hole in my pocket since the holidays). Great yarn, this Bearfoot, it’s washable wool/mohair in beautiful blues and teal. I just wonder why for some reason they are refusing to fit well. Back to the tried and true wedge heel, I guess.

I realize I’ve done a *lot* of knitting this year so far, but have finished only two pair of sox in two months. Ugh. That means I am knitting things other than sox, and single sox as samples for publishing, as well as having some “hiccups” that I have not had time to figure out. When I get stuck, I start a new pair. It makes sure I do not waste any standing-still time, but it means I may have more unfinished projects than I really prefer to have.

I’m wearing these sox right now. They are really comfortable and warm. The sportweight yarn is just enough thicker than regular sockyarn to be warmer. It did melt a bit yesterday and today (actually, it was about 60F today) but it keeps freezing at night, so we are still in for a bit more cold before the season ends.

Off to my couch!

Here I am with late-breaking pictures from Saturday night! I love this photo, although I wish one shy grrl in the back left had peeked out at the camera!

From left, toward back and then front right again, we are: Hyjara, Phaedra, Maya, Sara (hiding), Hafsa (whose somewhat-impromptu wedding shower this was), Stuart, Mahtaab, Ron, Yasmina Amal (our Artistic Director/teacher). Don’t we look happy to have finally found a place to get a meal after 11pm?

Saturday, eight Habibi Dancers went to South Haven to perform in a dance concert. It was the day of “hiccups,” so to speak. First we met where we planned to leave our cars and share rides, but two cars in the lot had been vandalized. We had to find another place to park, which we did.

We got there without much fuss. When we walked in, our music was being played in the main stage area, so we could tell they got our music just fine. However, when we got on stage to perform, the CD skipped forward, backward, and had silent moments. It was a challenge to stay together but we did a good job in spite of it, and smiled through it all.

After the show, the other folks had planned a bit of a bachelorette party for one of the girls, who is getting married in Las Vegas this weekend to her partner of many years. I didn’t know this, because I was not at rehearsal last Wednesday, but I was OK to go along for the ride. Unfortunately, we were all hungry and there was no place to eat dinner after 11pm in South Haven (very much a summer community, a lovely quaint place that is quiet in the winter for the most part). We were told of one place that might be open, but we had bad instructions and got lost trying to find it. We finally found a liquor store that was open and they suggested we get out of South Haven for a 24-hour place.

We got back on the highway, found a Steak and Shake and ate. My problem was that I’d packed food (I can’t eat American food at any restaurant) and I didn’t have it with me. I figured I’d left it in my car in the parking confusion. So I ate a lettuce salad with lemon juice and pepper, and a cup of tea.

On the way from dinner to home, we hit a big accident and traffic was stopped on both sides of the highway. Fortunately we got there at the very end, and we only sat still for maybe 5-10 minutes. We were glad to have good company in the van while waiting. The Habibi group is really a lovely bunch.

We got to our cars at 2:30am. At that time, Sally realized that I had put my dinner in her van and then switched to riding in Kristi’s van. In other words, I *did* have my food with me on the trip and could have had real food when I was eating a salad. I did survive, in any case.

I got to bed at 3am. I work at 10am. It was a short night, but I’m ready for a day in Lansing.

Oh… in knitting news, I did start a pair of toe-up socks in the van and finished about half a foot on size 0 bamboo needles, during the commute to the dance. I’m knitting the yarn I got in Florida. I think I like these needles, even though they are an inch longer than my birch needles.

Friday was my first full day back and I had much to do. I first had an online meeting, then I met Marlene C. to fold Working Women Artists newsletters for mailing, then I went to computer Client #1 for a short while. I had time to go to Altu’s for lunch before my next committment and I had not seen Altu for a while, so I headed over.

I almost never get there at noon, but there I was. There were several cars in the parking lot and I thought for a minute that maybe I should come back later. However, I went inside because it smelled too good to delay gratification.

Charles, Altu’s brother in law, is her front-end man. He is host, waiter, greeter, food translator, and sometimes-cook. He has two preschool-aged children. The oldest, a girl who is now four years old, is one of my favorite little people. She loves me, too. We met at a wedding shower a few years back. We did not speak much, but we danced together for most of the party. She now calls me “My Dancing Lady.” Whenever we meet, she gives me the most enthusiastic hugs she can give. It is a delight to spend time with her.

Somehow she was at the restaurant during lunch rush. And lunch rush was busier than usual. That would normally be a challenge, as a child that age really does not sit still easily. But it worked out well this time. I sat in a corner with the child, and she got a little bowl of the same food I was eating. She told me about herself. She wants to be an Animal Keeper and a Librarian and a Baker and a Restaurant Keeper and a good handful of other things. She thinks Altu is the best cook (so do I)! We sat in a sunny window and enjoyed the time together. As an extra bonus, I kept the child busy until all the lunch tables had been served.

This was the right way to spend my lunch! This is the right way to spend my life, really. I hope you had a good day, too.

I missed you… we had a busy day Wednesday, with a trip to Tampa, a shopping spree at the resale shops, and dinner with our only relative in Lakeland… she is a writer and musician, has been since the 1960’s, and so we have much to discuss. It was a jam-packed day… and at the end of it, we fixed Mom’s email system which kept my computer off their phone line and that delayed my posting.

I got home today (Thursday) and it is great to see Brian again. I had a wonderful time with Mom and Eric, but I was ready to see my sweetheart once more.

I have been thinking about the idea of “home” recently. I realize that there is no place I’ve ever lived that I didn’t really like. I tend to come in and make it my own (are you surprised?) with color and fabrics I like. Even when I had my efficiency apartment (the kitchen was so small you could not open the refrigerator and the oven at the same time) I loved that it was all mine.

Some people tell me they are not creative, but they have homes that really reflect themselves. Some people (like my friend Marlene C., especially) really make their homes a work of art. Marlene has one wall that is purple and one that is orange, in her very colorful home with many windows and collected artworks collected from travels and purchased from art friends. And of course her own works! They also have wonderful gardens which you can see from inside, which really makes the home artful, inside and out.

My home has many things I love, and Brian loves. You can tell we love music and color in this house! Unfortunately, I’m so enthusiastic about things that reflect my style, that my house is just full of what can look like clutter when I’m not right on top of it. And I am Soooooooo not “Suzy Homemaker” so often we live in a cluttered space. We love it anyway.

When I move, the last thing I pack is my teapot collection, and the first thing to come out when I get to my new place, is my teapot collection. I have not really been collecting for a long time now, but they are colorful and beautiful in shape, and I love the implication of a teapot… pouring hot lovely tea, often for a friend. What a welcoming idea, even with a plain-looking pot!

I realize that I love to travel, I have loved it for a long time… but I seem to keep a solid home front as a sort of home base. I lived in one house for about 12 years when I was a young adult. I moved a few times around the time of my divorce, then bought a house I had for 5 years (I moved and sold it because I married Brian and moved to the house he bought before he knew me). I’ve been in this house about 8 years or so. I didn’t choose the house, but it is home and I love it, perhaps as much as if I had chosen it myself. The neighborhood is not as energetic as my old one, but it is more stable instead. And the house is full of character.

The front of this house as it stands now, was built around 1904 (with varnished oak window trim) and the back was in the 1920’s sometime (pine floors and painted window trim). We have a claw-footed tub in a bathroom which was once a bedroom, we surmise from its size. The house surely once had an outhouse (or as my mother would say, a “path,” implying the destination of the path was an outhouse) rather than a flush toilet, given its location and age.

I love taking long trips. I love getting in the car and driving, particularly alone. When I was single after my divorce in particular, I traveled alone a lot. I went to Chicago uncountable times, and also Washington DC, New York City, San Francisco (I flew there as well as Portland Oregon), Minneapolis, and surely other places I am forgetting right now.

Eric (my brother) and I had a wonderful conversation this week about our favorite travels alone. He took a barefoot cruise to islands in the Caribbean once, and also took three weeks driving alone in Scotland with no particular agenda for 2 weeks. Loved every minute. I learned so much about him and his passions, by hearing him talk about that trip to Scotland this week. He went perhaps 10 years ago or nearly that, but he remembers detail well over time and I enjoyed his stories and historical background.

I used to go to Boston a lot, maybe 5 times in 3 years. I drove alone and if you drive really steadily it takes at least 16 hours. I tend to meander so it could take over 20 hours easily. But one day I was driving from Concord, Massachusetts to Boston, and I saw a sign that said “Walden Pond” indicating a right turn. I thought, “Why not?” It sounded too cool to miss. So I went. Right then, with a split-second decision. I could not have done that easily with a group or a passenger. And now Walden is one of my favorite places on earth… second only to Tulum, in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico.

Speaking of traveling, these pictures I took at the Florida Aquarium in Tampa, on Wednesday. Eric loves otters, and they have a couple of river otters at the aquarium. We had fun watching them dive for small fish and generally frolic. They moved too fast for a good photograph, but here is a picture of a duck with five turtles (notice three turtle heads lined up in a row down the back of the log), a lizard whose species I do not know (he was over a foot long), and a picture of the gardens in front of the aquarium… the building there is the Tampa Port Authority. There are colorful buildings all over Florida, even governmental buildings! In East Lansing we have a colorful parking ramp and people generally do not like it. I do, of course!

Eric and I took it easy Tuesday. He slept in when I went out with Mom, and then we decided to go to Bok Gardens, about an hour from here in Lake Wales. I had checked the phone book, and the only yarn store was Yarn Basket in Winter Haven, which happened to be on the way. I also found in the phone book, a restaurant called Blue Nile. In Michigan we have a restaurant with that name that is Ethiopian, so we figured we would check it out.

First we went to lunch and we had no trouble finding the restaurant (3133 S. Florida Ave., Lakeland FL). It turns out the restaurant is open 11-2 most days but also open a few nights a week. It is a restaurant and wine bar… and not Ethiopian. It is run by a Scottish couple (he is also a professor at Florida Southern College) and the food is mostly inspired by the foods of India (Mulligitawny soup, Chicken Satay, Pappadams). We were intrigued. Eric got a Chicken Satay sandwich on a beautiful bun, and I got a salad with spiced shrimp and mango/papaya salsa (sort of a spiced chutney but fresh, not cooked down at all).

The food was absolutely superb. It was beautiful to look at and wonderful to eat. The woman who waited on us was very interesting and courteous. It was a small place and there were only 6 customers during the time we were there, so we got some excellent attention. She said they have been there for about 6 months and the word is getting out fairly well, she is encouraged. If you get to Lakeland, I recommend you check it out.

After that, we headed out for Yarn Basket. We found it with only one wrong turn. It was a large place, just packed with all sorts of yarns and threads for all sorts of needlecrafts. There was a lot of needlepoint there, as well as tatting and knitting. And then they also had a machine to make large photocopies… so when we were there, someone from the hospital came down to get copies made of some blueprints. Very interesting.

There were two ladies working. Apparently one of them was on the cover of a needlepoint magazine this issue and the phone has been ringing off the hook! They had a lot of cotton and acrylic yarns, but also a nice handful of froofy scarf-type yarns (I got a ball of turquoise eyelash yarn and nearly went home with some railroad type ribbon), and there were a decent number of colorways of sockyarn, mostly Regia. I got two balls of a mostly-white Regia with color flecks in it, which looks like random spots. I had never seen that colorway before, so I decided to grab it while I could.

While we were at the Yarn Basket, it started raining so hard we could not see out the windows for a while. We hung out inside to avoid the dounpour. Unfortunately, that made us delayed for the 3pm Carillion concert we had hoped to see at Bok Gardens. When we got to the gardens, it was really raining still and we had missed some of the concert already. We decided to forego getting wet and paying the parking fee when we would miss most of what we wanted to go there for.

So… we found a place called Spook Hill. When you park your car on a line marked on the road, and put your car in neutral, the car rolls backward and it appears as though you are going backward up a hill. It’s an optical illusion but it was fun to try.

After that we tried to find the Lake Wales Art Center. However, the person labeling the signs saying how far this or that place was, labeled things very much closer than they were. It said the Center was .9 miles or something, and then we drove about 2 miles and did not find the center. We found ourselves by a large strip mall and so we stopped at the Big Lots store for some computer supplies for Eric (and a hairbrush for me). Then we found a cord for my camera to connect to my laptop (I forgot the one I use at home), at the Radio Shack. We had fun even though these are places we have at home… and that cord means you can see these pictures today.

Oh, I did enjoy checking out the neon signs we found on the way down. I just love the artform that can be found in these signs, and when I travel I try to get as many pictures of them as I can. We took side roads so we could get to the yarn store, and that took us through older areas with great signs. I don’t know what town this sign was in. Eric was able to take the picture through an open window as we sat at a stoplight.

We went back to Mom’s and she and Fred took us out to dinner for Mongolian barbecue at China Pearl in the next town. It was really tasty, and the people who run the place are very friendly.

We got home just in time for another downpour! It is supposed to rain until about noon on Thursday, just about when I leave. Hopefully, Eric will get some sun while I’m flying home. He comes home Friday.

Mom and I got up early today to go to Ladies’ Breakfast. They have toast and coffee/tea, and share news, tell jokes, make plans for events such as an international potluck. I have gone to several of these over the last 6 years or so, and some faces are starting to be familiar to me. It was pleasant, although I did not love having an alarm clock on vacation. I did get almost 8 hours of sleep, but my brother is still sleeping in as I type this at 10am. He has been so sleep-deprived, I’m leaving him alone until he is good and ready to wake up.

Mom made me some soda bread, and cranberry sauce for jam. The combination is so fabulous! Sometimes I’m glad I can not eat “regular” food, because the foods I eat instead are so excellent. I have not made this soda bread before, but mom makes it for occasions when I visit, and I really enjoy it immensely.

Today, Eric and I are planning to go to a garden about an hour from here. They have a carillon which plays a concert at 3pm every day. We will be surrounded with music and nature, and we will get a bit of walking in. I am looking forward to it.

Tonight Mom is planning for us to go to a new “Chinese” restaurant that has a Mongolian Barbecue. You pick your own ingredients and they stir-fry it for you. I guess it is run by a Vietnamese man who used to live in Pennsylvania, in a city where Mom and Fred go a lot since Fred’s son lives there. Small world.

Well, my Brother Eric and I spent a long but companionable day together today getting from Michigan to Lakeland Florida. I left my house around 8am and we got here to Lakeland after 7pm for a late dinner (the sun was down already).

We got great prices on tickets (considering that at least Eric’s school is on spring break this week) but it meant a long haul. We stayed on the same plane the whole time, but we went from Detroit, to Chicago, to Nashville, to Orlando (I knit two complete cuffs on sox made from Mountain Colors Bearfoot, on size 0 [2mm] Brittany birch needles). Then we rented a car to drive about an hour to Lakeland. When we got here, Mom fed us a wonderful meal of simple comfort foods, then we went for a walk.

I tell you, it is such a luxury to have this gift of time with my beloved brother. We realized that we have not spent a whole day together, probably since we went on a cruise with my old workplace… and I quit that job in 1999. I guess it has been about 5 years since we had a full day together. I’m loving every minute.

It’s snowing in Lansing tonight. However, I’m sitting here in Mom’s house and it is warm, 80 degrees F.

No pictures today. Picture a palm tree in your mind…

On Saturday, I had a couple of my knitters stop by during computer time at my lab. Since I had only one child playing computer games, I had time to help them out. They reminded me that they had missed out on the two days I had worked with the shrunken/fulled sweaters. We brought out what was left of the sweaters and took a look at our possibilities.

They decided they would like to make bean bags. Fortunately, Mandy (the young woman at Foster who handles the craft programs) had some lima beans we could use… perfect because they are large and won’t fall out if the kids sew large stitches.

We cut out rectangles they could fold over, and therefore could sew just on three sides (kids are very big on speed, and they preferred to sew less rather than have symmetrical bags). I taught them to do a blanket stitch on the edges, which is a bit more secure than the overhand whip stitch they have used for other projects.

They did a nice job. One girl finished one of her two bags before they had to leave, the other was on the third side of her stitching. Since I am going to be gone next week, I sent the kids home with enough supplies to finish the projects at home.

A Day with Brian
I got pictures of the kids, but right now I’m posting this from Beaners coffee shop, testing out my new wireless modem that Brian gave me yesterday. I did not bring the cord I use to connect my camera to the computer. Fortunately, he had *his* camera so I could take pictures of us here.

We have had a wonderful day so far, enjoying the fact that we have the same day off for the first in a long time. I slept in, then he brought me a wonderful cup of tea while I woke up a little. I am not good in the morning, and he knows how much I enjoy a good cup of tea. He’s so good to me. He started that teakettle the minute he heard me stirring.

Later he took me to Gourmet Village Chinese restaurant where they have the best garlic sauce I’ve had! I had broccoli with garlic sauce this time, usually I get eggplant… and we got vegetarian steamed dumplings as well. Yum.

Now we are at Beaners. What a strange date! We are sitting at the same table, facing one another, but both typing away on our respective keyboards. We’re such geeks! I guess other people go together to movies and don’t talk for a longer time than this, so I should not feel too bad.

Today the sun is out and my eyes don’t even know how to deal with the light. I am loving it, though. Right now I’m sitting by a window where I can watch Grand River Avenue (the main drag through Michigan State University). The snow is melting but it’s mostly white (and brown) because there was so much of it to melt. You can see green bushes but not grass yet.

Tomorrow with Eric
Tomorrow I meet my brother Eric, bright and early, and we are flying down to see my mother in Florida. I will be there until Thursday, he is staying an extra day. I am most looking forward to the 5 hours we will be together in transit. I love my brother so deeply… he knows me more than anyone else in the world. In fact, he stood up for me at my wedding to Brian. I had a “Dude of Honor.” And why not? He’s the one who has always been there for me.

Unfortunately, we both are so over-busy that we rarely see one another anymore. We used to meet in a town partway between our homes, and talk until the restaurant closed. We have not done this in a long time now. I can’t wait to have Eric all to myself for hours on end! Mom sent us tickets (thank you, Mom), and she not only sent us a family vacation but she sent me the gift of my brother. I’m grateful.

My twelve-year-old knitter from Korea, who has been visiting the US for two months, had her last day with us Thursday. We had a good time but it was hard to say goodbye.

She brought some Korean food her aunt made for us. It looked a lot like California Rolls from a Japanese restaurant but had some differences. Half of them were wrapped in seaweed, half wrapped in very thin egg. According to what I could understand (her English is better than when she started but still very limited), the contents were: rice, egg, crabmeat, ham (or some sort of flavored pork), carrot, and pickle. They were dusted with sesame seeds. The plate was so beautiful I took a picture. She also brought two kinds of grapes, very beautiful picked from the stems and washed in a glass bowl.

It was sort of a fun day. I had one girl who came first and was alone with me for a while (she is in the picture in the back row). Then my korean girl (whose name I can not pronounce at all, even though I am reasonably good at language pronouncing) came with her goodies. Later a family group of one girl and two brothers (plus mom) came in, and later a set of sisters from the neighborhood, who are regulars, also joined us. They got downright silly with one another which was sort of a sweet way to show they cared. The kids all except perhaps one, at least tried the very unique food. In most cases, they really liked it, and by the end of the session there was no food left.

My girl who was leaving, finished her hat today. This was no small accomplishment, since it required a good deal of knitting at home, and she had to understand instructions I drew out on a piece of paper for her. I fortunately had a bit of her knitting to use as a gauge swatch when we started so we got the fit pretty good. It was perhaps a little too short and wanted to pop off her head a little, either that or she just didn’t want to wear it in the picture. However, it looked beautiful. She knit three sections in garter stitch (which is pretty stretchy) and after starting with a rectangle she decreased into a sort of triangle on top of the rectangle. Today she sewed the pieces together very well, and it looks wonderful. She was proud.

When it was time to leave I could tell she didn’t want to say goodbye. I started to shake her hand, but then stood back and asked “Do you want a hug?” because I sensed she did. Her aunt was there… I typically stay away from hugging the kids as good practice, and love them in other ways. But this was a big goodbye and I could tell. She said “YES!” and hugged me for a little longer than I would have expected. What a sweetheart she is. I’ll miss her.

Wowie. Sometimes I know I’m doing the right thing. Wednesday I had ten children in knitting, plus two adults came in as support as well. And my oldest girl brought me two presents, wrapped in turquoise tissue paper. One was tied in purple yarn, one in turquoise yarn.

The largest package was an earwarmer she had crocheted for me (she already knew how to crochet when she came to knitting class). Not just any earwarmer/headband, but one she had knit of purple yarn and embellished with beads tied on with turquoise yarn, and tassels in both turquoise and purple. Sort of little ponytails on the headwarmer. Very colorful, very me. Very fun! And warm! I tried to wear it at Foster for a while but it got too warm indoors.

The smaller package was a nosewarmer she made in the round, using a technique that is half knitting and half crochet. You pick up stitches on a long crochet hook and then crochet the stiches back in a chain of sorts. She showed me how she does it once, but I am not sure I could do it without assistance. This nosewarmer she embellished with tassels, thinking they would look like mouse whiskers. Very creative! I think in this picture they look like wings, sort of like a golden snitch from quidditch in the Harry Potter books.

OK, so the nosewarmer looks silly when I wear it, but this one is particularly warm and useful as well as fun. And it is purple, not the subdued teal I made my first one out of. It will be quite useful, I expect.

Several of the kids wanted to take my picture wearing my new gear, so I’m not sure who took this one. In any case, I hope I look as happy with my gift as I truly am.

Oh, and today was quite a wonderful day for the kids bringing in things they had finished. One girl had made a yarn doll last week and started making clothing out of yarn tassels for it. Today she brought in a box just brimming with a wardrobe for her doll, a shawl and a skirt and several other items. She was pleased. Just look at that smile. In this picture the doll is wearing a tassel skirt which is hard to see because it’s the same color as the doll. It is also wearing a knitted collar or shawl.

The next picture is two sisters on the left and sister/brother on right. The youngest of my knitters, the girl front left wanted to make a nosewarmer for herself. She took it home last week and apparently was so happy knitting at home that she knit quite a bit longer than she really needed to for the project. No problem, today she bound off and we added some yarn ties, and she had her nosewarmer. She was very happy, and she wore the nosewarmer out of the building. One of my dance friends told me later she had noticed this, how cute!

The boy at right front has been working on that square a very long time. He actually stopped coming for a while but is back with a vengeance. His sister tags along for the ride, but he is the one who really seems to understand how magic it is to make fabric from loops of yarn.

Today he was quite ready to bind off so we did so even though he didn’t quite have a square yet. This is the first piece of what will be a beanbag. He learned to cast on today and was still doing that for his next piece when he had to go home. He’s getting much better and much faster so I bet he will do some knitting at home this week.

The last picture is three girls who come together, at least two but I think three of them are sisters. The one at right was the one who made my gift. She also made a purse for someone special and brought it to show me. The middle girl made herself a very fine purse. It started as a scarf and a wristband I think. We discussed how projects can change in the middle of plans, and how that is normal and good to sort of “listen” to the item talk to you about its possibilities. She was very happy to have used a mother-of-pearl button that had been her Grandmother’s, to close the purse.

Aren’t these kids just grand??? I’m very proud of them.

I had promised Brian pie for Valentines day, but had been so busy I could not make one. Until Tuesday night. I got home from knitting guild and started right in.

I had never made a cherry pie before, but I followed the recipe on the minute tapioca box as my mother recommended. Although there was much too much pie filling for my frozen piecrust, I filled as full as possible and baked away. The remaining filling I boiled on the stove for ice cream topping.

It turned out I should have used less of the filling, as it boiled over a lot in the oven (thank goodness I baked it on top of a cookie sheet). I think it looks really handmade with love, doesn’t it? Not beautiful in a visual-art sense, but beautiful in other ways.

He liked his pie. I love cherry pie thickened with tapioca rather than cornstarch, it is much cleaner and fruitier. I’m glad he likes it, too.

Tonight I went to MMKG, the Mid-Michigan Knitting Guild. What a great group of people we have.

Tracy A/Sweatergirl was wearing a sweater she had started years ago and set aside because it was too large. However, she’s now expecting a baby and so she picked up the sweater again, and it fits her wonderfully. What a nice ending to that story!

She also brought several sweaters she had knit for her baby. There were several really cute ones, but the one pictured here just won my heart. Isn’t it pure ColorJoy, in every sense? I do adore cables, but I don’t like knitting them. Tracy loves knitting them (often from yarn she spun herself). This multicolored cabled baby sweater is just as good as it gets, I think! Color *and* cables. Lucky baby.

Other online folks there tonight were Sharon P of KnitKnacks (who showed off her very lovely stole/wide scarf that she made in my class… I had not seen it in person yet), and Sarah Peasley/Handknitter was showing off her beautiful new red Bed and Breakfast sweater.. Did I miss anybody??? I hope not. I was sort of preoccupied (as usual, this time the excuse was that I was doing the main presentation/program). (Oh… Luann was there, she doesn’t have her own online presence but she reads my blog and has volunteered many, many times for my CityKidz Knit! program. And Teresa, also a reader but not a blogger, was there working on a charity project.)

Tonight the program was a short overview of some of the knitting software programs on the market. We had little time and lots to cover, but we talked about Sweater Wizard, Knitware Sweater Design, Sole Solutions, Sock Wizard, Stitch Painter Gold, and Magic Formula Calculator. Sharon P. kindly agreed to put together the handouts for me and then I agreed to do the actual presentation. I really enjoy doing things like this, so it worked out fine. Sharon’s handouts are just great, she fit a lot into a small space because she was very organized. She also made two pages of links and resources. I bow to you, Sharon!

Wowie, I am gone so much of the daytime these days, that I have little time to post here. I remind myself that people with passion for life often want to do more than they can fit into a day. And I would rather be passionate about living and all my various artforms, than bored or boring.

That said, I’ve got a lot of committments keeping me from home other than sleep hours lately. I did have a wonderful time yesterday. We went to Ann Arbor and played music with friends, and I knit on the way down and back (about an hour one way). I even knit a little at the jam session when they were playing music I could not figure out well enough to play.

On the way down, I knit about 5 rows on my ColorJoy stole for the class reunion we have coming up soon. However, at the jam I didn’t want to look distracted and have balls of five different yarns rolling all over the floor, so I switched to socks. Since my tweedy yarn sox are ready for the peasant heels to be knit, I again would have been distracted. Therefore, I switched to my new turquoise Australian yarn sox (I got the yarn Friday from Heritage Spinning).

These sox are DK weight on size 4 US needles, perhaps a little looser in gauge than would be best for good wear. However, the last time I knit this yarn I did it on size 1-1/2 Brittany needles, and it was not a pleasant experience. The gauge was so tight it was miserable. This time, the knitting is a delight. We’ll see how they wear, but they feel wonderful and springy this time, where the other pair is unyielding. I am doing this pair with peasant/afterthought heels again, because I got to the place where I should have started a heel flap, when I was at the jam session. I just quickly inserted waste yarn where the heel will be inserted later, and kept going in a tube. I got a few inches knit on either foot after that spot was marked, so these are really kicking along.

I am still delighting in the wool I bought on Saturday. I don’t know when I’ll have time to sit and spin at my wheel, but it may actually have to wait until I get back from Florida. (I’m going down to visit my Mom in Lakeland next Monday, one more week… and I’m staying until Thursday… I’m going with my brother this time and Brian is staying home, poor thing.) I am so looking forward to that time, and I will be able to sleep in at least a few days that short week I’m gone. Sigh…

Just to remind myself that I can in fact make pretty yarn, here is a picture of the first two-ply yarn I ever made (I still have not knit it into anything). The raspberry ply is merino cross I got from Nancy McRay of Woven Art, dyed with some dye Nancy gave to me for the occasion. The second ply is some coarser wool batt I got from a feltmaking workshop with Joan Livingstone about 3 years ago, where I dyed the wool with fuschia and turquoise dye and got pools of lovely cobalt, a wonderful surprise. It also still had some white showing which is great. That wool made a nice multicolor yarn to ply with the solid raspberry. I’m very happy with this yarn, although it is a little overspun.

The yarn is maybe a worsted weight. I just don’t know what to do with it yet. It is too lumpy to be good sockyarn. Maybe it will be in a stole one of these days.

It’s Official: the preview of Dawn Brocco’s Heels and Toes Gazette is up. The pattern several of you have been asking for is going to be published in her March/spring issue. It is the pattern for my Turkish-style sock knit in my ColorJoy yarn. I’m busy preparing for a dye day to create more of this yarn, in anticipation for those who will want to knit the sock in the original colorway or perhaps a different colorway of the same yarn.

Here is a picture of the sock flat. The preview page shows it on a foot mannequin so you can see it in a different shape.

An interesting point: The yarn I have been selling as Cushy ColorSport was sold to me as a sport weight yarn by the manufacturer. However, Dawn is really good at finding inconsistent classifications of yarn. This yarn, when measured by wraps per inch, yards per pound and gauge when knit into a satisfying sock fabric, is clearly coming out as a DK weight. Wowie. So ColorSport is not really sport at all. That is a mess for me, but I’ll figure something out. ColorDK just doesn’t have a ring to it at all!!! In any case, it makes a wonderful cushy sock, without having to knit as many stitches as a fingering yarn would require. And a small size takes only one skein… a medium would come out of one skein with a slightly shorter cuff. Not bad for a thicker yarn, I’d say.

If you don’t subscribe to the Heels and Toes Gazette yet you love to knit socks, do consider a subscription. Dawn is a very observant and detail-oriented designer and editor, and she is a delight to work with. She did an issue several years ago which detailed some peasant/afterthought heels in her signature star-toe/heel. I knit socks from that pattern about a year ago, which turned out beautifully.

This current issue also has a sock designed by Bonnie Franz who publishes another small sock publication called Stranded (focused on stranded colorwork/fairisle knitting). Her pattern here is one-color lace, rather than a colorwork design. Do check it out.

Saturday was busy! I got up early (for me) and Tony and I went to the Spinners Flock sale in Chelsea, Michigan. I got four sets of Brittany Birch double-pointed needles (including two size 0 and one size 1, which are being discontinued because they break easily). I also got a beautiful ball of fiber from Moonstruck (Rose Perkins). It is hot yellow-green, aqua, a little blue-turquoise and fuschia. More yellow and fuschia, actually. It’s Romney wool and kid mohair, perfect for socks. Very springy and wonderful!

I can not really imagine what this will look like spun up, and there were no samples to view, so I’m going on faith that I love the colors so much I’ll actually finish the spinning (color entices me to return to the wheel when duty cannot). I have found that I do not enjoy spinning thin at all. Since I love knitting socks, this is an issue. I am going to try this time, spinning a single ply that is about a DK weight yarn, and I’ll knit it up from one strand. They warn that single ply yarns sometimes “bias” or twist in knitting. Therefore, I’ll knit a toe that is a six-part star heel so that it does not have a specific up and down side to it.

I saw four folks I’d met the night before at Heritage Spinning. Pat and Debbie (she wasn’t in my class but was at the shop) were there when I first walked in. Later I saw Suzanne and Elaine. It was great to see them again.

After Spinners Flock I ran to the Otherwise Gallery in Old Town for “Burning Desires,” their annual fundraiser of erotic poetry. Incredible talent, incredible readers, poets, the whole thing. I just love this event. It seems I never get to stay for the whole thing but I adore it.

My friend Ruelaine Stokes was one of the poets (I’ve shown you her photography here before). She is the best. She can read poetry so vibrantly that you can see pictures in your mind for every phrase. You are totally in her world when she speaks. I got there just in time for her last poem. That was a disappointment, but the poem I did hear was wonderful, about the magic of being with someone in a restaurant, how the outside world can go away when we connect together over shared food. I can’t describe it well, it was her poem, but I loved her description of the warmth at the table in spite of the cold of the outdoors.

I went home after that and took a nap for over an hour. Brian came home and we changed and went to Altu’s for our Valentines Day performance. It was great fun, we had a great crowd. It was just about perfect, nobody had to wait for a table but almost all the tables were full almost the whole time. It was wonderful. We had several tables come just because we were there.

Then I went home and crashed. Fell asleep less than an hour after we got home, and slept about 10.5 hours. I neeeeded that!!! Sigh… total luxury.

Tonight I taught Peasant Heels for Self-Patterning Yarns at Heritage Spinning and Weaving in Lake Orion (somewhat near the Palace of Auburn Hills and the Pontiac Silverdome). We had so much fun! I had five class participants, who all knew one another. Two women were knitting with two circular needles, the rest of us were using double pointed needles. At least one person was working toe up but most of us were working top down. We had veteran socknitter, casual socknitters, and one woman who had not done much socknitting yet. We had all sorts of yarns and several sizes of needles. And we tried a technique that was new to all of them. It went well.

I had never been to this shop. I had met Joan Sheridan Hoover at Allegan and again at Mount Bruce, but never in Lake Orion (it is an hour and a half drive, just a little further than I like to drive for entertainment). I was really there to work, but I did buy two balls of Heirloom Easy Care DK cabled yarn. I just coule not resist the nicely vibrant turquoise which has more green in it than most turquoises these days (often turquoise is nearly blue).

I have made socks from this yarn before, in a muted purple. I did not like knitting it because I was working on too-small needles, but once I finished the sox they are really comfortable and they machine wash really well. Right now I have many types of beautiful yarns I could use for sox, but I’m focusing on knitting sox for me out of washable yarn. I’m almost done with my current sox, the toes are ready and I just have to finish the peasant heels. So I think the nice fat DK yarn will be a great next project.

But back to the class: several of us are on the new email list for Michigan Knitters so they recognized my name from that. And one student, Joy, was delighted when she realized that the To Bee or Not To Bee Sox pattern she had just found on the internet, was actually my design. That was fun.

Another woman said that she had seen the article that was written about me by Carla Kucinski in the NOISE had also been printed in the Detroit News (another Gannett paper) and she had read it there. How fun!

Here is a picture of me with my students from tonight. Back row: Me (LynnH), Lauren, Suzanne, Elaine. Front row: Joy, Pat.

I guess I will be seeing several of these ladies at the Spinners Flock sale tomorrow in Chelsea (I think it is at Beach School). Tony and I are going bright and early to the sale, and then I’m meeting Ulyana at the Otherwise Gallery at noon for Burning Desires, an annual fundraiser of poetry which I would not miss for the world. I guess I may actually get a little bit of a rest between the poetry reading and our performance at Altu’s. The idea of a nap sounds great, I sure am not getting enough sleep last night or tonight… but there is a knit-in at Yarn for Ewe Saturday and I seem to always miss it. Maybe if I feel perky, I’ll go over there and say hello instead.

Well, what do you know! A nice, big photo of The Fabulous Heftones made it into the centerfold of Lansing State Journal’s What’s On section today! Woohoo! We are playing at Altu’s for Valentine’s Day, this Saturday, from 6:30 to 8:30. I’m very excited about this gig. For one thing, we just love playing at Altu’s. For another, we just love playing music together, what a great way to celebrate Valentine’s Day! And playing our retro romantic music under those circumstances, it just can not get any better than that.

Please consider joining us. The restaurant is at 1312 Michigan Avenue, between Harrison Road and Frandor/US27. She is right across from the Honda dealership, right next to The Dollar (a large dance bar, you can’t miss it). This is at the very border between Lansing and East Lansing.

I sure hope to see you folks there. Let me know if you read it here!

New Class
In other news, I have at least 6 students for my class Friday night at Heritage Spinning and Weaving in Lake Orion (north of Pontiac, which is approximately north of Detroit and south of Flint). I am teaching Peasant (afterthought) Heels for self-striping yarns. It is just a one-evening workshop, from 7pm to 10pm, and they will be bringing a sock ready to start the heel (either toe up or top down). I just love these heels, I’m in the process of making a pair for myself (not self-striping yarns, but the same structure) right now.

These heels are great for knitting on the road. I figure out where I want the heel to start, I mark where it goes, and I keep knitting in a tube. Then when I’m ready, I can knit the heels and the toes at home. I don’t have to stop knitting until I can get a quiet place to turn a heel. I also just plain like how they fit. They look odd off the foot (they fold forward rather than sideways), but they feel good on the foot, in my opinion. The orange/green pair are among Brian’s favorites to wear.

Here are three somewhat different sox I’ve done in this technique. The top pair is in Meilenweit striping yarn, with stripes for the heel/toe. The second is in a bulky alpaca (slipper/bed socks) and I do not have the ball bands so I have no idea what yarn it was. The last pair is Regia striping yarn with solid Special Blauband for the heel/toe. I’ve also done a toe-up pseudo-Turkish pair with this heel, in striping yarns, and I’m finishing a pair in a sort of mottled yarn with the heels not contrasting at all, which should be done in the next week if all goes well.

Well, today I spent most of my time working as a volunteer for Habibi Dancers. Our spring concert is April 17 and we did our big mailing of the year today. I had all sorts of mail that had come back last time we did the big mailing, dozens (felt like hundreds) of address changes and people to delete for lack of a current address. I spent hours doing data entry in Microsoft Access, then I printed the labels and the mailing went smoothly. In the end it is worth it, but it’s so much work while I’m doing it I always doubt myself.

Anyway, I did also have several knitters at Foster today for a few hours and that was lovely. Joy (one of my knitting students from JoAnn) came to help out with the kids again. They ask after her when she stays away so I was happy to see her.

The kids have been into making dolls from yarn lately. It’s basically a fancy tassel. What is great about this, is that they can finish a project in an hour. They love that part. They did a great job today.

The pictures are actually from last week. The little girl at top started with 5 stitches and ended up increasing so much that she made a triangle. She was so thrilled to bind off and finish a project, she didn’t think about it being an odd shape. The second picture was last Saturday (officially a computer day, not knitting, but they dove right in to the yarns with confidence). The top left girl was a visitor. She made four or five dolls all hanging from her fingers there. The second was wearing her doll as a hat. The girl seated in front made me a doll, gluing on buttons for eyes and mouth, sort of like a snowman. And the girl on right, is showing off her baby socks on double pointed needles. She is 9 years old, 4th grade. I told her that many grownups think that double pointed needles are hard, and she just beams. She’s doing very well with them.

Off to sleep. I keep not doing that part of a healthy life. Sleep. It’s great stuff, sleep is! I need to remember that when I feel like working longer on this or that and it is past midnight. See you tomorrow!

Well, today I had a day off. Sigh…. loved every minute. Wish it could have lasted much longer, but it was just fine as it was.

I slept in until 10am. Then I made pumpkin-orange pancakes for Brian and I, topped with applesauce and cinnamon. They were pretty tasty but not as fluffy as they would have been without the pumpkin. I just was craving pumpkin as I do sometimes on cold days. Yum.

I did a little cleaning up and some laundry. Pretty funny… we do a light/white load, a dark/black load and then the rest divides into a turquoise load and a fuschia/purple load. It’s pretty clear who lives here, I guess! Well, I had not done laundry in so long that I had three fuschia/purple loads to wash today. And I got distracted a bit so the second one is in the washer right now.

Well, after I did a little cleaning I went and hung out with Altu at her restaurant for a couple of hours during the slow time between lunch and dinner. We just don’t get that sort of time together much anymore. It was a luxury I enjoyed. I had hoped she could come back to my house but we both had things to do before the workday ended so we just sat and talked at the restaurant. I loved being with her.

I ran a few more errands, including popping in to JoAnn to see about the schedule. They do the schedule on an Excel spreadsheet… well, I’ve taught Excel since Windows 3.1 (spreadsheets since Lotus 123 for DOS)… and I was able to answer a few questions right then and there, which were really helpful to the person doing the schedule. That made me feel good.

More errands, then I ran home. Found that I was falling asleep at my keyboard at 6:15pm so I took an hour nap, what a luxury that was! Then Brian came home and I made a nice little bow-tie pasta dinner with black olives and italian-baked tofu and roasted red peppers. It was pretty darned good, for how fast I put it together.

Then I was all ready to finally machine-knit my wool/cotton longjohns. And I tell you, I can not find the pattern I wrote for anything. I have gone through pile after pile of books, magazines, papers on my desk. I actually did some filing of financial papers thinking I might find the pattern. I know I had it a few weekends ago when I thought that Tony was going to come over. Now I don’t know where that one piece of paper has gone. I’m so bummed!

So instead I am doing more housekeeping, more email, more filing of papers (this is really good because I need to get taxes together very soon). I need to go look in a box I haven’t checked, now that I remember that box. But why would it not be with my knitting machine? I am so confused!

I was glad I did not have to drive far this morning. It snowed pretty steadily from the time I woke up to about 2:00pm. It was pretty, light, fluffy snow, the kind they show in movies. Just the same it does make the roads slick.

I am ready for winter to be over. I’m glad my brother and I are going down to visit my mother in Florida on the 23rd of February. I just need to hang on for two more weeks. Meanwhile, here is a picture of my flowers (and flamingos given to me by my mother’s friend, Fai), that I took this last July. Remember, gardening is art, food is art, knitting can be art. Life is definitely art… I hope you had an artful day, too.

Well, I worked for an Access database client today and got out just after noon. I did not have any other appointments, so I took myself to lunch at Mid East Cafe on the west side. They had a special called Foul Moudammas (actually that is just the name for Fava Beans) which was a fava bean dip. I tried that and a small bowl of lentil soup. Notice that I got so excited to eat the dip, that I didn’t remember to take a picture until after I had already dug into it.

My goodness, did I get full! The soup had green lentils rather than the orange lentils used at Aladdins for their lentil soup. The green lentils are a bit more filling, and the soup was quite tasty. But the dip… that was even better than I thought. It reminded me of the restaurant in Grand Rapids where I’ve ordered Fava bean dip. I like the one in G.R. better by a little bit, but it was such a treat and I really enjoyed my meal!

After that I went briefly to JoAnn Fabrics on the west side and then to the pretty large Salvation Army store behind the Lansing Mall. Wowie! I found some great deals. I found a gorgeous dark teal blue doubleknit wool A-line jumper from Lord and Taylor, for $2.99. Then I found a matching merino wool turtleneck in teal and black stripes, also from Lord and Taylor, for another $2.99. These garments are made so well I’m just thrilled to have them, and they will fill a spot in my closet that was not filled. I occasionally need a dress in winter, and I only seem to wear skirts in the summertime. In the winter I tend to dress in leggings and long sweaters so I don’t have much else. This was just great!

I also found a Lizwear (by Liz Claiborne) sweater in hot turquoise blue with all sorts of other bright colors and flecks of color, marked at $1.99 but the sweaters were half off. So it was $1. The sweater is 80% acrylic and 20% wool, not as much wool as I prefer, but it is a thick and substantial sweater that fits me very well. I think I’ll wear it a good deal. I’m going to handwash it and rinse it with hair conditioner, to give it a nicer feel. Acrylic feels so dry when it has been dry cleaned! I’m actually wearing this sweater right now. For some reason, things made by the Liz Claiborne companies just fit me really well, in addition to being brighter colors than a lot of other clothing. My fave sweater and my wedding dress are both by Liz.

I got a few tops and a pair of pants for my work at JoAnn fabrics, as well, and two charcoal gray garments (one also from Lord and Taylor) out of drapey wool jersey (jersey is that type of knit used for t-shirts, where one side is stockinette and one side is reverse stockinette, in a very thin knit.). I love wool jersey more than any other fabric, but it is pricey no doubt because it would be difficult to manufacture such fine wool knit.

The long jacket has two small moth holes in the back and I am going to give it my best to repair those holes. If I fail, I will wash it in the machine (with the large wool jersey dress that doesn’t fit well but was a lot of wonderful fabric for $2.99) to shrink it up/full it and hopefully make a good knitting bag to replace the nylon bag I have been using for years. And anything else that sounds cool to do with it once I see how it turns out. I’ve shrunk wool Jersey before, and it is still thin enough to not be too stiff. Love it. I think I will like a bag made from it, we’ll see.

The second picture is a pair of sox I had forgotten I had even knit. They were not listed on my knitting log at all, but the photo was taken on August 5, 2003. The yarn is Regia Stretch which I got at Yarn for Ewe in Okemos. Brian says they fit well but are a little warmer than the other sox I’ve knit him, no doubt because the yarn has more nylon and less wool than regular Regia. I think the colors pooled in a pleasing manner that is not too distracting. I was not thrilled with the colors, but adding the green accents made it more interesting.

Wow, I’m just plain tired these days. I have the high-class problem of balancing several income sources and so I have not had a day off since January 26. That is two weeks. I’ve had parts of days, and enjoyed them a lot. But I realize that most people who are not self-employed, get two days off a week. Most of them get two in a row. No wonder I’m tired!

I have an important deadline for a Microsoft Access database client Monday morning. I may have nothing else where I have to meet anybody, for the rest of the day. I’m behind on paperwork and I need to dig out a few answers for another database client, so I may do those things in the afternoon. However, just being at home working is a nice rest from all the running around I’ve been doing lately.

Sunday I worked 10-4 at JoAnn, then ran to Aladdin’s for lunch and a meeting with Sharon P, who is working with me on a presentation for the next Mid Michigan Knitting Guild meeting. We will be talking a little about software one can use for knitting. We are not experts on most of the softwares (I use Sole Solutions for socknitting when I do an unusual sock, usually for someone other than myself, but that’s all I have used). However, we are going to present information we can glean so that others don’t have to do the research from scratch.

After that I ran to Working Women Artists where I did a presentation on Polymer Clay. It was a small meeting but we had a really fun time. I just love polymer clay… when I’m at home I prefer to knit, but the idea of polymer is still exciting to me. It was fun to share my enthusiasm.

Then I ran home to deal with questions from a publisher on a pattern that is in the works to be published in the not-so-distant future. I’ve been getting several emails a day with questions in the last week. I get home and instead of resting, I deal with the questions. One can not afford to make a publisher wait.

You know, I like making up pretty socks on my needles. I like making things up, I feel as though it is art, I do it as a natural expression of my inner self, my artfulness. I don’t like taking notes, measuring, doing the numbers. I am OK at numbers, and I have a computer spreadsheet to help me chart out several sizes in each design. But hey, I turned into a published designer by accident. I would knit pretty sox and put pics on the internet, and then people would write to me asking for the pattern. So I started making patterns.

But I think I have only a few patterns where I actually wrote down the notes as I made the sock, planning to write a pattern. Most of my patterns I gleefully made for fun and then went back and documented after the fact. I’m getting better taking notes these days, knowing this is inevitable. I still like that part the least. I just like working with yarn and enjoying the wool flowing through my fingers. You know?

Picture is of the sock which was knit for a young friend, Eva. This sock caused such a stir on my LynnH SockTour with people asking for patterns, that I was inspired to create the “Eva’s Sox” pattern, my first for the public.

I got to dance as Eudora Friday at Aladdin’s. It was great fun as always. There were three tables in all, of dance friends, between the two shows. Also, at the first show, Rod and Linda, a couple who often come to our music gigs at Altu’s, came to see the show as well. And Lili, of the purple ColorJoy stole from my pilot class, came with her sweetie Mike. Brian was there, of course, and a number of folks I didn’t know but who were significantly enthusiastic.

Many pictures were taken, several were pretty good. But this fuzzy photo was the best moment of all, when my dance friend Nyla helped her almost-two-year-old daughter put a tip in my belt. This baby was born at 3 lb 1 oz, just a tiny tiny thing. She is the only child I have ever knit for, except for charity socks. I knit her a peach and mint green lace baby dress, out of Dale of Norway Baby Ull, when she was first born. It was too big at first, but she did get to wear it. I didn’t get a good photo of it and neither did they, but it was beautiful and the only lace project I’ve ever knit.

I’ve also knit this child two fruit hats… one raspberry and one eggplant. She wore the first until it was too small, and I was thrilled to see that she was growing and thriving, so I volunteered to do another. She wears the hats often, I see her wearing them and it warms my heart. I know my friend really does appreciate my handwork (she does some crochet).

Isn’t this baby adorable? She’s on my list of favorite children, a sweet but also strong child, whose parents really appreciate her. I figured this picture was just too sweet to pass by, even though it did not focus well.

Tonight, Friday the 6th of February, I am dancing as Eudora at New Aladdin’s restaurant in Frandor (across from MotoPhoto). I’m dancing with Taahira. I always have just the most wonderful time there! I’m really looking forward to it (and the meal I will get after I’m done dancing…yum).

The shows are at 6:30 and 8:00. Shows last about a half an hour, we take turns dancing and there are six dances total per set. If you are in the area, I would just love to have you come out and see us. Dancing to friends is so much fun. Dancing to folks I don’t know can be either wonderful or a bit blah. Dancing to empty tables is discouraging, although that rarely happens.

Please consider coming out. I’ll look forward to seeing you. (Picture of Taahira and Eudora dancing at Renaissance Festival this last August.)

Sharon P. finished her ColorJoy stole. What a fabulous picture this is of her wearing it! Great job, Sharon!

You know, she likes many of the same colors I like. I just adore her version. I can’t wait to see it in person.

My stole has not had one stitch knit on it in about a week. I have too many things going and that one doesn’t have a deadline of “right now.” We are all meeting, hopefully on February 22, to show off our stoles. I guess I’ll have a deadline soon enough!

Geoff Davis, the organizer of Midwest Ukefest, writes:

I put out a mailart call in conjuction with UkeFest. I thought you’d be interested since your website is all that comes up when I search “ukulele mailart”.

Well, that made my day! How cool. I like being the only one. Apparently some of my monthly weblog archives have both the words Ukulele and Mailart in them (I have not yet done any Ukulele-focused mailart but now I must try). That tickles my funny bone! How delightful.

Actually, I don’t do much mailart lately. I used to mail all sorts of fun things through the US Postal Service… plastic fish, plastic lawn flamingos (without legs), styrofoam wig heads (see photo), plastic and foam balls, a plastic bleach bottle (rinsed clean), as well as more normal shapes like postcards. Often I would embellish these items with rubberstamps (either purchased or made by me by carving erasers) or stickers, or markers. It was great fun. I love hearing the stories people tell of receiving a wig head out of the blue, coming home and finding it on their porch waiting for them… or in a bin of otherwise ordinary mail at a business warehouse dock.

If you would like to read about one person’s explanation of Mailart (everyone who participates seems to have a different definition) visit this page at Tabloid Trash. The ongoing theme of Mailart, though, no matter where you read it, is the equality of a mailbox as a place for artwork. Nobody judges your work, decides if it is good enough to be included, nobody puts a price tag on the work. You send it with no strings attached and “the mailbox is a museum.” Any expression is acceptable and welcomed in this environment. I find it very freeing.

Geoff’s Mailart call says 8-1/2 x 10 inch size (letter paper) for flat pieces and 8×8x8 for 3-D pieces. Now I have to think about what to do here. 8×8x8 is smaller than most of the 3-D items I’ve sent, but I think I can make it work. At least I have a little time.

I wrote a note to the Knitlist today about knitting items and then shrinking/fulling (sometimes called felting) them, by hand rather than in a washing machine. I got some good feedback on that post, so I am going to repost it here. Apologies to those who already read it on the Knitlist.

—
I almost always full my knitted items by hand. My first experience with
wool (at least in the last decade or so) was felting loose wool fibers into
felt. (See my project, The Fabric of Friendship, where I felted large wall
pieces with friends as a performance art piece in summer 2001:
http://purpletree.com/friendship .)

Therefore, when I started knitting items and shrinking them (fulling is the
technical term… felting is when it’s loose fiber, but I digress), I
gravitated toward doing this by hand as well. I get more control this way,
and it satisfies my need to touch fibers whenever possible.

I really tried to let the washer shrink my items for me! But after just a
short while I couldn’t stand to not be watching the progress. I guess I am
a control freak and I want my hands on my work, I don’t want to trust a
mere machine to do it right! I guess I saved a little time by starting the
projects in the machine, but most of the work I did by hand.

How to do it? You need merely add agitation and a pH change (detergent or
soap) to shrink animal fiber. You do not need to have hot water as is
commonly believed. You can shrink wool in lukewarm water, although shocking
the wool with hot, then cold, then hot, is particularly effective toward
the end of the project. It really firms up the fibers quickly.

So make yourself some sudsy water and put the item in the water. Do all the
things they say not to do, when you try to wash a good sweater that could
shrink. You want to rub, and scrub, and wring. Make sure to do this in
different directions… turn and rub, turn another quarter turn and scrub
again. If you keep it folded a certain way during the whole process, you
will get ridges that are permanent (this can happen in a machine, as well).

Toward the end, if you have a place safe from splashes, THROW the piece or
whack it good on the side of the sink/tub. Throwing shocks the fibers into
moving and grabbing on to each other, thus really quickly shrinking the
piece. This is the most effective method I know for hurrying up the
process, but it seems to work after the piece has already started to firm
up a bit.

At first it feels like nothing is happeniing. Put on some good dance music
to keep you motivated during this process. I have a wonderful little
washboard my mother gave me, that she used in the 1950’s to wash her white
socks at college. However, you can use any ridged surface including the top
of a Tupperware container from the 80s, to rub if you have such an item.
It’s not required, you can just rub the fabric on itself if need be.

Throw and then dunk in REALLY cold water and then shock by putting in
really hot water (wear gloves so you don’t get hurt if you try this). Cold
to hot to cold to hot is a way to get a nice firm product, on top of the
throwing.

While you work, check to see if you like the shape you are getting. If you
need one part to shrink more, then work that one part. If it is getting a
little lumpy, stretch and smooth as you work. I believe you get much better
results by hand-working a fulled piece, although I do have to be careful
with my wrists (wringing is particularly bad for my own wrist pain).

To stay on topic, I have pictures of a couple of hats and a pair of
slippers I fulled, on my weblog. Pictures are at:

Turquoise Hat Before (bottom of page):
http://colorjoy.com/weblog/archives/000325.html
Turquoise Hat After:
http://colorjoy.com/weblog/archives/000327.html

Purple Hat (After Only):
http://colorjoy.com/weblog/archives/000348.html

Fuzzy Feet Before:
http://colorjoy.com/weblog/archives/000092.html
Fuzzy Feet After:
http://colorjoy.com/weblog/archives/000096.html

Wow, thanks for this question. You can tell I’m pretty passionate about
this subject. I hope the information is helpful.

Cyndy wrote in comments Monday:

Do you need donations for your kids? Yarn, books, needles…tell me what they like.

I’m touched and delighted that she would ask. I tried to reply to her directly, but I must have had the wrong email address for her. Therefore, I’m answering here, hoping that maybe a few others of you would not mind reading through it. This is what I wrote to her:

—-
How sweet of you to ask about my knitters. Yes, we do have some needs.

We always desperately need needles in size 6 through 9 especially (sizes 5 and 10 work in a pinch). Short or long are both great, straight needles preferred. We also need circular needles in those same sizes, especially the lengths that would work for hats. (Is that 16 inches, I think?)

We always need bulkier yarns as long as they are fairly smooth textured. We use up nearly any purple yarn and/or variegated yarns in any colors, worsted weight or thicker, as soon as the kids realize it is there.

They go through variegated yarns like you can not believe, especially that garish crayon-colored rainbow that Red Heart has made since before I was age 10 and learning to knit myself. They love bright, bright, bright. The more color, the better. Even my boys go for bright blue, green, red, orange. Variegated yarns really help them see when they have made a mistake, in addition to the “pretty” factor.

I also can use small lengths (or full balls) of eyelash yarns or fuzzy mohair, believe it or not. The kids like to make small purses and just put some eyelash in the first few rows as a second strand with the standard yarns. Even a yard or two is special for a kid. If I get bigger balls of it, I divide it up into smaller bits so that more kids get to use it.

Please send yarns in balls, pull-skeins, or anything that can be knit from immediately. We do not have a ballwinder or swift, so yarns in hanks, lovely as they can be, do not get used quickly. The kids don’t want to spend their hour winding yarn into a large ball, and I honestly do not blame them.

I also always need canvas totebags… clean and in good repair, new or not, with advertising or not, any size. The kidz take their knitting home (many of them walk) and if they use a plastic grocery bag they often lose a needle on the way. It is humorous how often the librarians on the lower level of the building will bring me one needle or a bunch, unmatched of course. But if kids knit at home, they get better at it, and it also gives them a sense of ownership which I want to encourage. So I let them take needles and yarn home when they get to the point where they can knit without my assistance.

Oh, if you have a wool sweater that was shrunk by mistake or you don’t mind having me shrink it for the kids, it would be used now that they understand the potential of sweaters as a raw material for cut-and-sewn bags and mittens, among other goodies. We don’t do this as often, it’s sort of a special treat when I have a small enough crowd to do justice to the value of the sweaters. They understand the economic value of the sweaters… I make sure they understand, and respect the gift properly.

And sometimes I give out little “door prizes” so even little dollar store type trinkets, or small stuffed animals, picture frames, photo albums, colored pads of paper, anything a child from about 3rd grade to 6th grade might like… those will be put to good use. These items should be unbreakable, of course.

What I do *not* need: thinner yarns than worsted weight, neutral-colored yarns, needles thinner than US size 5 or thicker needles than 10 US. No chenille or Lion Brand Homespun… I have plenty already for the few kids who can handle them. I just don’t have much space right now (they plan to get me shelves but the budget is so tight it may be August before I get them) so I can’t take anything I won’t go through fast. And it may be obvious, but we do not have laundry facilities, so be sure it is in clean and fresh condition to be used immediately.

By the way, every donation will be acknowledged with a tax-deduction letter. Please be sure that there is a piece of paper in the box with your name and address (and email address) written on it (not just on the box, please… the box goes to my room and the paper goes to the office) so that we can read it easily, and our secretary will pop out a letter to you for next year’s taxes.

If you are still inclned to help out, the address is:

CityKidz Knit! c/o Lynn Hershberger
Foster Community Center
200 N. Foster Ave.
Lansing, MI 48912

Thanks again for your interest in my CityKidz. They are worth it, I assure you!
—-
Photos here are December ‘01 and October ‘02, some favorite pics of mine.)

I haven’t spoken of last Thursday’s CityKidz Knit! program. I started with a lot of kids in my room, doing both computers and knitting. It was a handful to keep track of what was going on. However, then most of the kids left and I had only four remaining, all kids who come very often and who are easy to work with.

One of the girls missed the holiday vacation session where we worked with the shrunken sweaters donated by Ann M. in Wyoming. That particular girl really loves backpacks and bags, and she knew she wanted to make a bag from one of the sweaters. Well, once my crowd was down to four focused kids, I got out the sweaters and let them go to town.

Three girls decided to use the ends of the sweater sleeves as mittens. They put their hands in the sleeve with the seam at the thumb, and then they cut around their hands with a bit of a margin for wiggle room. I helped them make sure they got their thumbs cut in a way that would not rip but would move fairly well. Then they did a whipstitch with some sockyarns I brought in, to seam the mittens. The one girl who wanted to make a bag got going a little slowly, but by the end of the day she had begged her mother to stay until 6pm when I leave, and she had the bottom of the bag sewn shut. I sent her home with some acrylic yarn in the same color as the wool sweater, so that she could braid herself some straps. In fact, we started braiding before she left, so she would get the hang of it. We used three strands of yarn as if it were one, so there were 9 strands of yarn in the braid. With that type of yarn, this will be a strong strap without the long process of knitting straps. She promised to bring it back to me next week, so that we can finish with a button and loop closure and any other things she needs to do.

The girl who is second from left is a 12-year old visitor to the USA for two months. She is going back to Korea on February 27. She is visiting an aunt here for a while, and so her aunt got her enrolled in our program to keep her interested while visiting. She already knew how to knit, and has done very well despite the fact that she knows only a handful of words in English. I show her things and she copies very well, and when she wants more advanced things, I tend to draw her a picture, which seems to work. Right now she is making a hat for herself in garter stitch. She is making three panels which decrease at the top, and we will sew them together when she is done. I think this is going to work out OK, though I’ve never had a child do a hat this way before. It was just my desperation, trying to figure out how to help her make what she wants to make, without having language to assist in the teaching.

She was very pleased with her mittens on Thursday. She wore them home! I could tell she was excited by the way she showed her aunt what she had done, when it was time to go.

Have I said how much I love teaching these kids? There is nothing like it. Just look at them with their excellent projects!!!

Saturday night, Abbott Brothers band played at Altus. Such fun we had! We do our part to do good publicity for her, and Sarah Stollak’s column did bring in at least one couple who otherwise would not have come in. We filled the tables for two seatings during our performance, and at a couple points there were people waiting very short whiles to get a seat. This is exactly what we intended when we started offering music at the restaurant. We want to bring more people in, especially people who perhaps have not been there before.

The crowd was very responsive. We had a few people who came because they knew us, and that was fun. I love singing to friends. We had one couple come out who had been at our last Fabulous Heftones performance at Altus, but who had not heard of us before that. A couple people came out from Barbara Abbott’s workplace, and it turned out that her department’s secretary is a woman I worked with in 1979 or 1980 at a local restaurant which is no more. It was good to see her again, and she seemed to really enjoy the music.

I bill the Abbott Brothers as “Good-Time Music” and last night we did just that sort of act. It was delightful fun performing, and the audience responded well. It’s extra-special when the crowd is right there with us.

Here is a picture of Barbara, Bob, and Larry, flirting with the camera just as they start to dive in to our lovely feast. After we finish playing, Altu brings abundant good food. The meal is definitely a highlight of the experience.