I’m busy today in the last stages of a submission for publication. I’m working on making sure the numbers are right for five different sizes of this sock.

I am also working on cleaning up a graph/chart for the sock, using Stitch Painter Gold. I don’t know, I teach computer programs but this one is really confusing me. Other people say it is intuitive, but it is not for me. I did use it for a good part of the chart but then I took it into PhotoShop, where I am comfortable, to do text labels.

While I do this work, I have one person checking my pattern for technical errors and inconsistencies in the text. I also have another person knitting my sample which will be used for photographs. I swore I never wanted to be a boss but here I sort of am. The difference is, the two women I’m working with are peers more than anything. And they are pros in every sense. I’m delighted to have this team going.

Anyway, I need to go back to my work so this will be short… but,

…a quick note: My father died 31 years ago today. This week I remembered something he used to say quite often. As we would prepare to leave the house, maybe to go visit a friend or attend an event, mom would say “be careful.” Of course, she did. That is what mothers everywhere seem to say.

But Daddio? He would follow Mom’s caution with a booming: “Be MEAN!!!”

I think he knew that I would tend to be afraid. And he knew darned well I would not actually be mean. But he was giving me permission to be bold. He was giving me permission to step out with confidence, and not concentrate on the scary stuff.

My Dad was quite a treasure. I’m glad I can remember him so well. Lucky me.

Well, I told you I was going away to camp, and I did. Brian and I joined his family camping trip on Sunday and Monday, and then Tuesday morning. It rained a lot on Sunday night. I was not too happy outdoors but I was committed so I just put on lots of wool. The second night was warmer and dry, but the wind blew like crazy and it was so loud!!! Between Lake Michigan and the trees, I kept waking up because of the noise. You can see, the trees are sometimes breathtakingly beautiful. I can see why others want to do this… that is, go outdoors for days at a time. It is just gorgeous. However, I can’t imagine ever really wanting to do it, myself. I just am spoiled a bit. I like being warm and dry.

On the bright side, I did get to sleep in reasonably late both days, which was definitely a plus. I also started my purple/blue Reggio sox (yarn from Yarn for Ewe pictured here a few days back). In fact, I did the cuffs and feet, but since they are afterthought heel sox, I need now to do the heels and toes. Then I will have a new pair already! So the knitting was pretty good, at least in the car there and back.

I took a lot of pictures. It was very pretty there (Muskegon State Park, on Lake Michigan.) I guess I would have been happy to make it a day trip… go there, take pictures, hug friends, go home. But I did get more time with Kathy, Pedro, and Jennifer. We all enjoy one another a lot. Here you can see the backs of Pedro, Kathy, Jennifer, and Brian, as they enjoy the sun-heated sand after spending a wet evening in tents.

Jennifer lives in Washington DC and Kathy and Pedro are in Jacksonville, Florida. We all enjoy similar food (they are entirely vegetarian, and I eat/cook mostly vegetarian) so we shared meals while others were eating hot dogs and hamburgers. One lunch we had Indian food (which comes in boiling packs, easily heated on a camp stove) and one dinner we had grilled veggies… red onions, green and orange bell peppers, and asparagus, plus we had tortillas and refried beans and avocados. It was wonderful, especially the grilled onions which got almost carmelized. Yum!

Brian made sure I got my hot tea (it is comfort food as well as caffeine) each day. He really does care if I am comfortable. I really can’t be comfortable outdoors more than a handful of hours, but he really tried to make it better. First note the coffee shop with the large Elvis image on the wall. This was Koinonia coffee shop, where they were extra friendly. They were my kind of ladies… each tea cup was a different color and they chose the mug for each person based on the colors the person was wearing… so I got a purple mug, of course! This photo has Jennifer on the left, then Kathy and Pedro.

And here is RuthAnn’s ice cream shop and camping store. It’s right outside the campground. It was here I got most of my hot tea. The colors are just right, don’t you think??? And you should have seen her garden! I even saw a swallowtail butterfly in her flowers, but by the time I found my camera the butterfly was across the street. That was a disappointment.

I took so many photos I’ll have to give you a few here and there as I have days without current photos. However, I really like this last sweet photo of Kath and Pedro on the beach. I tell you, these two are some of my most precious friends. Occasionally I consider I might like to live in Jacksonville… just so I could spend more time with them. It is a shame they live so far away, but we do see them usually at least twice a year, at Christmas and camping. Sometimes I also pop through Jacksonville if I go down to Florida to see my mother. It makes a too-busy itinerary, but it’s sort of worth it for a few hugs from these fine people! I’m so lucky to know them.

It occurs to me that folks not from this area, may not realize how large Lake Michigan really is. It really is more like a sea than a lake. You can not see across it, although in photos sometimes you see low clouds that look like land. It takes hours to cross it. The beaches have a wonderful soft white sand, as well. And it is not all that far from my house. I guess I’m a spoiled person, really, to have this luxury so close by, and then to not use it as much as I could. There are a good handful of beaches less than 2 hours away from home.

Hey you guys, I missed you… I really try not to miss posting every day… it’s a real goal of mine to make at least 28 posts a month. I had gone about 2.5 months so far without missing a day, and proud of it… honestly, it would have delighted me to have access to the internet while I was gone. In reality, because of the sand dunes, even my cellphone would not work properly. I had to give in to the experience. I did get to talk to a lot of folks who I enjoy, though. And Monday night, we played and sang our music for Brian’s father. He really loves our music. It was great to play for him, knowing how much he enjoys it. That part was quite nice.

I was happy to get home, though, and get a hot bath. And go back to work, first for a computer client and then teaching my beginning knitting class at Foster Center. I had so many emails waiting for me when I returned, that I may have bounced a few because of a full mailbox (if you tried to reach me and that happened to you, please try again). But I tell you, work or not, I am one happy girl to be home with a roof over my head! Aaaaahhhh…. Time to sleep in my wonderful, warm, soft bed.

Wowie, what a busy Friday I had. I had lunch with my Goddaughter, Sara. Then we took my New Beetle to an empty parking lot at a school, and she practiced driving my stick shift. She does a pretty decent job of it, considering how afraid she is of doing it wrong. We are preparing to go on a trip out east and I want her to be able to drive part of the way. I will be sure to drive the hilly areas in Vermont, for example. It should be pretty easy for her to do a good job when we drive through Ontario from Port Huron/Sarnia to Niagara.

After my time with Sara, I called a few yarn shops back, and we scheduled some classes. I’ll be doing my ColorJoy Stole at A Gathering Basket in Chelsea on November 6 & 13, and Buttons/Beads in Polymer Clay at Yarn Garden in Charlotte, on September 11. I’m excited to do these classes. I love teaching!!!

Then I took some yarn to my knitter, Wendy, because we’re working on my 3rd design in the series of 3 Turkish-inspired designs, for Heels and Toes Gazette. And she happens to be really close to City Market so I stopped in there. I got some petunias to add to my geranium pots, since the geraniums refuse to bloom (although their variegated leaves are totally gorgeous). I wanted more color. I got dark purple and salmon (matches the flamingos).

I also talked to my computer student, Glenn, who runs the cheese booth at the market with his wife, Ruth. And then I worked my way around to Seif Foods… to talk to Magda and get some of her wonderful food. I got a veggie wrap which was incredibly good. Then I bought some baklava which is quite different than the Lebanese version so commonly found around here these days. It was more like a triangular wrap of filo dough with a large amount of sweetened walnuts as a filling inside, and drizzled with sugar syrup. Very lovely.

After I got home, we went to Charlotte Bluegrass Festival to jam with some friends we only see once or twice a year. That was very very fun. Other than the cold and mosquitos, that is! We had to finally get going home about 11:30, a little early for us, because it was just getting too cold to be fun any more.

I had such a busy day I didn’t take any photographs. Today (Saturday) I did a tour around the house and watered every plant that needed it. I planted the petunias I bought yesterday (the pots are quite overpopulated with plants now, but beautiful).

And I was delighted to see that my pot of lettuce is really looking healthy. I moved the pot in the last few days, because it was sitting in the sun in the late afternoon, and Laura told me lettuce doesn’t like afternoon sun. Well, the lettuce loves its new place, I think. It hasn’t been there long but at least a few plants have 1/4″ leaves. And the parsley we planted (from small plants, not seed), is so big I need to start harvesting it very soon. It’s making shade on top of the Swiss chard. What a happy problem that is!

Off to do more work on the Turkish-style sock, and then to perform as The Fabulous Heftones at Altu’s, 6:30-8:30. May you all have a great weekend.

Wednesday I went to Yarn for Ewe, determined to finally spend my gift certificates I got for my birthday (November 28) and Christmas. Woohoo, was I there on the right day!!! They had just received a bunch of new socknitting yarns.

Now, each yarn store has its own personality, right? Well, Marlene Osborn, the owner of Yarn for Ewe, is a prolific socknitter and an amazing knitter of sweaters, many of them Aran style. So she carries some amazing excellent quality wool yarns for sweaters… and she sure knows what socknitting yarns to buy as well.

She has many customers, of course, who take the excellent socknitting classes there (taught by several of her staff members, including Marlene, Ruth, Wendy, who knits my sample sox for me when I publish in the Heels and Toes Gazette, and Marcia… and perhaps others). With all these socknitters in and out of the shop, it means these yarns will be snapped up in a matter of days. I have learned that if I go home trying to figure out which sockyarns I want to get, by the time I go back, they are gone.

Perfect timing for the gift certificates, then! I was glad I had held on to them as long as I had, because I could grab an armful and not feel guilty at all. From Left to Right: Lane Cervinia Forever Jacquard, color 220 (blue, green turquoise stripes with navy/white jacquard bits), Regia Color in color 5572 (gorgeous subtle khaki greens, I’ll use a contrast for rib/heel/toe in a pair for Brian), Regia Jacquard Color in color 5175 (thin stripes of taupe, gray and black, with dark gray and white bits, and Reggio Exclusive in color 715 (purple blue and charcoal stripes with dark gray and white bits, in sportweight rather than fingering). Nice stuff, all of it. I figure the turquoise and purple are mine, and the green and taupe are Brian’s. I’m going to enjoy waiting in line, knitting these yarns!

Oh, and on top of all these gorgeous yarns, I ordered a bag of Cotton Twist yarn by Berrocco in a gorgeous aqua/turquoise. This yarn is so gorgeous! It is cotton/rayon, which makes it shiny and drapey, and it comes in several colors that really make me happy. I am going to make the Cross-Over Top from Sally Melville’s Purl Stitch book (see page 81 if you have it). It can be a felted vest or a summer sleeveless top. The summer version in the book is actually also in the Cotton Twist, a lucky coincidence, since it looks as if it drapes really well for a short summer top. I already have some pewter-colored metal clasps to close it (rather than buttons) and am looking forward to wearing it. I’m not sure I’m looking forward to knitting it, but this is something I’ve adored looking at for so long I’m willing to go through the effort… I hope.

I forgot while I was at the store, that I had brought some CDs for Ruth, Marlene and Marcia (Wendy already has hers). Drat. Ruth, I know you are out there reading this… don’t be shy next time I’m in there… please ask for your copy of Moon June Spoon… OK?

Ruth was the woman who got me going on my first pair of sox, for those of you who have not been tuning in very long. I had made garter stitch scarves for 20 years and then quit knitting for about a dozen more years. Then I found the Socknitters.com website one day, and I had to knit socks! So I wandered into Yarn for Ewe as soon as I finished my big project for a client… and told her I wanted to knit sox. So she sold me some needles and some yarn and a pattern. And ten days later, I finished my first pair of sox ever. Ninety-some pairs and three years ago, that was. Great job, Ruth!

In other news, it’s reeeeeally cold here for this time of year. It was 52F at dinnertime. It feels like fall… I came home and put on my mohair sweater and a turtleneck and legwarmers. Brian and I decided to go on a walk to the Quality Dairy store (maybe 10 blocks from our house) so I could buy canned pumpkin and bake pumpkin pies. And that was after I’d already bought a butternut squash and put it in the oven for dinner. (It was really really good, with a little margarine and a sprinkling of nutmeg.)

So right now as I type this, it’s 11pm Thursday night, and the pies will be out of the oven in maybe 15 minutes. After that, they need to cool down before they are edible (I am allergic to eggs so I make a pie that must be cooled to be cut… no, they don’t contain gelatin; they have flax seed meal to hold them together, believe it or not). Maybe we will have to just have a small taste before bedtime, and then eat pie for breakfast! And why not?

This Saturday we are performing at Altu’s as The Fabulous Heftones, so I need to go practice with Brian. Actually, we practice almost every night now, and it’s really a wonderful thing to do together.

The flowers were brought in to Foster Center by one of the younger summer staff members. I guess her family has prizewinning roses, and she shared them with us. They were so wonderful I just had to dig out my camera right there in the office and take a picture.

Well, one benefit to selling yarn (and therefore needing to ship packages frequently) is that I wait in line a lot. Hey, wait! Did I really say that?? Well, yes, I did. I knit in line. So I’m getting some knitting done. Imagine that!

I finished another pair of Fast Florida Footies, in the same colorway I used when I knit them for Mom the first time (before I wrote up the pattern). This time I think I might actually save them for myself. I said that last time, then I gave them to Heritage Spinning as a sample for my class. That is, after they had sat in a knitting bag for months and months unworn. I just have no particular interest in wearing cotton socks. I sometimes wear very thin storebought cotton-lycra socks which fit in my sandals really well, but as beautiful as this yarn is, I don’t feel like wearing the sox.

It’s interesting. I did not like knitting the cotton/wool sockyarn I used for a pair of Brian’s socks once. Those sox took me 6 months to finish because I didn’t like the feel of knitting them at all. And they were denim/natural in color, both colors I don’t enjoy. I’ve learned now, never knit yarn you don’t love. Even if it is for someone else, I had better like it or it won’t get finished!

I love wool. I passionately love wool yarn and sweaters and socks. I love scratchy wool, soft wool, washable and handwash. I like mohair, too, and I adore alpaca. But I’m not a big cotton fan, not even with storebought clothing. I almost never wear woven cottons, although I do wear cotton knits sometimes, especially with lycra. In summer I wear cotton knits or woven rayon which is very drapey on this small body I have… drape is everything in clothing a small, somewhat curvy body. Every once in a while I find a full, colorful skirt in super-lightweight, gauzy cotton… usually from India, and that fabric drapes fine as well. However, I’ve preferred wool ever since I discovered it, when I was old enough to have my own money.

So here I am knitting these sox, these Fast Florida Footies. From yarn I chose originally for my mother, not for me! All sorts of people knit this pattern. People write to me about it often. The web page for the pattern gets tons of hits. Then every once in a while, someone asks me how the sox feel. And I honestly don’t know! I tell them that many folks have knit the pattern multiple times, so they must feel fine to someone… but I prefer wool on my feet, and haven’t tried wearing these sox yet.

OK, I could make the footies out of wool yarn in the same gauge. At least one person has done that and sent me a photograph. But the interesting thing is, that because it stretches, I do enjoy knitting with the Cascade Fixation cotton/lycra yarn. It’s just fine. Actually, it would make a wonderful tank top! And the colors… well, there are some gorgeous colors… solids and multicolors. You should have seen the apricot solid Joan Sheridan Hoover sent me from Heritage Spinning! Yum. Good enough to eat.

So now I have a new pair of purple and turquoise Fast Florida Footies, in my size. I wonder if I’ll really wear these? At least this time it’s the right season for it!

Oh… and the Surf & Turf Skirt in Bernat Boa (color: Peacock) and an unknown wool fingering weight yarn, is looking quite lovely. I’m on the 4th skein of yarn (the skeins are pretty small) and have about 6″ (15cm) of tube knit up. The fabric is wonderful, made on size 6 US needles. I showed it to my friend Altu today and she buried her hands in it, because it feels so good.

I don’t know if the skirt will look good on me when I’m done, but I am really pleased with how the knitting looks on the needles right now. I also hope I have enough yarn. I think I have 9 skeins, at 2-1/2 inches each. Then the fabric skirt which will be my waistband/yoke, fits low on the hips and takes up a few inches in length as well. I do not want this to be a miniskirt, so I hope if I need more yarn it will be available.

The skirt is good brainless knitting when I can sit still (the fingering wool is on a cone so it’s clumsy for waiting-in-line knitting, though not impossible). I’ll be knitting it tomorrow night at Foster Center when I’m at the computer lab for adults… assuming I’m alone or nearly alone as I was last week. The Kids Kamp lab is two hours just after lunch, and I do not sit still for a minute during that time… but the later lab is quieter and I sometimes actually get to knit a little.

Anyway, the goal for the skirt is mid-September. I want to wear it to the Ukulele Festival in the Pocanos Mountains of Pennsylvania. That is going to be three days of big fun! And there will be all sorts of pseudo-Hawaiian stuff there, so why not a fake grass skirt? It seems so right…

Wowie, it’s cold again this morning. It’s officially summer finally, but I don’t feel it in my bones. I have my body wrapped up in long pants, thick wool socks, and a wool blanket. I’m wearing a sweatshirt and my shoulders are also wrapped in a small lap blanket made for me by my sister-in-law, Diana. It was 66 degrees F when I checked last, but I’m sure it’s warmer now. The sun is actually shining, although the wind is blowing and they are expecting the wind to bring in thunderstorms for two full days.

I am not very good at being outdoors for any length of time. The gardening bug has been good for me this year, because at least I get outside to pull weeds or water, for 20 minutes to an hour each day. Typically I spend my outdoor moments on the porch in my hammock. However, this year is not typical at all. We have had so much rain that we have had large numbers of mosquitos even in our yard which is usually bug-free until dark. I got one long day and one short moment in the hammock this year before the rains arrived, and I’m very sad about that loss.

However, I’m heading into a few weeks here where I’ll be outside a bit more than my comfort level. The Charlotte Bluegrass Festival is this week, people are already camping down there (for a lot of folks, they drive in from another state and they stay over a week). We will probably go down just to jam with our friends one night, but that place is a mosquito haven on a good year. I am not looking forward to that part of it. I will enjoy the singing and the tunes, though.

Then Brian’s family is camping together for over a week. This is something they do every year and they really look forward to it. I look forward to seeing the folks who come in from out of state, but I will never understand this thing we in this society call “camping.”

I never camped as a kid, except a few times in tents with Girl Scouts which always ended in rain. I did like church camp as an adolescent, but we had cabins and so we had a good roof over our heads most of the time. But this thing we call camping where lots of people have these big metal boxes they call RVs, or these little fabric bubbles we call tents, and then they all go to the same place and cram a zillion people in two square feet of space, and call it getting away… well, my idea of getting away does not involve having a bunch of people I have never met, within listening range… especially if they have had too many Budweisers.

I just don’t tune out conversations well at all, camping or elsewhere. That’s one reason I don’t do well in restaurants with TV sets going, and why I prefer tea with one friend to a party with a zillion people all at once. At Bloomiefest I remember one time I was sitting between two conversations and it was painful, because my brain was trying to pay attention to both at the same time. The other night I had dinner alone at a restaurant and the table next to me was talking about reality TV and maggots and worms… in a restaurant! It was very hard to tune that out. Thank goodness the conversation did not happen when I was actively trying to eat my meal. I still fail to understand why eating worms when you don’t want to, has anything to do with reality.

Another difficult outdoor thing… you get dirty camping (I don’t like dirt on my hands or feet, at all) and you usually get wet… it’s sometimes really hot and sometimes really cold, and then you get smoke in your eyes from trying to get warm at the fire. Plus you get bit by bugs, and perhaps get a sunburn. Nope, not my idea of fun at all. I prefer my porch… at least, when there are no mosquitos.

We will not go camping very long, maybe overnight, maybe once or we might return for a second overnight. Last year I went for one overnight… Brian stayed longer. It was cold and rainy and I got an allergy headache. I was no fun to anyone at all! I am having better luck with allergies this year, at least.

It’s a big deal to see the family members who come in from out of town, though. I can’t wait to see them. So I will do my best to pray for good weather and a good attitude.

I can see I need to adjust to the out-of-doors more. I will probably be in the July 3 parade in Lansing with the Habibi Dancers, and I will be at the Michigan Fiber Festival in Allegan this year again (though not in my tiny tent this time). And then there is Renaissance Festival, where the Habibis dance several times a summer but I tend to only be able to make one performance a year.

So somehow the universe is telling me to get a grip and make friends with rain and dirt. We’ll see how I do!

I do like the dirt in my gardens, and that is a new development. Today’s picture is the front garden by the porch. This area is almost all shade, all day long. We planted the hostas a couple of years ago when we built the porch (there used to be very old spindly bridal wreath bushes there). All the hostas but one have thrived, we lost one last winter somehow. There are also purple-leaf coral bells in there, and one lonely lily of the valley (we planted at least a dozen a few years back and this year one popped up). Oh, and you can see we have another young climbing rose on the downspout in the foreground, which will no doubt take over in a year or two. It is a low-maintenance garden and very lush and pretty from the sidewalk. I’m pleased with how it looks.

Wowie, I taught a class of five beginning knitters today at Foster Center! It was so much fun, I was just flying high emotionally when I got home. Does anyone else get a rush from teaching, the way I do? It was just wonderful.

We are knitting little pouches (with a buttoned triangular flap on the front) out of wool. We will partially full/shrink them by hand when we are done. I never full by machine, anyway, I just don’t trust the machine to stop at the right time… and we don’t have a machine at Foster Center anyway. I just want to firm up the fabric a little, anyway… I’m not looking to reduce the size of the pouches by a third. And fulling can camoflauge minor defects such as uneven gauge, which should make the ladies pleased as well.

I made sure my students learned to purl the same day they learned to knit. I want it to not feel as odd to them as it did to me, when I learned to purl 20 years after I learned to knit. So this project is knit flat in a strip, and that lets them knit stockinette by knitting one row and purling the next. It also offers me an opportunity to teach them how to sew a mattress stitch vertically. Not bad for a six-hour class, I think.

As you all know, I usually knit in the round (mostly socks, of course) and I never quite learned to love purling. I do what I can to avoid a lot of purling if I can help it. But this pattern I developed for them has garter stitch and stockinette stitch, casting on and binding off, increasing and decreasing, a K2Tog/YO buttonhole and optional I-cord. I am pretty pleased with the project right now. We’ll see how the students like the project when I see them next week. They will have most of the pouch done when I see them next. I’ll just have to guide them through the decrease/triangular flap and then a handle if they want one.

Oh… Happy Happy Summer!!!! I’m so delighted it’s here. OK, so I’m wearing thick wool socks and a wool/angora sweater right now (all day, actually) because it’s in the 60s F right now, never got much above 70. However, it’s summer and the sun stayed out really long! I love this time of year. Now if the mosquitos would only stay away!

I don’t have a finished pouch photo today. I do have a lovely photo of the garden on the garage wall. We have daylilies, gorgeous climbing roses, a snowball bush, and rhurbarb hiding behind the snowballs, from left to right.

My lettuce is planted in a container on the north side so it will avoid afternoon sun. This garden (in the picture) is on the east side and it gets sun until at least 2pm these days. The chard is already about 2 inches tall, so I’m starting to get hopeful that it will actually mature for me. We’ll see!

Knitting Maniac has a nice listing of free patterns for tank tops. I’m particularly impressed with the quality of the Berrocco patterns.

Perfect timing, for summer knitting. Now which to knit???

Today is Fathers’ Day in the USA. I am sad. My dad died in 1973. I think of him often. I do not need a special day for this. I used to just ignore it, but now that I’m married to Brian and he has a living father, I have to face it again.

Last year, Mom found some old cassette tapes from around 1971, and had them made into CD’s, one for each of us (Mom, my brother and me). I listened to the CDs last summer. Some of them are incredibly long and contain very little of interest 30 years after they were recorded.

The day I listened most, I was alone working at home. It was hot, incredibly hot, and there I was trying to clean off my desk while listening to these 90 minute tapes. There was some storytelling (some by Daddy) but it was mostly children (including me) giggling and telling silly jokes. Oh, and me singing “White Coral Bells” about a zillion times. And then, at the very, very end of one tape, my father recorded this right on top of the silly nonsense:

Dumb, dumb Daddy loves Lynn Troldahl…. immeasurably.

I broke down and bawled. 30 years after my father died, he was telling me again that he loved me.

No wonder I’m sad today.

(Photo is my dad in 1951, his High School portrait… and me, about 1967. So where did I get my eyes???)

Today I woke up late, I just could not wake up when the alarm said I should! I did make it to the post office in time to send a package of yarn to Wales (Hi, Marie!!!) and then go see my dear friend Ulyana. My friend who I just do not see enough of, for some crazy reasons that make no sense in retrospect.

We have so many things in common, that every time we do get together, we can not cover all the things we wanted to share. It’s wonderful to have a friend so much on my wavelength. She’s alike me in artful ways, and in the foods she eats… healthy by choice. She and I are both dancers… in fact, she invited me to the contra dance about 8 years ago when Brian and I started dating. We are going to share plants from our gardens this year, I think… although she may not need any plants I can spare, but I’ll try. Yet we seem to always be busy and we have a hard time connecting.

Even today, I was at her house for several hours, but most of the time working on her computer while she did a massage for a client in another room. I did get to see her beautiful daughter, Sofia, who will be a Senior in High School next year if I remember right. It was lovely to see Sofia again.

At 6pm, though, I headed home, and then we all (Ulyana, Sofia’s friend, Sofia, Brian and I) went to the Central United Methodist church in downtown Lansing (an absolutely beautiful building) for a Contra Dance.

Actually, first there was a potluck dinner and then there was a dance. It was a celebration of 25 years of this dance organization (Looking Glass Music and Arts). Brian has played in the band for these dances a very long time… and our friend Mike, who is still in the band, was there playing for the very first Looking Glass dance.

I only stayed until 9:30, and I spent most of my time talking to folks and taking photographs. I did not want to dance tonight for some reason. It worked out fine, anyway. I guess I really wanted to be somewhere that was not that crowded! I know a good number of the people there, and I really enjoy their company. However, I tend to prefer a cup of tea with one friend, over a room full of nice people. I just don’t filter out visual clutter and noise very well. So I headed somewhere quiet.

(Photos: 1. Crowd dancing at Central United Methodist church, isn’t it a beautiful building? 2. Dancers, photo taken from balcony. Ulyana is dancing with the child at the bottom left of the photo, both of them in blue dresses.)

I thought I was going home but I found myself having a cup of tea at the Fleetwood Diner. It was very quiet and peaceful (they are open 24 hours and when I’m lucky I catch their slow times). I knit on my Surf & Turf skirt and talked to one of the owners of the restaurant. She has been very friendly to us and I appreciate her warmth. Tonight she went out of her way to go back in the kitchen and read the ingredient labels on several of their foods, to see if I could perhaps eat those things. It turns out there is actually one thing on the menu (besides salad with veggies only) that I can eat… the chicken stir fry. I’m very excited about this development! I want to support businesses in my neighborhood but I just was sure I could not eat there. Now I can. Yippee!

So after I had that nice quiet time at the diner, I headed home. I listened to Annette Hanshaw and ate black licorice (Panda Brand, the real thing) and drank Kukicha tea, and read emails from people I really enjoy. I was very happy for the down time. Then Brian came home after 11 and it was good to see him, too.

Tomorrow Brian will visit his father and I may go along… to spend time with Brian, for the most part. It depends on my mood tomorrow, no doubt. I do really appreciate Brian’s dad… for bringing this great husband of mine into my world, *and* for inventing/bulding the Heftone Bass I play and thoroughly enjoy.

Yet I really do not like Father’s Day, it is a sad day for me. My dad will have been gone 31 years at the end of this month. I do remember him pretty frequently, I don’t need a day to set aside for that. But it just sort of makes me sad to think of Father’s Day. My father really loved me, and he would be very proud of me, singing these days. He loved music and taught me so much. I wish I could give him a copy of our CD, you know? He would be beaming!

I hope all of you who are fathers, or who have fathers still on this earth with whom you have reasonable relationships, can enjoy this day in a way I can not. Hugs to you all.

I got a note from Susan today. Susan and I traded some yarn a while back. She sent one of the skeins she got from me, to a friend in Germany. It happens to be the same colorway/batch as the pair Sharon P just finished knitting.

The website is written in German, and I tried the babelfish/altavista translation service (http://babelfish.altavista.com/), and still can not make sense of the page. But I can tell that the second picture on the German-language blog is a sock knit from my yarn.

You know, I love sunny greens. I particularly love them with turquoise. Today I bought a lightweight short-sleeved cotton sweater at a garage sale, for $0.75, in a pale sunny green. Now, I don’t look good in this color. I sometimes wear it as trousers or a skirt, so that the color is not near my face. But I love this color so much that today I bought exactly the wrong version of that green, for exactly the wrong place on my body to not flatter me at all.

In my favor, the sweater is really well made and fits me perfectly. I’m thinking maybe I can figure out some way to put a turquoise trim on the neckband or something? Or at least use that sweater to figure out the dimensions on a totally new sweater I can knit up for myself. As if I don’t have enough projects…

But I’ll be dyeing yarn soon again (I’m winding yarn into skeins today, I expect to start the dyeing process in the studio next week). And I’m thinking spring/hot green heading into the dye session. I’ve also been thinking coral or something like these daylilies in the garden. We’ll see what I actually do next, when I get down in that studio and have the dyes in hand.

Life is always an adventure. There is always something new. Today it’s a pair of sox in Germany, and the climbing roses. They opened up yesterday for the first time, and today is gloriously sunny so they just look prime and gorgeous. I’ll have to take a better picture soon, before they fade… these are a little fuzzy but I love the shot of the roses in front of the “snowball” bush. I love this time of year!

Oh, yum. Last night on the way home from Habibi Dancers’ practice, I had a craving for broccoli in garlic sauce. Luckily, Gourmet Village is open until 10pm and I know I can eat their garlic sauce and feel great afterward (so many Chinese places use MSG and corn starch that I can’t eat there).

So I traipsed to Gourmet Village and got my fix. I ate it for dinner last night (when I got home, Brian was already rehearsing with the Scarlet Runner String Band on the front porch). Then today I got to eat it for lunch, too.

If anyone thinks food can’t be art, they have not had Garlic sauce from Gourmet Village. It is heaven.

I’m off now to supervise a computer lab for Kids Kamp at Foster Center. This means I will have 20 or so children all wanting to play the same game at the same time. Not my easiest work, but the kids sometimes are magical and I like that part.

Tonight at 8:30pm I will say goodbye to my last adult computer students for this term. They have been so marvelous, I hate to see them go. They are promising to come back in the fall, so I will look forward to that.

At least during computer lab I get to knit a little. I will continue to knit on my Surf & Turf skirt from Knitty.com. I’ve knit about 2.5″ (maybe 4cm) now, it looks quite promising.

Well, yesterday was such fun. Sharon P of Knitknacks, went with me to the Ann Arbor Borders’ books knit-in. I love love love this group. And I really enjoyed having Sharon’s company in the car on the way down and back.

Sharon brought as show and tell last night, first her amazing entrelac sweater (which folks absolutely crooned over, which of course was warranted). Second, she showed her springtime socks with ruffles. Which she knit from a skein of my Cushy ColorSport yarn, in a colorway I called Springtime with Sara. Every year when we get past the holiday season, I tend to dye yarn in spring greens. This skein was green and turquoise and white. Sara is my Goddaughter, who has strawberry blonde hair and looks fabulous in that wonderful green.

Well, I sure like those sox Sharon knit. And I am delighted to see how the yarn knit up, it really distributed the colors well. You never know when you are working, how it will play out when put on the needles. Well, I’m pleased this time.

Now, do Sharon the courtesy of going over to her blog (she is a good writer, you will surely enjoy what she says). Be sure to scroll down to June 14 (it’s only a couple of screens from the top) and check out her sox. They are just wonderful with a ruffle at the top. How cheerful!

Oh, drat… I put up the web pages for the yarn at about 5:30pm. Then the phone rang. And I thought I had hit “save” for the post telling you that the yarns were up. But you know what happened… it sat for 5-6 hours while I went to Ann Arbor for a knit-in. Whoops.

At least I did tell you the web page address yesterday.

Um, the yarns are up. See below post for the address, OK?

Thanks to everyone who has been writing… it’s the unveiling time now. The yarns are up, at this web page:

http://www.colorjoy.com/forsale/

I had much fun making these yarns. I will have much fun meeting people as they claim their very own “puppy” that will follow them home. OK, it’s not a puppy. It’s better, because you don’t have to feed it. You just pet it and knit it and wear it. (I do really enjoy meeting the folks who knit with my yarns… they come to life in someone else’s hands. It’s like we did a collaboration. It makes me very proud.)

I hope you love my babies as much as I do.

I was a busy grrrrl today!!! As you can see, my dye table is full of color mixtures, and my drying racks are full of yarn.

I will have a dozen new offerings tomorrow, yarns/colorways that I have not offered before. I am very excited about some of them.

A few of you (Hi, Cyndy! Hi, Laura!) have written to tell me you are watching the yarn page (thank you, that makes me feel really good). Here is the scoop: I have almost all the web pages ready to go with descriptions, pricing, and the rest. However, since the yarn is still drying I don’t have photographs for those yarns.

I’m off to sleep, and as soon as I wake up I will begin photographing, editing photographs, and then putting up the web pages. As they say, progress… not perfection. Right? And I feel it is pretty nice progress, although I would like to have been done with the web pages by now. OK, I knew that was a longshot going in, but it was a lovely dream.

See you in the morning… or somewhere thereafter, anyway.

Today I’m spending all my energies in getting a new batch of ColorJoy yarns ready for sale. As always, I have some of my Cushy ColorSport and Cushy ColorSox yarns, and a few one of a kind offerings that may never be offered again. At least one yarn is an alpaca blend, very nice. I love anything alpaca, I must confess.

I am pressing hard to get these yarns ready for the Socknitters’ Ad Day, which is the 15th. I’ll do my best to let you folks know when the web page is up and ready, at least an hour or two before I announce to Socknitters.

-OR- you can just go peek yourself. The page where the yarns will be, is: http://colorjoy.com/forsale

I expect that this will not happen before midnight Monday, but who knows? Maybe I’ll do better than expected. We can only hope.

To whet your appetite, the photo today is a large skein of sportweight silk/wool yarn that is currently available. It is 50% Silk, 50% Merino Wool, 5.5oz/Approx. 685 yards. Price is $44.00 USD. You should feel this stuff, it is very soft and will drape very well. It would make a gorgeous shawl, don’t you think?

Woodward Avenue
Today I took a drive to Royal Oak, a suburb of Detroit. It’s now a very funky area, was once sort of passed by and ordinary. I drove down highways 96 to 696 and then got off at the Detroit Zoo exit (haven’t been there in years). Then I got onto Woodward to get into Royal Oak.

Woodward is a historical road, it’s Michigan Highway #1. There are more neon signs on that street than I could ever photograph. Every time I travel Woodward, I want to stop every block and take photos. Except that the street is so wide, that it is nearly impossible to get a good photo from across the street, and sometimes the side angle is not a good one. It’s a shame.

I wish I had a great camera and a month to give it a good fair try. Those signs will not all remain, unfortunately. I particularly enjoy the dry cleaners and motels, they have very nice signs. I did take a few shots and we will see if they are too blurry or distant… but that takes more time than I have to work on them right now. Maybe later this coming week I will give it a shot and see what happens.

A Pleasant Picnic
I met some friends at a park in Royal Oak. Some of these folks I’ve known almost 15 years. A lot of them I had not seen in years and years. The most recent encounter I had with any of them was 2.5 years ago. It was wonderful to see these friends again. I used to see them quite a lot, around the time I was going through my divorce. They were so very supportive to me just when it felt my life was falling to pieces. It turned out that I needed that, to become who I really was… but it was extremely difficult to go through. I will never forget the kindnesses of these friends, and others (especially my brother, Eric), who were really there for me when I needed a listening ear.

So today was a joyous day. I met these friends, and some of their friends. One woman is a knitter. She invited me to come to the knit in at Borders Books in Birmingham. They meet every Tuesday night. I just might be able to go sometime. I think that would be such a fun adventure!!! It is only maybe 20 minutes farther from my home than the Ann Arbor Borders, and I love driving in the summer, especially at night. I will put that on my wish list, and some Tuesday when I don’t have another guild closer to home, I think I’ll just venture forth and meet even more knitting friends! Whee!

This park had a parking lot the size of a postage stamp, and so most of us had to find parking on streets in a neighborhood behind the park. I found a cute little corner spot across from this house with an asian-themed garden. It looks like there is a little ceramic pagoda or something in there, can you see it? There was a red-leafed bush that I think is Japanese Maple. There are curved paths and stepping stones. It is not my style, but it is clearly very well planned and executed by someone whose heart is totally into the theme. I thought it was worth sharing with you.

Home and Brian
When I got home, Brian was moving furniture to make things work better for us in the house. My yarn business is sort of taking over the house, but he also needs to manufacture our new CDs, and he had no room to do it. He made the house look so nice! I hope it works out this way, because it really feels more airy and spacious now.

We had a little date after dinner, by going to the local Meijer store (a huge discount store, sort of like K-Mart only nicer, but also with a full grocery department and often a gas station as well). We went to the gardening department. I bought a packet of mixed leaf lettuces. I’m crossing my fingers here, I’d rather buy on the internet from a supplier Paula told me about (Veseys, they specialize in the short growing season), but that would delay the planting so this time I’ll just go local. We got a beautiful clay pot, a little less deep than my other pots but very pretty and a decent price, so I’ll give that a shot.

And the “statuary” was 20% off, so we bought the remaining four plastic pink flamingos. Actually, they are more a salmon or coral color than pink, but the packaging declares pink, so what can I say? Right now we have four plastic flamingos, plus some painted ones on a single stick where the wings move (they were a gift from my mom’s friend Fai). The plastic ones are really getting faded and ratty. At least one has white house paint splattered on it. They all have gone through at least two winters, and are looking more baby pink than salmon. So this year, we will have fresh new color in the garden.

Brian also bought me a tiny spade to work the soil. I’m so small that I can’t get a full sized spade/shovel into the ground, even if I jump up and down on it. And the soil is so solid with clay, that I keep buying hand trowels and they bend from the strain of use. I am hoping this new tool will help. I don’t need a shovel very often, and Brian does most of the digging I need done. But sometimes I want to do a specific thing quickly and I don’t have the strength or the tool to do it properly. I think this will help.

Oh, and we got raspberries at Meijer as well. When we got home, I heated two toaster waffles and put raspberries on them, for dessert. It was positively wonderful.

Fully Enjoying Spring
Spring/Garden report: The carrots are peeking up through the soil in two rows, just in front of the Swiss Chard. The nasturtium flower seeds I planted last Sunday are up about 1/4″ (.5 cm) or so (I planted a bunch of these a month ago, and they are about 3″ tall now, but I filled in the empty spots in that patch with more seeds).

We had two daylily blooms yesterday… none today, but those were the first of the season (I think we have 4 clumps of daylilies on our property, and for some reason those that are partly in the shade blossomed before the full-sun flowers). Very exciting.

And the climbing roses are ready to pop. The flowers are clearly going to be pinkish (they are a pinkish-red that fades to light pink in the sun). I bet if we get any sun tomorrow, we will have roses. That is sort of the unofficial beginning of summer. Woohoo!!!

Oh… and today I saw this for the first time: Within three blocks of driving, I saw two ice cream trucks. They could not have been too happy about that, but I found it highly amusing. I guess this is a good neighborhood for ice cream, because they persist all summer long. We have at least three we see regularly. One plays Turkey in the Straw, one plays Yankee Doodle, and one (a new one this year) plays Music Box Dancer. Funny how that music gets stuck in the mind so easily!!!

I only got rained on for about 10 minutes today, but it was a doozy. I hope you all stayed dry.

Wowie, it was a fun day. After two days of fighting off an allergy headache, I woke up with a clear head. Just in time, I’d say… because we had a noon performance at Elderly Instruments. It was a wonderful concert. Mom and several of her friends came. Some friends from Ferndale (near Detroit, they drove more than an hour one way) came. Actually, she’s a friend we met at a music party last year. We had not met her partner. She said she knew he’d love our music. He must have loved it, because he bought all 4 of our CD’s… Brian’s two instrumental banjo albums, Brian’s solo “Mother I’m Wild,” and our new album together, “Moon June Spoon.”

Another couple came from Grand Blanc, near Flint. They also drove at least one hour one-way. Also, one of my students from Foster Center was there, and a number of other folks we know from the music community here in town. It was a nice crowd, indeed. They were with us on each song… my mom’s friend Joan said her face hurt from smiling so much!!!

This photo was taken of us at the concert. The photographer was Estefania, a young lady I think is 12 years old now, who is a very good musician herself. She is in the trio Clavel, where she sings and plays drums most of the time. They play Spanish-language music from all over the world, and they play at Altus sometimes. Thanks for taking the photos, Estafania!

Brian took me to lunch at Portable Feast in Old Town after the concert. He eats there regularly, but I had never been there. I had a gorgeous salad, with mixed greens, red bell peppers, asparagus, cherry tomatoes, red onions, and a tuna steak that had been marinated in key lime juice and dill. I’m not big on fish but often that is all I can eat in many restaurants. This was much nicer than most restaurants, I must say. The salad was beautiful to look at, I’m sorry I didn’t think to take a photograph until I ate half of it. Trust me, very nice. They are on Turner street, just to the right of Creole Gallery.

On the way home I stopped at City Market and bought some food from Seif Foods, the Egyptian restaurant there. I wanted Altu to try her food, so I bought three things I thought Altu would like and then took it over to her restaurant where she, Charles, and her friend W (I don’t know how to spell this Ethiopian name properly) were working. They shared the goodies, and I went home.

I took an hour nap. I tell you, fighting that headache for two days had taken all the energy out of me. I had a hard time waking up after that hour, but Brian came home and it was time to go to Altus for our Abbott Brothers band gig.

Photo by my mom, Liz Troldahl. From left to right: Bob McCarthy on guitar, Barbara Abbott on piano and fiddle, Larry Hauser on harmonica and bongo drums, Lynn Hershberger on Heftone bass, Brian Hefferan on ukulele and banjo.

That was very fun, also. Mom brought two friends, and there were a few folks in the audience who came just to hear us. There was another table of folks I just keep running into all over town, and they were very attentive to our music as well. Temesgen Hussein, Altus’ house musician, came in with his family including the new baby (maybe 3 months old, I had not seen the little boy yet). They are great listeners as well.

I tell you what, I promote Abbott Brothers as “Good Time Music” and tonight that was certainly true. My goodness, what a unified energy a group of people can make, who have known and loved each other as long as this group has. I was proud to be there performing with these very cool people who also are good musicians.

You know, today I just have reflected over and over again how lucky I am. My ship came in, you know? I don’t mean money… I mean happiness. My husband adores me. He taught me to play bass. He gave me a means to sing for people. We get to sing love songs in front of folks, and we enjoy it and they enjoy it. And on top of that, I get to play in the band he’s been in for years, and those friends are now essentially family of choice for me.

And Mom is my best fan. And her friends are just as loyal as ever… to her and to me.

How lucky can I get? I guess I do complain, everyone does. I want to not have headaches. I want to not deal with rain. I want to sleep more and worry less. Yet none of that matters.

OK, end of waxing poetic. We had a fun day, and we made fun for other people as well. Gotta love that.

Oh, joy! Despite awful rain for days and expected rain for days more, my seeds are happy. I have two rows of Swiss Chard seedlings. Good thing Swiss Chard likes cold weather, because it’s frigid (for late spring) here again today. It is dinnertime and it never made it up to room temperature.

My little plants are teenie-tiny. I would not recognize them as future food if they were not growing in two little rows. I was just sure this would not work. Maybe they won’t mature, but at least they are coming up.

I’m so happy.

Back to the studio. There will be a batch of handpainted yarns by the 15th. You will hear it here, first.

Seedlings!!! My first home-grown-food seedlings ever in my adult life! I’m happy!!!

Wow, the weather is sure entertaining these days. The last two days have been very hot and humid, about 90F and so humid it was a bit hard to breathe. Then yesterday brought several rainstorms (other areas got tornadoes but we missed them, thankfully).

Wednesday I drove to Imlay City to see my friend Deb/Scarlet Zebra. From here that is two hours one way, northeast through Flint (which is one hour) and then continuing toward Port Huron and Sarnia, Ontario Canada. Someday I’ll keep going, because I love Canada, but Wednesday I stopped when I found Deb.

It was a glorious day driving up there, sunny and warm but with the windows down I was in heaven. It was a feeling of freedom only experienced on the open road in summer. My car is wonderful and Michigan is gorgeous this time of year. And when I drive out of town, I listen to the radio and hear music I don’t hear in Lansing. I enjoy that as well.

Well, on the way back I listened to the radio. When I tuned in to Saginaw stations, just north, they reported tornado warnings… an actual tornado had been sighted. When I listened to Detroit or Ann Arbor stations to the south, they also had a warning. I drove home, and could see dark clouds north of me and south of me. For only about 5 minutes did I get any rain on my car, and at no time did I have my windshield wipers on high speed. I just lucked out. When I hit Lansing I could tell there had been a big downpour, there were puddles everywhere even though the roads were dry. It was still really hot and really humid but I didn’t have to water my plants, which was a plus.

I had Habibi Dancers rehearsal at night, and when I got home Brian was having a band practice with Scarlet Runner String Band, on the porch. It was perfect porch music-playing weather. I love it when the guys practice here. Live music is perfect any day, you know?

After they were done, Larry and I talked gardens and plants for a while. He says he has some cherry tomatoes that self-seed every year. How cool is that? It’s not a large patch but they just like growing there and he just harvests what he can eat, and leaves the rest to seed for the next year. I think that sounds wonderful.

Someone on one of my lists was talking about growing lettuce in containers. Now I’m all excited about that possibility. It may be too late this year, and if I want to do it I need to buy another large pot (large is the key, because they do not dry out quickly). I love leaf lettuce for summer meals. Doesn’t that sound fun?

OK, so I wake up on Thursday and it is 61 degrees F. Brrr, because “room temperature” is considered 68 and I am cold at that temp. The National Weather Service predicts 60 as the high today. It also predicts rain every day and night through Monday, although the temperatures are supposed to rise slowly to about 80F on Sunday. I guess that makes it perfect weather to go down and dye wool in my studio. It’s hard to be distracted by my garden when it is getting watered by nature!

Here is a picture of one of my impatiens pots I planted on Sunday. They finally look happy… I’m sure the heat and sun and water of the last two days really made them thrive. I had to go outside in a little mist to take the pictures, but rain makes the colors more intense.

Cyndy wrote me a comment yesterday. I love hearing from her, she tunes in regularly and I love the relationships I have started through this blog.

I wrote Cyndy a long reply back and now her mail is bouncing. Cyndy, would you please write me at Lynn AT purpletree.com, and give me your right email address??

For everyone else, please excuse this interruption. I’ll be back later tonight with a regular post.

Wowie… this looks like a great week for Brian and I as musicians. Last Sunday, Bob Blackman played our piece Come, Josephine, in my Flying Machine (from our new CD) on his show, The Folk Tradition on WKAR Radio in East Lansing. (Thanks, Bob!) We are sure several of our local friends heard that cut. How fun is that?

Then on Tuesday afternoon, Uke Jackson played our piece By the Light of the Silvery Moon, on the Flaming Ukulele Radio Hour on WNTI.org (aired in New Jersey, but also available via streaming audio on the internet). That was very exciting, as we know that Uke has listeners all over the world. (Thanks, Uke!) This show is excellent. Tune in any Tuesday at 3-4 pm for the current broadcast, or midnight on Thursdays for a re-broadcast. We are always humbled by the caliber of other performers showcased on shows where he plays our music. What company we have been keeping!

And now we are preparing for two performances on this coming Saturday, June 12. That’s right, two performances! I just love days like that.

At noon, we will be playing as The Fabulous Heftones (our duo act) an in-store concert at Elderly Instruments. It is free of charge, just come down to the store in old town. Follow the link here to find a map if you need one, or send me an email and I’ll give you directions.

And then from 6:30 - 8:30pm Saturday night, we will be playing with the Abbott Brothers band - Barbara, Larry, Bob, Brian and I (Dick won’t be there this week). That show is at Altu’s Ethiopian Cuisine (517/333-6295), on Michigan Avenue in East Lansing, at the border of the Lansing City limit… next to The Dollar.

Abbott Brothers has been around since 1979 I think, long before I knew Brian. They had a regular weekly gig at Old World restaurant in East Lansing for a long time. Now I get to be part of this wonderful music. And what fun we have, what friendships we have made. I’m grateful.

What an exciting week!!! I hope those of you in town who read this weblog, might consider coming out and saying hello. It’s so wonderful to sing to folks you know.

Oh, my… I have avoided this column for nearly a week. Last week, on Wednesday and Thursday, I had my last days of CityKidz Knit! until fall. I love these children. I think of them when I am not at work. And I will miss them terribly.

However, I found out last summer, that even the most dedicated of my knitters is too busy in the summer to come consistently. I can be there, but attendance is spotty at best, with maybe over 20 kids in a day but maybe 60% of those kids never returning again. The child last summer who attended more sessions than any other child, attended only 6 sessions out of 16. And even she dropped out, so to speak. She came twice a week early in the program and then left and didn’t come back until school started.

Well, I just could not handle the stress of a program like that. I really need some consistency so that I can be sure the kids make real progress. I do not see knitting as a one-hour craft project. It is an activity where we make small progress each week, and we get better by slowly trying new things. We must love making loops, as I tell the kids. We make many loops over the course of many weeks, and we grow and become more skilled. So I chose to put my energies this summer into dyeing wool yarns alone in my basement studio. I will see many of the kids in the fall, and I will look very much forward to that.

Here are the only two pictures I got of the group on our last day. The adult who I asked to take the photos, had a hard time using the viewfinder of my camera and so the photos cut off the back row entirely, but the kids were very eager to see the photos so I’m posting what I have. I know they have been anxiously awaiting this column. So sorry, kiddos!

The back row is L—- (see dark hair), me (See turquoise sweater), and A— (coral shirt). Fortunately, you know what I look like and you get to see A— in the solo photo here. I’m so sorry you can’t see my loyal and talented L—- as well. At least you can see the other kids.

In the solo shot, one of my most prolific knitters, A—, shows off her stuff! The yellow pouch in her hand is the gift she brought to me the last day. Inside it was two pair of polymer clay bead earrings. She made the beads and then made the earrings from those. She attached them to paper that looked like you might have purchased them at an art fair. She wrapped the two pair of earrings in a tissue inside the pouch. I put on the orange/multi pair right away. That night some girls in the Habibi troupe told me how much they liked my earrings, and they didn’t know the earrings were made by a youngster. I was pleased.

She also has two pouches/purses she made as well. Her mom reports that she will go nowhere in the car for more than 5 minutes, without taking her knitting with her. She does very well, making things up on her own. They work out fine, don’t they? Who needs patterns??? Go kid!!!

On the last Wednesday, my busy day, I broght my spinning wheel. We talked about different fibers, we felt all sorts of different baggies full of different fibers, and then I made some yarn in front of their very eyes. When they left, I gave them each a silk cocoon (complete with caterpillar inside, dead unfortunately), and a length of yarn I’d made myself. I had to give them a little souvenir of my program. It is very hard to say goodbye.

Now let me go cry in a corner by myself. I’m gonna really, really reeeaaaaallly miss these kids.Sniff….

I got a very nice shot of the 12″ flowerpot I planted about a week ago (these two matching pots are 3″ smaller than the other four 15″ pots I also planted). I have one pot like this on each side of the back steps… the entry we use every day. The flowers are not really blooming much yet, but I thought I’d show you anyway. I think the picture turned out very well.

The pot has a variegated “Zonal Geranium” which will have large coral flowers (you can see a tiny hint of what will be, at top left… except that it is almost neon bright in real life). In the center are the velvet-purple petunias with smallish blooms, that I got at the City Market on Saturday. In front is a variegated vine I think is called vinca. The purple and white flowers on the right at the back, are called verbena. I hope they turn out well, they apparently don’t like drying out and I am not a very consistent waterer.

On the ground at left are my beloved violets that grow wild in this part of our yard. On the ground center and right are weeds that bloom with pretty yellow flowers. Just to the right of the flowerpot are a few blooms from the “pinks” (also known as small carnations) that I’m trying this year (cross fingers, they like sandy soil and we have clay).

The back right is something called “Silver Mound” which comes back each year. I bought that plant the day I paid off my car, late last month. At the back center of this photo is the peony bush that I thought had died last year. It sure looks perky, doesn’t it? And I have barely watered it this year, it just came back as if nothing had happened at all.

I hope you enjoy this photo as I have.

Fiber Update/Upcoming Classes

It’s been a while since I’ve had a knitting/fiber update. I finished a Fast Florida Footie for a store sample for Heritage Spinning in Lake Orion, and she said there is already some interest in that class. (It will be held August 28). I’m now knitting a ColorJoy stole for the class I’ll teach, also at Heritage on October 16. By the way, I’m also teaching the ColorJoy Stole at Gathering Basket in Chelsea, next Saturday and the week after (June 19 & 26).

I also have a beginning knitting class at Foster Center starting Tuesday June 22, and a “Beyond the Lonely Knit Stitch” class starting Thursday, June 24. The Foster classes are both in the evening. Call 517/483-4233 to register for Foster Center classes.

I have also been back in the dyeing studio this week. It’s slow going at first, since I haven’t been down there in a good long while. However, last week I did two batches and this weekend I have done a couple dozen skeins. I should have a new offering of handpainted yarns, mostly one-of-a-kind finds, before too long.

It’s supposed to be a beautiful Monday. My mother returns from her trip to visit her sisters today, and I will also be attending a dance recital for Altu’s daughter after dinner. I am looking forward to that, I’ve been to her recitals once or twice before.

Life is just so much more right, when the weather is this fine! I could just live on the porch… but sometimes I have to settle for eating my meals out there. It could be much worse.

Wow, I hurt all over. I worked in the garden for hours and hours today. Never mind my dirt aversion… I was covered from head to toe in soil. But on top of that, many gardening tasks are physically difficult, and for part of the day I was working in the sun, which made it hot and sweaty and just not pleasant at all.

So why do I do it? I’m an incurable optimist. I am fueled by dreams. This is what keeps me knitting on a sweater when it takes a full year to finish the thing. I just know what it might feel like to wear that sweater, and so I plod on. With the garden, I love flowers and I love warm weather, and I want my yard to be comforting when I look at it. I can’t imagine I’ll ever be a full-fledged gardener, because I think you really need to love soil to do that well. But I can read about plants and try some here and there, hoping that they do well because the book says they might.

Today I planted three large, 15″ diameter pots, just full of blooming plants. Two of them I have done now for a few years. I put impatiens in as the mainstay of these (I prefer the salmon color but this year I couldn’t find many of those, so I have a combination of salmon, white and red). The impatiens do well in the dappled light of this location (either side of the front steps to the porch). I add purple lobelia because I love them, even though they do not do well when the pots dry out in late summer. They last as long as I water well, so I enjoy them while I can. I also put in a variegated vine (vinca?) in front to trail over the side, and a spike plant (dracena?) in the middle to give it some green and some height. These pots don’t yet look very happy but I know that in a week they will be beautiful.

I added another pot this year, at the northeast corner of the house where there is a bit more sunshine. I put white impatiens in the middle, and the viola/johnny jump up flowers in there, with a vinca vine that somehow survived the winter from last season. I’m not sure how this pot will do, but it’s fun to try something different.

I also planted in a very small spot in the back (maybe 2 feet by 4 feet if I exaggerate a little), some dill seeds, some swiss chard (a little like spinach) and some carrots. We already have three parsley plants back there and some chives and sage very nearby. I know from history that dill does well in this spot. I’ve never tried swiss chard, and I haven’t planted carrots since I was a child. I loved eating the tiny carrots that we picked when we thinned out the rows. I also loved the pretty leaves of the carrots.

My swiss chard is a variety that has many colors of stems, from yellow to orange to red. I think this could be pretty, with the carrot leaves in front of them. I don’t know how they will do (swiss chard should have been planted in May when it was still cold) but I am eager to give it a shot. I always enjoy going out to the garden and picking herbs for my summer meals.

Oh, and the most messy job of all today… I dug up myrtle/periwinkle/vinca minor plants out of our south side yard, and transplanted them to a barren spot on the south side of the house. The myrtle groundcover acted like it was not going to thrive, for two full years. Then this year the snow melts, and we have groundcover all over the grassy area! So I will give these plants much water and love this year and next, and hope they take off in the third year as the others did. I can only hope.

I also found some baby daylily plants near a couple of lily plants (these do well without any fuss, although they don’t bloom as well in the shady areas). I dug up six of these and planted them in the back and on the sides of the same barren area. This area is a challenge, because the dryer vent is there and it creates a micro-climate of dry, warm weather off and on. I think that the myrtle will be hardy enough to take the stress. I hope. We won’t know for a good long while, but now that I’ve seen how long it takes to establish, I won’t worry as much.

In fact, I think I’m lucky this year, to learn about patience with plants. Last year I asked Brian to move a peony plant, perhaps 4 feet, closer to the sun. Then it acted like it was dying. I was so sad! I cut the plant way back, and I tried to water it almost every day. It looked like it was barely hanging on. But this year it came back, is bushy and lovely, and looks very happy. It did not bloom this year, but it has never been very large even before the move. I wonder if maybe next year it will bloom for us. I’m so relieved to see it healthy again.

Here is a picture of a peony plant that is doing well even though it is in mostly shade. These plants look like they are from mars, don’t they? I hope to have even more peony blooms next year.

I experienced my city fully today. It was delightful.

I woke up somewhat late and had to run a box to the post office before touring, so I got going about 1pm on my bicycle. It was in good shape after being stored in our garage all winter (it’s a very basic garage, with an earth floor, which means there is more moisture in there than in a heated or attached garage, and I was a little worried I’d have a rusted chain). I just had to blow up the tires and I was ready to go.

(Please forgive the larger than usual photographs today, I felt the larger size really did show valuable detail today and I really wanted to share the details with you.)

I rode my bicycle to Potter Park, which is maybe a half mile from our house, and where I catch the Riverwalk. The Riverwalk was beautiful today. Here is one picture I took as I approached the business district of town.

The first stop was at the City Market. I had not been to the Egyptian food restaurant (Seif Foods) since she moved her booth down a bit, and it was great to see her there. She has more windows, more sun, and more visibility where she is now. She’s in the center of the second buidling, where all the prepared food booths are. It was very nice to see her again and chat. I had a wonderful meal of Mujaddara (she cooks it with lentils and rice, but in the Lebanese places in town they make it with lentils and bulgur wheat). She puts this wonderful tomato-garlic sauce on it, which I have never seen before I came to her booth. It is heaven on earth. It’s spiced without being hot, and it is so flavorful you just savor every mouthful.

For dessert I thought I would see whether she had anything I could eat (my list of ingredients that make me feel unwell is pretty long). She figured out that I could eat the sesame bars. They are sesame seeds and honey, cooked until they are a sort of caramel texture. Oh, my! I really enjoyed that treat. Divine.

After I ate, I went outside and looked at the flowers. They have loads of flowers in pots and flats for putting in one’s garden. I talked to the guy a little, and asked for a suggestion of a draught-tolerant small purple flower to put in the pots with my Geraniums. He suggested petunias. What a novel idea! It seems when I was young, my grandma and all the fancy gardeners loved petunias. I think they are a bit smelly but a few won’t hurt me much. In all the many flats, all the many colors of petunias, I found one deep blue-purple velvety variety with smallish flowers. Very beautiful! Mind you, I was on the bicycle so it was almost good I could only buy one package of four small plants. So I put the plants on the bike rack at the back of my beautiful old Schwinn (can you see them in this picture?), and went on my way to Old Town.

Just before I got to the center of Old Town, I found myself at the Fish Ladder. There is a dam here on the river, and they made the fish ladder so the fish would not be disrupted by the dam when they needed to swim against the current. It is actually just a beautiful place. Here I show the circular ladder itself, but in the center of the spiral is a gorgeous work of masonry, a small stone building that is very well designed. You can see the park area near the Riverwalk in the background of this photo.

I then went to Old Town proper, and found my way to the Lansing Visitors Center. There I bought a “passport” so that I could get admission to Turner Dodge House. While I was there, the ladies encouraged me to join the children in making sunglasses with decorations. They had cheap plastic sunglasses for the kids, and each had a strip of double-stick foam tape at the top of the sunglasses. The kids could decorate the glasses with feathers, plastic jewels, stickers and more. I need my glasses to see, so the sunglasses would do me no good. However, I did stick some feathers and stickers and jewels on each side of my glasses. They didn’t stay stuck too well, but it was fun to wear the decorations for a while. (Photo is Turner Street, the prominent red brick building houses the Creole Gallery.)

From there, I went to Turner Dodge. The approach was appealing, because I approached the garden first. The peonies were blooming like crazy, and the climbing roses and coral bells were in full bloom as well. And of course, many plants I don’t know anything about! But I really enjoyed the garden. A lot of others enjoyed it as well, and I just didn’t get a good photo of the gardens themselves, but I got a great shot of the mansion behind the gardens.

I enjoyed touring the home. It reminds me in part, of a building in downtown Lansing where I have done a lot of work. The second house is smaller of course, but still three stories and one of the bathrooms in the small house is appointed with the same tilework and decor as the mansion. The Turner Dodge has been renovated very well, and they are very proud of the building. I talked to a woman who actually works there on staff, and she strongly encouraged me to come at Christmas time. I’ve heard it is really beautiful then, but have never taken the time. Holidays are so crazy, it’s hard to add more things that are optional. I’ll have to give it more thought again this year.

I rode my bike back on the Riverwalk. I could hear groups of drummers in Old Town and in Riverwalk Park downtown, across from Lansing Community College. There were a good number of folks fishing on the river, particularly on the north side of downtown. There were families, folks walking their dogs, folks jogging. My town was just alive. Not too crowded, but alive.

I really loved my day. The sun shone all day and there was just a tiny breeze (not enough to slow the bicycle). It could not have been more perfect.

Well, tomorrow will be the first Saturday I have not had anything scheduled, in a very long time. Not only that, it is supposed to be a gorgeous day. And to top it all off, tomorrow is “Be a Tourist in Your Own Town” day here in Lansing. I have never taken advantage of this event and I think I might just do it tomorrow.

There are several places in town where you can buy a passport for $1 (I’ll probably be going to the CATA main terminal). The passport gets you into a host of places for free… there are more than 30 places listed on the website linked above. Some of the locations are not in Lansing, certainly not in central Lansing, but many of them are.

I am planning to get out the bicycle that I have not used since last fall, dust it off (literally) and oil the chain, and ride on the Riverwalk down to the center of it all. There are many things that sound very interesting to me, but these I like best:

Lansing City Market - Oh, this is a wonderful place. There is real maple syrup from a family I’ve known socially since the 1970’s, and a cheese booth run by some of my computer students from Foster Center… plus fresh produce, flowers, and plants. And that is only the first building… the second has prepared food booths. My favorite reason to go to the market, is to get Egyptian food. It’s mideastern but done differently than the Lebanese or Syrian food I’ve tried. I particularly like it when the woman who owns that booth has eggplant (she says this is summer food so I can’t always get it). She also has a vast array of foods for people who are gluten/wheat sensitive. The market is open 10-5.

Cooley Gardens - Just a fabulous place on a beautiful day. It’s just the other side of the 496 highway from downtown, at the end of Washington Avenue on the South side. Next to the Michigan Women’s Historical Center (also a fabulous place). The garden is open 10-5, the Women’s Center is 12-4.

MSU Beaumont Tower - Beaumont Tower is the symbol of MSU, it is on most of the literature for the University. It is a carillon tower which is still sometimes played by live carillonneurs. I have never been in a tower like this. Brian has been up there and I would love to go also. Unfortunately, this is the only place I’m interested in going to that is not in Lansing. I can of course take the $0.50 round trip fare on the CATA buses to go there, but I may skip it just because there is so much to do and it’s so far from the other things I want to do. They are giving tours from 11-1, every half hour.

Old Town Main Street - This is just north of the current downtown. The center of it all is North Grand River where Turner Street ends, by the fish ladder. There are so many wonderful places in Old Town, particularly Creole Gallery and Bare Bone Studios for Women’s Art. I haven’t been to Spiderhouse Gallery yet either… I guess it is just a bit east from the center of things, I hear it is across from the Temple Club just across Cedar Street. Sarah Stollak, musician and knitter, teaches knitting at that gallery and I need to meet her friend Spider who runs the place.

Riverfront Plaza/East Side - Our friends in the band Mystic Shake will be playing from 11-1 here. There will also be “Taste of Lansing” which I expect will be a popular event, though I’ve never tried it. Since I need to read ingredient lists before I can eat anything, I will pass on the food part of this location. Food starts at 10am, ends at 1pm.

Beal Botanical Gardens - I have been here many times so I won’t go tomorrow, but this is a huge and wonderful location at MSU. The promotional materials say this garden is over 100 years old. It’s open 10-5, longer than a lot of the other locations.

Turner Dodge House and Park - This is a mansion from the early days of Lansing. I remember as a child, before it was open to the public, I would notice it on the way to the airport, and wonder what it was like. I had a coworker once who volunteered here, and yet I have never gone. Tomorrow this is my primary goal, to get to Turner Dodge House on my bicycle. Well, that and the Egyptian food, that is!!! This location is open 10-5. I’m sure to make it.

The photo today is one I took last summer, when I was riding my bicycle on the River Trail just south of downtown.

One of my email lists (I hate to count how many I am subscribed to, though I can not possibly read most of the messages) is talking about X-rays and their connection to art. Here are two examples:

Beyond Light X-rayography
This site shows photos made by actual x-rays of flowers and shells. It’s amazing to se