I’m trying to slow down a little this week. It worked at least for one day… on Monday afternoon, my dear friend Tony came over for tea. We drank way too much tea, ate way too many brownies, and knitted a fair amount. My stole for Heritage Spinning is nearly done, thank goodness. I just have to do about another inch or two.

I’m so glad Tony kept me sitting down and knitting for those several hours. It really helped me focus on the stole which is far overdue… plus we had a great time, talking about things that maybe don’t matter in the large scheme of things, but it was pleasant anyway. He was knitting a strap in Peace Fleece yarn, something simple to knit while we talked. I hated to see him go.

Tuesday night (August 31) is the 5th Tuesday in the month. That means that the folks who normally meet at Borders Arborland in Ann Arbor on 1st and 3rd Tuesdays, meet instead at Eastern Accents on 4th Street downtown, just east of Main and North of the big parking ramp. It’s next to a Mexican restaurant, too. I tried to find something on this business online and came up short, but it’s not terribly hard to find.

Eastern Accent is a Japanese (? asian, anyway) place, sort of a coffeehouse but with a lot of teas. They have asian pastries as well, which I’m told are delicious. It’s a nice cozy space for the smaller group that assembles on 5th Tuesdays.

I love this knitting group. I guess I just look for any excuse to be in Ann Arbor, if the truth be known. I guess I am an Ann Arborite wanna-be, yet I just can’t stomach the housing prices there enough to actually consider a move.

I go to Ann Arbor as often as I can justify it. It’s a real city, it acts like a much larger city, like Chicago (actually, it reminds me a lot of Cambridge, Massachusetts which is right near Boston)… people actually walk around on the sidewalks at night, people go into the city when weather is good for entertainment, there are all sorts of cafes with tables and it seems they are all full, even on a Tuesday. The streets of Ann Arbor do not roll up at 5pm, the way they do in Lansing for some reason. And Ann Arbor has a bit of a skyline as well. Now if it only would have a subway!!! I’ve used their public transit before, but they just have ordinary buses.

This is not to say that I don’t love my Lansing knitting friends. You know I do, you can see me choose to spend my time with them by just reading this weblog. And clearly I choose to live in Lansing, a city that always welcomes its arms to artful people, even when they are newcomers.

I have walked in, unknown, to auditions for Riverwalk Theater, and got in the show. They didn’t need to stick with an in-group. I have been welcomed into art groups, poetry and music circles. I’ve had places to display my artwork, to read my poetry, to sing my music, to do theater after 16 years off stage, to learn dance (adult ballet, jazz, modern, and mideastern) and perform dance. Lansing is a very open-arms community when it comes to the arts, and I love that. And now that we have some really good ethnic restaurants, I really am liking my city better all the time.

Yet my creative circle of friends is large. I have two guilds/groups in Ann Arbor (Borders‘ Common Threads group at Arborland and Ann Arbor Fiberarts Guild), one in Chelsea (Spinners Flock) and two in Lansing (Mid-Michigan Knitting Guild and Working Women Artists). I can’t go to all of them all of the time, although I do everything I can to not miss the 3rd Tuesday Mid-Michigan Knitting Guild meetings during the school year. That is my home base.

I have a lot of errands to run on Tuesday. I must finish them all before I can let myself go to Ann Arbor. You can be sure I’m pushing like crazy to get all that done. I can just taste the Sencha tea now…

(Photo today is a detail of the garden at Mich House Co-Op in Ann Arbor, a place where my brother lived in the late 1970s. The house is on North State Street (not too far from Kerrytown, a lovely historical area), right next door to the purple house called Minnie’s Co-Op. This garden is between two sidewalks, a porch and a driveway, but is full of wild-looking flowers that are very happy and healthy. I actually took the photo in July 2003.)

Wow, it is clear that we are at the end of summer. My schedule screams it… Sunday this past weekend I danced at Renaissance Festival, a late-summer/early fall activity. Next weekend is Labor Day weekend (I’ll be dancing again at Ren Fest on Saturday). Then the week after is Brian’s favorite weekend all year, Wheatland Music Festival in Remus, Michigan (just west of Mt. Pleasant, where my Godchildren go to Central Michigan University).

Wheatland always marks the end of summer. But where did it go this year? We have had spring rains for months. The allergist says that the mold count is staying at levels common in May, it hasn’t let down yet. We had so many mosquitos in the spring that I didn’t get much time in the hammock as I typically do… that is my holy space, in many ways, and I have had precious little time there. Summer got so busy, as it often does… business slows down, so I have to move faster to make a living, althugh it is fun work. And now the trees are changing colors and the local peaches are in the marketplace. I did have peaches for breakfast today but I need to use up the remaining fruit quickly as some are starting to turn bad already. That’s what happens with truly ripe fruit, you don’t get long to use it!

The week after Wheatland, we are going the Ukulele Expo in the Pocanos of Pennsylvania. This one is sponsored by the Ukulele Hall of Fame Museum. We have chatted with these fine folks (the folks who run the Museum, which as yet is online only) in emails, but it will be fun to meet them in person. And a weekend of ukulele folks, well, they are just fun people. Sort of a “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” crowd in the best way. Love it!

Special Announcement!
The week after the Ukefest, on Saturday, September 25, we will have a very special musical event! We will be be performing with Mystic Shake, a fine local band with the theme “Rhythmic Fun,” in an intimate house concert setting. The event is called Music Under the Pines, because the setting is just beautiful. We hope for good weather so we can perform outdoors, but we do have an alternate indoor spot onsite in case of rain.

The concert has such limited seating that we will be taking reservations. You need only ask for an invitation, but we need to know how many chairs we need to rustle up for the event! Once you ask for the invitation you will be given directions to the location, which is a private home rather than a public space.

We are looking forward to this event. Brian has performed with Mystic Shake on occasion, and is on one of their CDs as well. These guys seem to be many places we are… Ben and Pat also perform as Blue Jello, a duo act that sings at Altus. Dick Johnson works with Brian at Elderly Instruments. Dick Rosemont lives near my mother’s home and his wife, Jane, is a fabulous artist in town who I run into sometimes at artful events. Ben and his wife Barb often come to our Fabulous Heftones performances, and we seem to see them at every music event we attend.

Lansing is a nice town this way, it seems artful people make a very nice and comfortable small community within a community. I think a concert with Mystic Shake and The Fabulous Heftones makes so much sense! I’m excited. More information will surely follow as the date gets closer, but if you want an invitation send me an email at Lynn AT purpletree DOT com and I’ll send you what you need to find the venue.

Photos today: folks dressed in costume at Renaissance Festival, the Turtle Race games at Ren Fest, Mystic Shake: Top row, Pat Malloy, Dick Johnson; Bottom row, Dick Rosemont, Ben Hassenger.

Well, Saturday night at Altus was again a great time! My mother, bless her soul, must have invited every person she knew. By the time they all got there, her friends and their friends, she had filled two booths and a small table with ten people!

Carl and his date came, with a list of requests since they clearly listen to our CD’s. Carl works with Brian, and he got a pre-release copy of Brian’s almost finished solo CD entitled “Everybody’s Doin’ It,” so he requested a number or two from that as well.

Brian’s bosses, Stan Werbin and Sandy Dykins of Elderly Instruments, came… Stan has been just the most wonderful supporter of our act, since the very beginning… he was the one who convinced us to go to Midwest Ukefest last October. It was wonderful to have them there.

And last but definitely not least… Rob and Matt of Threadbear Fiberarts came out to hear us. So often when I see them, there is a crowd of knitters and we are all distracting one another. In this case, they sat in a corner right next to our stage and I could sing directly to them at times. At one moment, I had an inner chuckle while singing… they got out their knitting and somehow their yarns got tangled between them. It was pretty entertaining while they straightened all that out. But how delightful to see them take a few minutes off from their new space, and enjoy the food and music at Altu’s. They clearly enjoyed both!

It is always a delight to play for a room full of friends. Of course, the applause is deeply authentic when the crowd is so full of people who love us, and we really had a wonderful time.

Our next dates at Altus are October 9 with Abbott Brothers band, and November 13 again with The Fabulous Heftones.

OK, it’s Saturday. If you are reading this in the Greater Lansing, Michigan area, and you are reading before 6:30pm, please consider joining Brian and I (as The Fabulous Heftones) at Altu’s Ethiopian Cuisine for an intimate concert while you eat dinner. The show is at 6:30-8:30.

There is no cover charge. There *is* great food, and if you’ve never had this kind of food before, Charles (Altu’s brother in law, the front-end man at the restaurant) will be happy to explain it to you as much as you choose. No, not everything is spicy, there are some truly mild but tasty dishes as well. The restaurant is on Michigan Avenue, at the border of East Lansing and Lansing, just east of The Dollar, not far from Frandor. Phone 333-6295.

We are ready to roll. Brian is actually in the process of recording a new CD, entitled “Everybody’s Doin’ It” and we will be performing the title cut from that album. We also will have our old favorites from our Moon June Spoon CD, all those lovely tunes of romance… and our longtime standards including a few novelty tunes and a few Annette Hanshaw melodies.

Last time, Regina was there, I know she reads this weblog. My mom is planning to bring as many as 8 at her table, bless her sweet heart! Anyone else want to join the party???

(Sunday I will be gone to Renaissance Festival with Habibi Dancers, and I’ll miss all the daylight hours in Lansing with that trip. I may not be posting an entry Sunday, we’ll see how I feel when I get home. Oh, in the photo from last year that is me, second from left, wearing blue. Yeah, blue… someone loaned me the costume! I wear more color variety as Eudora the dancer, than I do as LynnH the artist. Tomorrow I’ll probably be wearing orange, imagine that!)

Aaah, the joys of summer. It is hot and sticky here. It has promised to rain but none has actually come down since Wednesday. I love hot summer weather, although I do not work as quickly when it is this warm.

Wednesday, I stopped in at ThreadBear to prepare for my ColorJoy Stole class (date to be announced). I ran into several folks I knew, some from other parts of my life. Very cool. I picked out the yarns for the sample stole they will have in the shop for my class, and thankfully I don’t have to knit it. That is good for my schedule, and also it is good that one more person will check out the clarity of my pattern. The more eyes that see the pattern, the better it will get!

When I was at ThreadBear, Delores mentioned that she had purchased a wonderful bushel of peaches at VanHouten produce on South Cedar, not too far from my house. I made a quck call to my friend Ulyana, who loves to cook, and we determined to split a bushel. When I got home, my dance friend April was home so I gave her a dozen from my batch (half a bushel is a LOT of peaches for two people if you are not planning to can or freeze them). I have been eating these nonstop since I got them. I just love Michigan peaches more than any other fruit. When they are just picked, and picked close by enough to transport when they are juicy, they are better than any other fruit.

I like fresh raspberries, too, but often at the store they are not in good shape. When I lived in Williamston, I had a huge red raspberry patch. The people who bought my house mowed them down, and I was heartbroken, but it wasn’t my land anymore. I felt so rich having all those berries all summer!!!

Thursday I had to work at Foster Center from 1:30pm to 9pm. I got so cold my hands needed to thaw out, because of the air conditioning. The building has only had air conditioning for about three summers now. I preferred open windows and fans, personally, but I know I am in the minority. I know I would like it better if they just used it to take the moisture out of the air, but they cool it down to something like 65F when in the winter we heat to 72F. It makes no sense!!! What a waste of resources. I do know that the building is old, and making the airflow work properly is hard. I need to give them the benefit of the doubt.

That night I also started a new class teaching Toe-Up Socks, at Foster Center. I had three students, a fun and cozy number. I finally met Betsy, who I met online through the Freecycle list this spring. She has been donating canvas bags to my knitting program for the kids. It was great to meet her!

Then at night, also Thursday, it was just a little too warm in our upstairs bedroom to get a good night’s sleep. We could have put the air conditioner on, but the room is so tiny that even when the small unit is on the lowest setting, I wake up from the cold. We tend to use it when the heat and humidity are health-threatening. Just the same, this afternoon I ended up taking a long nap on the couch. We have the window open in the bedroom, since it’s cooler outside right now, so that hopefully the room will cool off enough to sleep better tonight.

It’s odd, because the peaches and the turning colors of the leaves remind me that the heat will be gone before I know it. We had almost no summer weather this year. Today it was 89F at our house but that may be the first time it has been that hot. I’m already sad for the cold weather and it has not even arrived yet! Silly me. I’ll be warm enough on Sunday, dancing all day.

That reminds me… Brian and I are performing as The Fabulous Heftones at Altus Ethiopian Cuisine tomorrow night, 6:30-8:30pm, at 1312 Michigan Avenue next to The Dollar, between Harrison Roadhouse and Frandor.

And Sunday I am going to the Michigan Renaissance Festival with Habibi Dancers, to perform all day. We usually have about 3 shows plus a parade and what they call “the smoker” which is one of our dancers performing alone for a pay-to-enter venue on the festival grounds. I leave my house at 7:45am and get home around dark. It’s a Loooong day. I’ll be there next Saturday as well, during the Labor Day weekend.

It would be lovely to see any of you at these performances. Of course, if you prefer to put your feet up in the hammock on your porch, or weed your garden, or something else, I understand. But just in case my performances might be just your cup of tea, you now have the information.

Saturday and Sunday I did not have any classes to teach so I set out to meet people and see what goodies were for sale. I also spent time learning some things about knitting from Annie… learned some things she includes in her lace and increase/decrease classes, which she explains very well… learned how to knit with wire and beads because she gifted me with a kit for a beaded wire necklace.

I didn’t finish the necklace until I got home (that was one thing I actually did accomplish on Monday, perhaps the only thing) but her booklet and materials were just the trick to learn both beads and wire in one fell swoop. She was very thoughtful, and gave me what she felt was her most colorful kit. I think she succeeded. The wire is cobalt blue and the beads are all sorts of brights. I think this will be a great necklace to wear when I’m dancing in a more folkloric costume.

I made my way around the festival and talked to so many people. I saw Joan Sheridan Hoover of Heritage Spinning, and also her colleagues Jo and Chrystal. I talked to the lovely ladies at Ellen’s Half-Pint Farm, who I had met the year before. I found Kim from The Yarn Garden in Charlotte, and her friend/helper Melanie. I spoke with Traci Bunkers of “Bonkers!,” first briefly and then on Sunday in depth, which was very enjoyable. I also visited the booth of In Sheep’s Clothing, the store in Marshall, where my friend Sue was last year. She has gone on to other things (forensic archaeology in London for 6 months if I remember right) but I did run into her on Sunday and she looks great.

But the coolest thing was meeting people who read this weblog. There were so many I am sure I’ll forget some (I did not take notes and I should have). It was so cool… I’d just be looking at some bit of wool or some beautiful yarn, and someone would come up and ask me if I was LynnH! Sure enough I was… and the story was always the same. They read this column right here and they were able to recognize me.

You know, I have a goal of writing 28 columns a month. I get fewer than one comment a day, but my web service says I am currently getting almost 900 requests for pages on my fiber website every day. So I know there are a few of you out there reading this, even if you don’t write to me. It was extremely wonderful to meet some of you this week!!! Thank you ever so much for stopping to say hello. It meant a lot to me.

The names that I’m remembering right now are Laurie (Lori?) Knupka(?), Tonya (Tanya?) from Cadillac, and Carey from Alma. There were at least 5 of you, so I’m forgetting 2 names already and I’m so sorry! Please write me and remind me so I won’t forget very long.

Another cool surprise was when Deb came up to me and said, how do we know each other? Well… she figured it out. She was my assistant manager when I took a holiday job at Casual Corner back in… get this… 1987. How did she remember that? Now she doesn’t live in the Lansing area anymore, even. She and her husband, Bob, raise Llamas. This world is getting smaller every day, isn’t it???

I had a great time. I bought two more copies of Annie’s book (on her life and Combination Knitting). I need one for me, because I’m knitting combination when I knit flat stockinette pieces… and one for a student who instinctively started knitting this way. I got to know Annie. I got to talk to some great people. I got to teach some great people and encourage their creativitiy. (I got to dodge a skunk early one morning on a restroom run, but I am trying to forget that part.) I got to listen to some music, touch some wool, buy some lovely things, make new friends, and have as much fun as I’ve had in a very long time. I hope to repeat the fun again next year.

Photos: Beaded wire necklace I knit from a kit I got as a gift from Annie Modesitt. Two felted sculptures on display, created by schoolchildren. Signs of fall in the air, on the way back home… leaves turning due to cold snap, apples on the trees turning red, and wildflowers in front of a ripening field.

On Friday I taught my ColorJoy Stole class. This class is near and dear to my heart. So many of us have been taught to make things “match” when matching makes things less than interesting. The stole class is about color and yarn structure and texture for the morning session. It’s about getting the guts to break free from matching, and learning to choose with more variety, in order to create something artfully different than we have made before.

I have studied color for years, and it is my delight to explain what I know to my students. It was wonderful watching them drink it all in, and take the courage it took to try something new and exciting. When we learned about color and texture, and then we also looked at the yarns in front of us (and we are all so different, we really learned from one another), then we took ourselves into the marketplace where all the vendors were, and found good yarns to go with what we already had.

Two students brought an assortment of handspun yarns they made themselves. One chose to use all of her yarns and just add some eyelash for color and texture, to pull it all together (see photo). She was pretty surprised at how easily it all went together, when she started actually knitting her stole. The other one with handspun decided to use that yarn for a later project, and she started from scratch. She started with a lovely multicolored brushed mohair in pastels and worked out from there. She ended up with a lovely combination.

Another student came with some black/white yarns, some soft blue yarns, and an intense pink/orange/blue skein of Noro single-ply yarn. She was the most courageous of them all, perhaps. She decided to put the black and white yarns with the blue yarns (tied together with a railroad yarn that was white and multicolored), and then she started a whole new colorway based on the Noro handspun (see photo #2). Her pink/orange/vibrant stole is definitely pure ColorJoy! I was happy for her… she really understood the lessons. Both stoles worked well, and they were very different from one another.

My student who added the class after taking my polymer clay session the day before, had not brought many yarns with her to Allegan. She started with two mostly cream yarns with blips of color in them, mostly teal, purple and burgundy. She found two colors of shiny ribbon, one teal green and one berry, and she found a teal eyelash to tie it all together. She will surely have a nice project when she is done (see photo #3).

I didn’t think to get a group photograph of my stole class. I really enjoyed each and every one of them, and they were on their way toward their own artful creation as they left. I really hope folks send me photographs when they finish. And I hope they feel free to write me with questions if they get hung up on anything. I had friends and family test the pattern over and over so it would be as good as possible, but there is always room to interpret some words in more than one way, and I would hate to have anyone feel stuck.

After class, I wandered outside and heard music. I realized that I’d heard some of those songs before. My first instinct was to think that maybe Brian would know these musicians… he has been a musician in Michigan so long that he knows a lot of folks. Well, when I got there I knew two of the musicians myself! They were just taking a break, so Kathy and I sat down and did three numbers with her ukulele and our harmony, and that was great fun. Then I came back just before they ended for the night.

They invited me to join them for a trip to downtown Allegan. They went to a good ice cream parlor near the boardwalk, and then we walked down to a park with a gazebo where they have music on Friday nights during the summer. This night, the band was the Otsego Jazz Ensemble, a band I’d actually heard of in past years. It was quite the scene… folks of all ages. My friends knew the words to some of the Frank Sinatra-type songs, and really enjoyed that. I actually sat and knit while listening… still working on the ColorJoy stole for Heritage Spinning.

I was so tired it was no trouble to fall asleep much earlier than my usual time that night. It was really chilly (46 degrees F) that night so the cold woke me up once in the middle of the night, but otherwise I got a very good sleep.

Well, I had such a good time at Allegan! Now that I have rested a bit I will take the time to tell you all about it.

Wednesday I got there in the afternoon and got settled in to the trailer, onsite, where Annie Modesitt and I were to be roomates for the duration of the Festival. I went down to Annie’s classroom but she was surrounded with students at rapt attention so I left well enough alone and waited to meet her until after class. We have corresponded off and on for a couple of years and it was exciting to be able to finally meet her and get to know her.

After her class, she came over to the trailer and we each made our own dinner. I tell you what… after five days in a tent last year, in 95 degree F weather, having a refrigerator, a microwave and a bed was quite a luxurious experience!!! I got good food all week (without worrying about ice melting in a cooler), which really helped my experience significantly.

After dinner we went outside and ran into Merike Saarniit, who I met a few years back and whose acid-dyeing class I attended last year at Allegan. We chatted a little bit and it was good to connect a little. Unfortunately, she apparently left the festival early and we never got to connect again. She spent the month of May in Estonia and I was hoping to see photographs. I’ll just have to take her earlier word that the trip was wonderful and leave it at that.

The next day I had my polymer clay class. I had 16 enrolled and 14 made it to class. We had such a wonderful time!!! It was really windy and I was in a sort of large gazebo with no walls, but we made the most of it, taking turns chasing down flying handouts at times. Can you see how great my students did? Here are photos of: my own workspace, Debbie with her creations, a couple of plates full of student works (check out those buttons in particular), and most of my students after class.

Unfortunately, I never did get a photo of Annie in her magnificent lace hats. You’ll want to check out her website and see those and more amazing pieces of work, including Schooner, her installation of three lace panels, placed outdoors in New Jersey. All very cool. She’s an incredibly prolific and creative woman, and I’m delighted to know her.

One of my students knew, going in to the class, that she was also taking my ColorJoy Stole class the next day (the Festival called the class “Knitting with Novelty Yarns” which sounded sort of boring to me, but 10 people signed up anyway). Another one of my students in the polymer class decided she would sign up for my stole class after spending the day with me. I considered that a very high vote of confidence, indeed. I set out to make sure she and the others would be pleased with the knitting class.

Wow. I finally got home for a day with no to-do list and I really crashed. It is so wonderful to not have to stand up on my feet today! I fell asleep at 12:45 last night after I finally finished downloading my 1,935 email messages, on our 28.8 modem. (About 1,600 of those messages were junk mail, isn’t that a hassle?)

I finally woke up at 10:45, and still felt really tired, so took it easy reading a few emails and drinking some wonderful tea. I have been enjoying some Twinings English Breakfast tea today, and some Eden Kukicha roasted twig Japanese tea as well. Yum!!!

I had planned to hang out in the hammock today and knit my vest/shell from Sally Melville’s Purl Stitch book. Well, I couldn’t find my book. I wanted to knit my gauge swatch and didn’t even know what gauge I was supposed to be aiming for. I finally found it after Brian got home from work, about 8pm. Why I didn’t go out in the hammock anyway, I don’t know, but I did rest with my feet up on the couch and the front door open. Maybe I’m just tired of being out in the great outdoors or something.

What I did instead of swatch, was eat breakfast and read through my emails, and then take a nap. I slept from 2:30 to 4:45. That is almost embarrassing! I really was over-tired from all my recent travels. I finally feel better.

I did feel awake enough to go outside and water my beloved flowers and veggies/herbs. Some of them really missed me, some didn’t notice I was gone. That’s life. I’ll definitely notice which did fine, at least in cool weather in August, so I can try those again next year. I’m gone a lot every August, it seems, and this is the real test of my plants.

You know what? I realized that I had been gone from my home for 2/3 of my time in August. I’ve had 17 days where I couldn’t be home, either from 3 overnight trips, the Folk Festival (where I helped Altu all day for 3 days) and two full day-trips for my work. In the same time, I’ve had only 8 days home. I’m so happy to be back!

I am already reaching out to friends in town, some of whom I’ve not seen in weeks and weeks. I’m re-establishing my roots here in Lansing, I guess. Today was about slowing down and remembering the art of relationship and friendship. It looks like I’ll be having tea with Sharon P of Knitknacks tomorrow, and I had a nice long chat by phone with my friend Ulyana, who has also been out of town a lot this month.

Toe-Up Sock Class, Anybody?
I’m teaching a toe-up sock class at Foster Center starting this Thursday. It looks like I may have three students, does anyone else want to join us? You can call Foster Center at 517/483-4233 between 8:30am and 8pm to register. It’s $33 for people in the City of Lansing limits, and $49 for non-residents. Time is 6pm to 8:30pm for 3 Thursdays starting August 26. With such a small class, folks will get really good individual attention. I’d love to have you join me!

Photos today– Entrance to Allegan County Fairgrounds… love that chicken! Flowers at fairgrounds behind the animal barn. Historical village on fairgrounds. My purchases at the Festival: 75% Mohair/ 25% Romney electric purple roving (it’s more ultramarine blue than shown here, very intense), raspberry variegated superwash merino roving from Bonkers!, a natural colored skein for dyeing, eyelash yarn called Coconut, in caribbean colors, rainbow flag-type yarn called Flora, handwoven checkbook cover from Central America. Not pictured are 1lb of natural alpaca/wool blend roving for dyeing, and a couple of jars of dye powder. There were so many temptations, I did well considering… but this feels like a big splurge. I’m looking forward to spinning the rovings, in particular.

I’m home, it was a blast, I have pictures and much to tell. However, I’m wiped out and will post tomorrow. Thanks for all the good wishes, they did come true.

Meanwhile, this is the coolest site if your computer has Macromedia Flash installed on it… prepare to play for a while:

Boohbah

Thanks to my sis-in-law, Diana, for this link.

I am off to teach at Michigan Fiber Festival. I will be gone Wednesday through Sunday (I have been gone so much that I’m really missing Brian a lot… he stays home and I run around the world). I am teaching Thurs/Fri and I will see what else I choose to do when I get there.

I want to meet lots of people, be they old friends or people I don’t know yet. That’s my goal. Last year that was also my goal, but it was very very hot and people did not hang around. This year it is supposed to have thunderstorms off and on. I’m glad I’m not camping in a tent this year. This year I will be in an RV or travel trailer provided by the Festival. I get to room with Annie Modesitt, which delights me. We have been corresponding for a few years via email and we have not yet met in person. I think we are going to have some serious fun in between classes!!!

Meanwhile, while I’m gone… if you have five minutes to just be entertained, this match-the-sox game online is relaxing but fun.

Well, it was a few days later than her actual birthday, but we had a party for Mom today. We celebrated her 70 years on this earth! Mom was not expected by the doctors to live, when she was born. She was a premature baby on the Iron Range of Minnesota. Fortunately, her mother, my Grandma Illa, had gone to college in Public Health and insisted that Mom would live. When the doctors allowed Mom to turn blue from cold, Grandma insisted that they release her from the hospital with her baby, or she was going to walk out without a release. They did release her, and she took Mom home.

Everyone in the community wanted to see this tiny 4 pound baby. Grandma wouldn’t let them near. In order for the two older siblings to hold Mom, they had to wear a mask over their face in case they might sneeze or otherwise transmit germs to her. Grandma kept Mom on top of the refrigerator where heat would rise and make it warmer for her. I sure am glad my Grandma knew that my Mom could make it and do well! Here she is, 70 years later and a prizewinning ballroom dancer among other things. I wanna be like my Mom when I grow up!!!

I gave mom a video of the Habibi Dancers annual concert we did in April when she was in Florida, and a pair of socks I knit with peasant/afterthought heels. The yarn came from Yarn for Ewe during my little sockyarn shopping spree a few months back. Eric and Diana gave Mom a book and a beautiful ColorJoy stole that Diana knit. Doesn’t Mom look great in it? You can see that the socks and the stole go great with what Mom wore today. That’s because they will look great with almost anything Mom owns. She likes blues and greens a lot, especially all together. She also wears other brights but they all look good with the blues and greens.

The meal was great at Aladdin’s as usual, and Ali, one of the owners, took this photo for us. (Left to right: Diana, Eric, Brian, Fred, Mom and I… my family and our partners… it was great that Brian could get free from work and join us at lunch like that.) Ali also gave us all a rice pudding on the house when he realized it was Mom’s 70th birthday. How sweet was that? They have *really* good rice pudding, too… the best I’ve had in Lansing.

We had a great time. It ended too soon.

Here are a few pictures of the party, and a close-up shot of the socks, which makes my 96th pair so far. The picture of mom first seeing the socks I knit, was taken by Diana, my sis-in-law. Ali took the group shot (although I did crop it and airbrush out the too-sunny window behind us). The others I took.

I just posted, after the fact, my blog entries for August 12 & 13 (the last two days in Chicago), and August 15 (the Folk Festival in East Lansing). I was very behind on my writing since I had been traveling and working for the last week. I dated the entries for the date they happened, rather than when I wrote them, to keep them in the right order.

Today I drove and drove and drove, about 4 hours around Michigan (approximately Lansing to Flint to Pontiac to Flint to Lansing). I had to pick up things I needed for the next week or so in my fiber/teaching business, particularly items for my classes at Michigan Fiber Festival. Fortunately, traffic was not bad, as it had been on the Chicago trip. I was warned to stay away from I-75 and I did, and all was well.

I ended my workday with a dinner at Emils (a combination of work and pleasure), with Sharon P of Knitknacks, Lili, and Marlene C who stopped by for a moment. These are three of my four students in my ColorJoy Stole class. I am preparing to teach this again in Allegan at the Michigan Fiber Festival this Friday. I was tweaking the pattern, trying to make it as clear and understandable as possible. They have been just great with suggestions and input, and I have really appreciated that.

Marlene and Sharon are loaning me their precious stoles so that I can take them to the festival as examples of other student works. I’m very grateful and will guard these with my life! Pictures soon… Lili has already been pictured here in her stole, and perhaps Sharon has also if I remember right. I’ve already posted so much today, and processed so many photos in the last couple of days, that I will save these photos for later.

By the way, a couple of weeks ago there were 10 people in my stole class at Allegan with a maximum available seats of 15. Yesterday the website showed that the class was not yet full (my polymer class has been full for weeks). They are calling it something like “Knitting with Novelty Yarns” if you are interested. It is a full day on Friday… that is just a few days from now.

Who all is going to Allegan? Shall we meet up somewhere???

I helped my friend Altu with her food booth at the Michigan Folk Festival this Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I was in the booth most of the time. Saturday I took one hour to go see the Afghani musicians and their incredible dancer. Sunday I took almost one hour to dance with the mideastern musicians, at least two of whom I’ve danced to before when they played for our Habibi Dancers spring concert two or three years ago. World class, they are! It was wonderful to dance to their music again.

Also, I did get out in time from the food booth, to do a little dancing at the dance tent before things closed up for good. Brian and I danced to the Zydeco band on Friday. I watched people dance to the French Canadian band once and on Saturday I watched the polka band get the crowd going, including doing the chicken dance. Too fun! The crowd was having a wonderful time.

On Sunday at the very end, the Zydeco band was playing again. I went to the dance tent where Altu was dancing with her niece, who is about 5 years old. This child and I met about 2 years ago at a wedding shower where most of the people were speaking their primary language which was not English. I found that even if I did not know the language, I could certainly dance and have a wonderful time at the party.

So I danced. And the children danced. And later, the adults also danced. This little girl kept watching me and finally I encouraged her to dance with me. We had a wonderful time! Now she calls me “My Dancing Lady” and we dance even when we run into each other at Altu’s restaurant, to whatever music happens to be playing at the time. We have such fun!!!

Brian joined us and we danced, mostly by making a chain of three, first Brian… then me and the little girl. Brian took a few pictures while we were dancing, by just holding up his camera as we danced. I like what he got!!!

The photos here are: crowd taken by Brian; Altu’s niece spinning around with me holding her hand, also by Brian; dancing crowd including we three dancing, by Brian; a blind man I see often in East Lansing, dancing enthusiastically… you should have seen him go wild… to the mideast ensemble (I took this photo and the rest which follow); a closer look at the mideastern band; folks dancing a Lebanese line dance called a debke… many of the dancers from the local restaurant called Woody’s Oasis; the polka band playing the chicken dance and an enthusiastic crowd dancing along; and two photos of the incredibly beautiful Afghani dancer. I could do an entire page of photos just of her! I took about 20 photos of her, and there was not one bad shot in the bunch, she was so beautiful.

Happy Birthday to my mother, Elizabeth Bakken Troldahl. She is 70 years young today. She can out-dance me!!! Mom had a real rough time almost 8 years ago, a bout with cancer… so we celebrate every day she’s got. (She’s doing great.) Congrats, Mom!

We had to wake up far too early on Thursday to be happy about it, but we got checked out by 9:30 as planned. Sara got a bagel from the Hostel for the first time, and I ate a soy protein bar so we wouldn’t have to go to a restaurant for breakfast.

We went to a coffeehouse Sara had spotted the day before, named Three Professors. It was a place I could hook up my computer and we both could get a special drink. We spent about a half hour there. A couple of you wonderful blog readers wrote me with places I could go. We first tried Arcadia Knitting but they were closed. Then we went to Knitters Niche and they were open, and I found three balls of yarn to take home. One is Aria by Lang, a fine acrylic/wool tube construction in subtle multi-turquoise shades, and two were Karabella Aurora 8 solid berry merino, which seems like a DK weight yarn (98 yards in 50gm) but somehow is recommended at 4.5st/inch. It looks like sportweight, actually… it’s very dense and shaped a bit like a tube, very smooth. I’m already playing with a sock pattern for this merino, it will be wonderful on the foot.

Although Sara is not a knitter, she knows how to knit and does well with it when she gives it her focus. She really liked a few of the yarns there, especially those handpaints which looked like rainbows. I told her I would make her a poncho for Christmas (she has already requested footie socks for her birthday in November) so she started noticing which styles of poncho she likes best.

After the yarn experience we headed back to Devon Avenue, where the Indian and Pakistani shops are. We had lunch at Udupi Palace again… a sweet concession from Sara, who does not like spicy food. What they call mild on Devon Ave., is still more spicy than she likes. I loved my meal, and she ate enough to not be hungry for a while.

We stopped at a pastry shop to get me a cup of tea, and there we asked for the name of a place for Sara to get Henna designs on her hands. We were directed to the Dilshad Hair Salon another block or two West, and we headed over there. I figured it would take a while, so I had my tea and my new yarn to knit while waiting.

We did have some confusion… they price the henna by “site.” In other words, it is $10 “each” which means each hand… total of $20 plus tip. So Sara had pulled out $12 for the woman before she had the work done and then was short and had henna all over her hands and couldn’t get out her wallet. Good old Godmother Lynnie paid for the second hand… glad she’s not the mom but OK with the little splurge of the moment.

The woman who did the work, Sonya, suggested we take a picture outside next to the poster that shows the hands and feet with a lot of henna designs on them. It’s hard to see here in the small photo but you can see the legs behind her on the right. The final photo I took of her hands when we got home and the henna had dried and come off, so that just the brown stain remained. It is a beautiful design, isn’t it? I can’t help but wish it didn’t come in just brown… that just is not my color, but I really do appreciate the designs themselves.

After the henna, we were ready to get back home. Sara slept most of the way home. Traffic was really bad on the highway 90/94 going south through downtown and getting on the Skyway. The Skyway, although under construction, was really clear and fine. But it seemed to me that much of the trip I was going about 20 miles an hour through more construction than not. It was frustrating, and took a lot longer than expected.

We got home late, it was twilight when we got home and we had expected to get there at dinnertime. Sara’s mom made her some good comfort food for her first dinner back home. Brian took me to Gourmet Village for Chinese food (they have great garlic sauce). My feet were very happy to be resting finally!!!

I had a wonderful time. Sara is great company, and I will miss her when she goes to college in just a few weeks. It turns out she will be living in the same smallish dorm I lived in, from August 1976 to December 1977. I really liked the dorm… it is on the quieter older side of campus and I found it very friendly. I’ll have to go visit her soon after she gets settled in. Meanwhile, we have memories we can never forget. I’m thankful we had a chance for another summer trip.

(If you haven’t read it and are interested, Sara and I went on a trip to Vermont and Montreal in August of 2001, a trip I called Marvelous Montreal which I chronicled in its own travelogue.)

By the way, the hostel where we stayed was so unique and so interesting, that I took a lot of photos there. I don’t have time to detail it well enough now, so I will delay that story for another day.

Wednesday morning promised rain. We dressed for that possibility and set out on the subway for the aquarium, a place Sara had pre-planned into the schedule before we had left home. I had only been in the lobby once, but never further inside (it is an incredible building architecturally, every element of the building is related to water life in some way… gratings with starfish and turtles and shells, ceiling tiles, doorways, every tiny bit attended to with ultimate care). I really enjoy the Tampa aquarium in Florida and expected I’d like this, as well.

We got off at the Roosevelt station for the Red Line. We had planned to walk to the aquarium but that is many, many blocks and my feet were still hurting from the day before. We walked to the top of a bridge, hoping to see how far it might be to walk, and could not see far enough to make a judgement. The view was impressive from the bridge so I took this photo while we were up there.

We considered a taxi and then noticed that there was an old-fashioned bus that said “Free Trolley to Museum Campus” right outside the transit station. We checked it out and, almost too good to be true, found it would take us almost directly to the aquarium… free, but we did tip the driver. When we got to the aquarium I found another nice skyline view so took another picture. Can you tell I am just in love with big cities and skylines, subways, museums, you name it? I was very, very happy to be there.

The aquarium was wonderful. I love turtles, and there were many of those, from small ones to an incredibly large sea turtle in a huge tank where we could walk all the way around it. We watched a diver go into that large circular tank and feed fish while answering questions from the crowd (she was hard to understand, but it was fun anyway). We then went in further, and saw the dolphins, (beluga?) whales and penguins. Here are photos of a trainer with a whale, and a whole lot of penguins of two different species. I thought the ones on their bellies looked a bit silly, if comfortable. I’ve seen penguins slide on their bellies before, but not just rest that way. Too fun!

Then came Sara’s favorite part of the trip: we went shopping! She wanted to go to H&M which was a place I’d not heard of before. Actually, the day before we had already shopped at Filene’s Basement and she got some funky polkadot rubber boots. This day we went to H&M and she got a pair of pants, and I got matching necklace and earrings that I can wear when I’m dancing (they are silver with turquoise, I’m sure I’ll wear them a lot). I also got some rhinestone earrings. Remember… this was Sara’s shopping trip and I got more than she did at this place!!!

We then went to Bloomingdales. I remember back in my big credit-card shopping days (I gave up the cards close to 15 years ago) I used to buy cotton hose at Bloomies’ hose/sock department. We went there. The ladies working there were very elegant and we were not at all dressed like them. I think they didn’t know if we were OK, but I said hello with a smile, and looked at all the lovely things.

There were wonderful variations on fishnet hose in pink and turquoise, but over $20 a piece and I couldn’t do that for a frivolous thing I would not wear much. We found a sale table in the very back corner and I found some beaded foot decorations (sort of sandals without soles) in turquoise that I can wear to dance in, for a few dollars. I was pleased. By the time we left, those ladies had warmed right up to us and were as friendly as can be. I tell you, a smile can melt a heart sometimes…

We shopped a few more places, including Lord and Taylor. I can’t remember if that was where Sara got this very cute green skirt and a hot pink top she loved to go with it. I didn’t take any photos of the shopping experience, we were so involved with the moment.

That night we tried to find a place to eat where I could find food I wasn’t allergic to, and where Sara would also be happy. We found one small Italian place on Rush but I wanted to feel as though we had more than one choice. We walked several more blocks (feet hurting a lot at that point) and lucked on a large flashy Italian place on a corner, Buca. It worked for both of us. Sara enjoyed the tour of the kitchen we got automatically when they found we had not been there before. She enjoyed all the pictures on the walls and the funny fake Italian talk show that was piped into the ladies bathroom speakers. We both enjoyed the food.

It is a family-style restaurant. With all the schtick and flair we found on the way in, I expected the prices to be high but the portions were big and the prices very reasonable. We got spaghetti with marinara (meatless tomato sauce) and we each chose a side dish. Sara got roasted vegetables which looked wonderful. I chose garlic escarole (a leafy green something like spinach). Ooohhh, that was very fine indeed! An added touch was the large thermos of truly hot water for my tea, which did not taste as though it had first been used for coffee. I’m a fanatical tea drinker and on this trip I only got a few really good cups of tea. I was pleased to have refills without having to flag the waitress down.

We got a LOT of food and had a wonderful relaxed time… and the price was quite excellent. I would definitely return, even though I’m not big on touristy places in general.

On the way back to the Red Line, we stopped at a McDonald’s, for a drink of soda pop and a bathroom break. I realized that I was missing one of my polymer clay star earrings I had been wearing all weekend. I love these earrings, I made them 10 years ago and though they are not technically fancy they are extremely wearable and seem to go with everything I own. I was really upset to lose them, more than I would have expected. I called the restaurant and they didn’t have the earring. I shook my clothing and nothing fell. We prepared to go back and look at the sidewalk (since the earrings are pretty big they might have been noticeable in the twilight). Then just as we prepared to leave, I noticed the star on the floor right by Sara’s feet. Whew! We were both relieved. My feet were also happy they didn’t have to go back and walk any more!!!

We were pretty tired and we knew we had to check out at 9:30am. We attempted to go to bed early. The other girls in our room came back right as we were getting ready to tuck in, and we talked with them for a while. Finally, we turned off the light just after midnight our time (11pm their time).

We both tossed and turned, because we are not good at going to bed that early. We did not get a great night’s sleep but we did get up in time and checked out properly. But that is a story for another day…

On Tuesday, Sara and I decided to take advantage of the free museum day in Chicago. The Art Institute and a few other places have free admisison on Tuesdays (Regina told me about that, too).

We got up too late to have the bagels offered by the hostel… I got a cup of tea at Standees deli (the place with the cool sign) and ate some food I brought with me, Sara waited until we got to downtown.

Once downtown, we went to Starbucks and she got a Strawberries and Cream (whatever that is) for a sort of unconventional breakfast while I connected to the internet and downloaded my email. I’m so spoiled… in Lansing we can use the internet for free at Beaners, but at Starbucks the wireless connection is provided by a second business and therefore I had to pay $6 for up to an hour. It was worth it to not fall behind too much on my business of selling yarn, but I just am used to the small-city price of nothing that we pay here in Lansing. One more reason to love Beaners!!!

Actually, we went to three Starbucks before we found one that had an internet connection. It was much more hassle to do this than I expected… but it was better than no connection at all.

After the geeky delay, we went to the Art Institute of Chicago and spent some time. The gardens outside the Institute are almost as beautiful as some of the things inside. Here are two photos, one of Sara in the garden just to the north of the building, and one of several planter/containers on the northwest corner. Notice that the closest container to the camera has swiss chard (it’s a vegetable like spinach only much larger) as the main plant in the center of the pot. There were edible plants in many of the plantings I saw throughout the city.

I love the architectural exhibit at the Institute, which specifically talks about the architecture of Chicago and its architects. I love Louis Sullivan, who was very instrumental in many buildings during the rebuilding of Chicago after the big fire. I particularly love the Carson, Pirie Scott building (this is a retail store which still exists). This building has a lot of metal ornament/gratings, but even though it is metal, it is plantlike and organic in its shapes. Another big name of course, is Frank Lloyd Wright, who lived in the Chicago area for a lot of his life.

After we checked out the architecture area, we went to the contemporary area which has, among other things, a huge Mao Tse Tung portrait by Andy Warhol. There were many things there, by many different artists, and some really “got to us” where some did not reach us at all. This is as it should be, and I loved it.

Then Sara decided she wanted to see the Thorne Miniature Rooms. I had never heard of this, although I’ve been in the building many times. On the lower level in the back of the building, there is a large exhibit of period-accurate miniature rooms on a scale of one inch to one foot. These were magnificent. Each room peeked out both left and right as well as in the back. There might be a living room with a hall to the right that had a staircase, and in the back a bedroom and on the left a complete landscaped garden.

What really struck me about these was the textiles. There were sometimes three rugs, all period-specific and clearly woven specifically for the space. Incredible. The european ones were woven, some looked rughooked and bumpy in texture, and the shaker ones were braided. I loved the rugs.

A woman working the information booth was very happy to explain to us about the rooms. She said that some of the upholstery material came from a purchase of a collection of old purses. It sure worked! For example, some of the velvet furniture actually showed wear, and I am guessing that was from a purse that had been used heavily.

The woman who was responsible for putting the rooms together, started collecting miniatures when she was a child. She had an uncle(?) who would travel all over and bring her back miniatures. Then she married into the Montgomery Ward fortune and so she didn’t have to work a job, so she set about making miniature rooms to order. She was able to buy pre-made furniture for historical periods of European history but when she got to the USA, she couldn’t find things such as Shaker style furniture. She started hiring people to make them. She had a group of people employed building these rooms for her, during the depression.

We really enjoyed the rooms. Then we went on to the hallway outside where there were framed collages which had been put together as illustrations for the children’s book “To Be a Drum (Author: Evelyn Coleman, Illustrator/Artist: Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson.) They were wonderful… a combination of paint, drawing, fabric scraps and buttons, and sometimes stitchwork/embroidery. Very inspiring. The book included some African-American history but also brought the experience into a personal light, very well done. I bought the book in the Museum Store on the way out.

After the Institute, we headed over to the Chicago Cultural Center. This building is a gem, and I am surprised it took me so many years to discover it (I’ve been there twice before). The building was built on land dedicated to honoring war veterans if I have it right, and was the first Chicago Public Library. It’s only a few blocks north of the Art Institute, and across the street. The building embellishments were designed by the Tiffany studio in New York City. There are marble walls with mosaics of abalone shells, mirrored glass, semi-precious stones, and colored glass, everywhere on every surface. It is just wondrous to see, the way they got the different materials to have such depth and light. There are quotations in the mosaics throughout the building, particularly the top floor which has a dome of glass (there is a protective glass “tent” structure invisible but outside that now, to keep the rain out and the elements from damaging the decorative glass). The photo here was taken without enough light, but notice especially the color and detail on the right side, with the circle in the center. This is a special green marble from one place in Ireland. The building used so much of this stone that it exhausted the entire quarry.

The cultural center has an art gallery there, and last time I visited there was a photography exhibit of Chicago in the Year 2000. I really enjoyed that. This time there was a very exhibit of a talented group of comic book artists. Unfortunately, the subject matter was quite upsetting and Sara and I chose not to stay there long.

On the way out of the building we found the Visitor Information Center (where you can get multiple-day passes to ride public transit, and get maps, etc.). Outside that door we found an Art-O-Mat machine. I’d heard of these during my mailart days. It’s a converted old cigarette dispensing machine. Each slot is filled with little boxes filled with artwork, each by a different artist. You buy a $5.00 token at the Cultural Center and put the token in, and pull the knob for the package/artist of your choice. Accessible art, art for almost anyone’s budget! I love this idea a lot. Sara didn’t get it at all. I now regret not buying a token, but I would have had a very hard time choosing which package to buy and so I wimped out and didn’t buy any.

After the Cultural Center, we first went across the street to what is called Millennium Park. This is a new park since I’ve been away from Chicago. It’s huge and beautiful and full of people! It had the exhibit of families I talked about yesterday and also some large sculptures. One (the Crown Fountain by Jaume Plensa) is two large boxes made of glass block, which look like small skyscrapers (they are both 50 feet high) that change colors and sometimes display faces (1000 Chicago residents alternate), and sometimes water cascades down their walls from the top. That sculpture can be seen here on the back right, looking very small because of distance.

Another (Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Gate), one that is very popular, is a large shiny object sort of like a donut without a hole (from what I could see… I did not go close so maybe it does in fact have a hole). It is a wonderful thing.. people can walk under it, touch it, see the skyline reflected in it. It’s universally appealing.

After resting in the park for a little while, we went to dinner in the touristy area of town. Sara wanted to have a “Fun” dinner, a “Good” dinner. For her, this meant being entertained. There is much entertainment to be had in the tourist area of town (Erie, Ohio and Ontario Streets near State and Rush if I remember right). We found Hard Rock Cafe next door to Rainforest Cafe, both good options for Sara. She chose Hard Rock Cafe.

We were escorted to our table upstairs by a young man we both deemed cute. Later during our meal, they were playing Y.M.C.A and the cute guy jumped up on the bar and started dancing to the song. You can see him making the shape of a “C” in the photo, although it’s not a great shot because the room was so dark when I took it.

Finally, we went to the John Hancock building to see the lights of the city after dark. There is a little place they have set up so you can pose as if you are the window cleaner on the 94th floor of the building. Doesn’t Sara look great cleaning those windows???

We took a Red Line train back to our neighborhood, but it didn’t feel late enough to go to bed just yet. We decided to stop at Standees deli (they are 24 hours, how cool is that?) just to delay the return home. I got a cup of tea and Sara got a piece of apple pie. The place was laid out as many 1960s diners were in cities like this (there used to be a lot of them in Toronto in the mid-1970s). There was a row of booths on one wall and a long counter/bar with stools on the other. This one also had a booth or two in the front of the place. It had a jukebox, though it was modern and had CDs rather than records. There were two waitresses there and I think a cook as well, though we didn’t get any food that needed cooking. The waitresses seemed to be having a bit of a struggle for boundaries in that tiny space, but our waitress was friendly and helpful to us.

It was hard to make the day end, but we did go back eventually. We headed to bed a little early for us (we are both night owls) and we had a very good night’s sleep, thank goodness!!! We were not done with Chicago yet.

Well, I lucked out. It was too bad we could not visit my friend Elizabeth in Vermont this week. But if I have to miss out on my friend, I would definitely choose a city vacation if at all possible. I left the choice up to Sara, and she came up with Chicago as our new destination. Our funds would not go as far in a city, as we had planned for a drive-to-a-friend’s-house sort of budget, but we sat down on Sunday and figured out how far we could stretch the resources and in what directions.

Sara wanted as many days as we could get. We decided to go with a Youth Hostel as our lodging, which meant we could go for 3 days and buy a few souvenirs while we were there. My friend Regina had told me she had good luck at hostels in Chicago when she would visit art museums there, so we found one that seemed a good price with free parking. We chose a dorm room, which meant we would share a room with other women.

It turned out just fine. We had 4 other roommates and they all came together. It was two young women from England, one from Scotland and one from New Zeeland. They were in the US this summer to work as camp counselors in Wisconsin, and now they were taking the tour of the US on their way home. They were good company. (When I stayed at a hostel in New York City a few years ago, the room had 14 beds and it was co-ed, both men and women in the same room. This was definitely more cozy in Chicago.)

We had crummy construction traffic all the way to Chicago. In fact, Sara only drove maybe a half hour or less the whole trip. It normally takes less than 4 hours to get there, but this time it took us closer to 5.5 hours or so. We even had traffic delays within an hour from home. I have never had this much trouble on the road to Chicago before. I’ve had trouble *in* Chicago traffic but not on the way. Sara tried to sleep as much as possible on the way there. It went OK, I just let it be, and we got there safely.

The hostel was near Loyola University on the northeast side of Chicago. It was very close to Devon Avenue, not that far from the Indian and Pakistani part of town, which is my favorite part of Chicago. We got checked in to the hostel and headed down Devon for dinner.

We had a nice meal at Udupi Palace, where I had a uttapam (a large unsweet pancake made with cream of wheat, with veggies) and Sara had a dosai (a thin crepe filled with a potato filling). She was amazed at the size of the dosai (please forgive if I don’t spell these foods exactly right, I swear I’ve seen more than one spelling of this word). It was huge next to other very large ones I’ve seen. She ate a good portion of it but said that it was a little greasy (it’s fried) and the filling was more spicy than she wanted.

My uttapam was very good… it had tomatoes, onion, green peas and carrots. I put a sauce on the top of it, which is also sometimes served more like a soup. I’m going blank on the name of that sauce/soup right now but it’s a little spicy and based on veggies, perhaps mostly tomato? I was very happy with this meal, and Sara was OK about it not being her first choice.

That night after we got back to the hostel, we got a good parking spot (whew!) and decided to head into downtown. We had great help from a very friendly subway worker who helped me understand how their fares/fare cards worked (I’ve been on a lot of public transit systems, but they all are a little different). We hopped our way to downtown. It was about 30 minutes by El (otherwise spelled “L” for Elevated train, although part of it is indeed submerged rather than elevated).

We got to downtown and tried to find a place I’d been to a few years back. No luck, unfortunately. I thought we’d get dessert there. We just had fun walking around. We did find a Starbucks coffeehouse. I had a tea and Sara had a strawberries and cream (smoothie? I’m not sure what it really is).

We did discover a really cool outdoor art exhibit near the Chicago Cultural Center. It was a lot of very large photographs of families all over the world, and little blurbs on the families and where they were from. I noticed that none of the families were two people… apparently the photographer defines family in a more traditional way than I do. I definitely consider Brian and I to be a family, but maybe that doesn’t make a good photograph, who knows? In any case, the photos were wonderful, with apparel native to each area of the world. I loved the clothing.

On the way back I took pictures of a wonderful neon sign near the subway. What was interesting on this trip is that so many good neon signs were for so many fairly ordinary businesses. This was a little hole in the wall diner. There was one for a bakery, too.

In my area, you see good old neon signs mostly at bowling alleys, drug stores, and liquor stores. In Jackson there is a great shoe store with a good sign, but that is the exception. In a larger city you find great signs for businesses that would never have one in Lansing. For example, in Jacksonville, Florida they have a two-story tall Krispy Kreme Donut sign with a zillion blinking bits, a truly fantastic sign… for donuts. Not in Lansing! So many times in Chicago we went too fast past something for me to take a photo, but it makes me almost want to take a trip there again with the primary purpose of taking photos of neon. It would be a wonderful and busy trip!!!

My friend, Sharon P., took a good picture of me when we were at Beaners a couple of weeks ago. I finally asked her if I could use that photo instead of the one I had (and didn’t like much) on my sidebar, the tiny little face welcoming people to my site. She said I could use it as I wished. What a nice friend she is! I really think this one looks like me more of the time than others.

I think I’ll probably need to lighten it up some or make it slightly bigger, but for now I’m just plain delighted to have the pic on my sidebar looking mostly like I look, most of the time.

Thanks, Sharon!

Have you ever noticed, that we as humans are *NOT* in charge of our lives? We can do our part, do the footwork, get where we think we should go. But in the end, things change and things are not certain, and that is as it should be, like it or not.

In my case, I have been planning since November for a trip to Vermont with my beloved Goddaughter Sara. We were going to visit our friend, Elizabeth. However, things changed and we had to make new plans… so now instead of a week in Vermont, we will be taking a handful of days in the Windy City of Chicago.

I am very sorry to lose out on seeing Elizabeth. I’m not sorry to lose a long trip (Chicago is only 4 hours or less, Vermont is at least 12). And honestly, I adore big cities and have not been to one in about a year and a half (when Brian and I went to Toronto). I used to go to Chicago about every 6 weeks. I was very, very close to buying a condo apartment on Sheridan Road near where Lakeshore Drive ends… in 1991. Very very close. And if I had done it, I would have loved it and I never would have looked back. But for some reason I stayed here, and I met Brian and I am living happily ever after. Another unexpected life detour that is not a problem.

I’m taking the laptop to Chicago. I expect I will be able to get online at the numerous Starbucks coffee places there are out there. I may not be able to return emails but I will surely be able to surf and receive my emails anyway. I’m not a great fan of Starbucks, because I’m a tea snob and they only have flavored teas for non-tea-drinkers, in my biased opinion. However, they offer wireless surfing to customers… and my beloved Sara loves some sort of fruit concoction they have. So we’ll take advantage of that and I’ll deal with unremarkable tea.

I’ll do my best to get some good photos of my beloved windy city and my beloved Godchild. Poor Brian, he has to stay home alone. Except he’s starting to record a new solo album, so he’ll probably just dive headfirst into that and not even miss me. Well, not much.

Wish I knew *what* I was doing *when,* in Chicago. If any Chicago bloggers or blog readers are out there reading this, and want to get together in the next few days or so, write me an email with a phone number where you can be reached and maybe we can work it out. This trip is primarily for the kid… she goes to college in just a few more weeks… so too many detours are not particularly good, but one or two might work out. Let’s hope for the best!

Brian took some excellent photos of the scene at New Aladdin’s restaurant on Friday, and he is sharing them with us today. Thank you, Brian.

First and foremost, is my friend April and her delightful baby, Isabel. Isabel loved the shiny clothing and the music while we were performing. Her little feet just kept on dancing right along with us, and she smiled a lot. What a sweet baby she is.
Next, is me as Eudora, flirting with the camera as I dance with a cane. On a good day I balance the cane on my head, but Friday was not a good day for that… oh, well! It was fun to dance with it in other ways, and the other photos Brian got with me and the cane show that I looked good anyway, balance or no!
Next is Donna/Maya dancing with a veil. I don’t do much veilwork and maybe am a little afraid to try it in a restaurant, but it was a little slow because it is summer and she did a great job. Doesn’t she look pretty?
Next is a crowd shot. Maya is still dancing with her veil, my mom is at bottom left corner with her gorgeous hair. Somewhere in the blur is Sally/Sara’s very very new baby (born around July 14) whose name I believe is Beatrice… and yes, Sally holding the baby on her arm. I can’t tell, but I think that is Sally standing up behind Donna. It’s definitely Sally’s husband on the left of Donna’s left hand, at any rate. I love this shot, it sort of is the feel of the place on dance night, you know? Action, movement, and music everywhere.
Next is me dancing with my finger cymbals moving a mile a minute, and more movement behind me. I love playing these, not everyone does. I always figured it was the love of rhythm (I play bass, too, which is a rhythm instrument) that made me like it. They are hard to learn at first but I’m glad I got through that hard part, because they are so joyful!
The last photo is a pic of me smiling at the crowd. I was standing right next to a table with six friends/family members sitting at it. I was really enjoying myself. Lucky me, that Kristi/Hyjara could not dance at the last minute. I was a very happy girl to be able to substitute for her!!!

Well, Friday was a fun day. Regina, Barbara, Larry, Mom, Mom’s friend Barb, and Brian all came out to see me dance. There were also a good number of Habibi Dancers as spectators, as well. April brought little Isabel and Sally brought her very, very new baby whose name I think is Beatrice. Sally’s baby was born around July 14 if I remember right, so she slept through almost everything which was just fine for everyone. Isabel seemed as if she were dancing right along with us. She really enjoyed the shiny clothing!!!

Thanks to everyone who came out. And those who didn’t come, I understand there are a zillion things in a day you might want to do, including just relaxing at home. I get tired, though, of telling someone after I do something, that I had done it… and then of course they say they would have gone if only they knew! So I’m the queen of over-promotion, perhaps, but at least my friends can come out if they know in time (this one was short notice) and if they feel like doing so.

In other news… back to knitting! While Mom and I drove to the wedding, I sometimes knit in the car. When I did, I was working on this lovely and much-belated ColorJoy stole for Heritage Spinning in Lake Orion. I had received a box of yarn in late April, from Joan Sheridan Hoover at Heritage, full of gorgeous choices for this stole.

It took me a while to decide what combination of these yarns to use, and then I ran out of some ribbon, so Joan sent me some more. Now I’m plugging away at it again (got distracted by a publication deadline and some dyeiing). This thing is going to be breathtakingly beautiful! It has rainbow colors throughout (thanks to some Squiggle and some multicolor Fizz eyelash) but is primarily hot fuschia with a bit of teal and purple for variety. Very nice, and very very LynnH!

I found out on Tuesday that I am substituting for someone else at New Aladdin’s restaurant in Frandor. That means I’m dancing as Eudora tonight! I sent out an email to the local folks I have email addresses for, but it just occurred to me that I should have posted the show here as well. I hope it’s not too late for those of you who would actually want to be there.

New Aladdin’s restaurant is in Frandor, across from MotoPhoto and Paneras, between Apple Jade and Sparty’s restaurants.

Aladdin’s is one of my favorite restaurants in Lansing. The food is just fabulous… both meat and vegetarian Lebanese food, and a few American-style meals such as a wonderful salmon with vegetables and a salad with grilled chicken. If you are just in the mood for dessert, they have a wonderful rice pudding and many pastries such as baklava, and they also have fresh fruit smoothies of all sorts. They have a sort of “turkish” coffee with cardamom in it, that people rave about, and they have anise tea as well as regular tea and coffee. You can make this your dinner or your dessert/show on the town!

Shows are at 6:30 and 8:00 for about a half hour. I’m dancing with my friend Donna/Maya, someone I’ve danced with since my very first mideast dancing classes. She has been a performer of ballroom dance and salsa, in different troupes over the years, as well as mideast dance. It should be a very fun show.

Photos here are me as Eudora dancing at New Aladdin’s last year (notice the tips in my belt, it was a good night!); and a photo of Maya (with me as Eudora and my mother in the background) at the 5th element show in Grand ledge last fall.

When I joined the Mid-Michigan Knitting Guild, I was told that they don’t have regular meetings at the church basement during the summer. (They do have knit in’s regularly every Tuesday night, but no formal meeting.) It was explained to me that there were so many of the knitters who were avid gardeners that this just seemed to work out well.

I know that Evelyn, a woman who has helped me with the kids at Foster Center, is a gardener. Well, so is Irene. And I got to see her garden at her new home, on July 28.

tell you, she has the touch. I know she spends much of her non-working daylight hours out there in these gardens. She has all sorts of colors, all different areas with flowers, she has tall plants and short, plants for spring and plants for summer… and I’m sure plants for autumn as well. It is just plain gorgeous!!!

I was so glad that I got there in time, before the sun had gone entirely. These photos were taken in somewhat dim light but I’ve brightened them up a little using PhotoShop and its miraculous features.

Doesn’t she do a great job? This is true art. Irene, you go, grrrl!!!

I hope that all these photos display well on your screen. There are so many more photographs than words today, and that sometimes doesn’t display right… But there are no more words to say… the flowers speak for themselves.

Wow, I have been so busy with my lengthy travelogue that I have not shared some photos with you. Two Tuesdays ago, I went to a Mid-Michigan Knitting Guild knit in, at Irene’s house. I showed you one picture of Irene’s garden back then and will share more in my next entry. However, there was more than a garden going on that night.

For one, our Knitknacks friend, Sharon P, was there. She had finished her Soy Silk sunburst purse, and we all oohed and aahed over that appropriately. It was good to see her, as always. I swear Sarah Peasley was there, but I don’t have a picture to prove it…

And my anonymous friend was also there. I showed you a photo of her previous sock from my LynnH ColorSport yarn here previously (my In the Garden colorway). Well, she is a busy socknitter these days, because she had a sock completed in a second of my colorways, this time Cool Summer Breeze. Here is Anonymous’ foot showing off the sock ready to kitchener the toe. Stylish, don’t you think?

I got to Irene’s just as it was getting dark, and there was still quite a crowd at that point. It was good to see everyone… but my favorite time is when it gets so small that we can all pretty much be in one area and I can hear the single conversation going on in that area.

Rob and Matt, the Boyz of Threadbear Fiberarts, came in toward the end of the night. Matt and I sat on the floor knitting and talking color (he’s quite the master of color and I love talking with him). The rest of the remaining crowd sat around the dining room table. I loved it. I am grateful Irene opened her home to us all, it was a very nice time indeed.