Today it was in the mid-80’s F. I love this sort of weather, warm enough to know it is summer! Unfortunately, I ended up most of the day in air-conditioned places, but right now it’s still warm and I’m at home drinking in the last bit of the season.

I did get on the hammock a tiny bit yesterday but not today. I had some work to do today, and as any good self-employed person knows, paying work is wonderful on any day, weekend or holiday or not!

At least in between the work I did (for a friend, so that part was pleasant) I did some knitting, and Brian and I met for dinner at Emil’s Italian restaurant. That was very nice. I like their food, we go there enough that the waitstaff knows us, and it’s a relaxing place. And a little date with one’s sweetie is a great way to start winding down the day. In Lansing, a lot of restaurants close at 5pm on Sundays, but Emil’s is open until 11pm so we go there on Sunday more often than not (and they have an all-you-can-eat pasta special on Sundays, though I rarely get seconds).

Today I want to focus a while on the great outdoors. My favorite thing about being outside is looking at gardens. My mom has these nasturtium flowers she planted right near her driveway. Actually, she got the seeds from a friend of hers (I got my seeds last year from Marlene Cameron because I’d never tried Nasturtiums before). Mom’s took a while to get going but they sure are beautiful now! My nasturtiums this year are sparse although they do keep flowering. I think Mom’s do well from having the ivy keeping the moisture in the ground… I needed a mulch or groundcover for mine and didn’t do that, and they suffered.

The second picture is three doors down from our house. This woman has amazing gardens, both flowers and food. I don’t remember this hybiscus plant on that corner when I moved here to be with Brian about 8 years ago. I only remember seeing flowers maybe the last few years, but the bush is taller than me and the flowers are nearly a foot across.

I can’t remember ever seeing these in Michigan before! In fact, they remind me of Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula where they grow wild all over. I remember when I went to Texas, they had all sorts of huge flowers. However, here the outdoor beauty tends to be more small and delicate. What’s great about this bush is that it is at a somewhat busy four-way stop, so a lot of people get to see it and smile every day.

Friday was a good time! I had work to do during the day, and Brian was also occupied… but we went to New Aladdin’s restaurant for dinner and to see Mahtaab and Najmaah dancing.

It was a wonderful time as usual. I had Okra Stew, which is a tomato-based stew where the okra is decidedly not gummy (people always ask that question), and it has such a rich smoky flavor, I’m a big fan. I was extra-happy that I had leftovers so I could have them for lunch on Saturday as well.

After dinner, we went to a jam session/rehearsal for our Abbott Brothers band. We stayed pretty late and played a LOT of music. I just love this group. They have been together since the late 1970s and it’s more like family than just friends.

Photos today are Najma (right) and Mahtaab (left). Good job, ladies!

Wow, all sorts of fun little (and not-so-little) bits today.

Lorie Writes
Lorie Konopka wrote to me in my comments. Thanks for taking the time to write, Lorie! I had mentioned her as one who recognized me in the crowds of Allegan. She reads my column every day (for which she gets many virtual hugs) and she knew me just from the pictures I post here. We had a nice time talking at Allegan. I’m really embarrassed that I spelled her name totally wrong, but she could tell I remembered her and I guess that made her happy enough. Thanks so much, Lorie, for being a loyal reader. It means the world to me.

Intrigue Sox Debut!
Another not-so-little bit: The preview page (scroll down, I’m the 4th design) for the new issue of Heels and Toes Gazette is up! This shows my new design, Intrigue Sox… a Turkish-looking sock, the style looks really Turkish but it’s knit top down. And the color changes look harder than they are… I used a solid cobalt blue for the main yarn, with a self-striping yarn which has wide stripes, for the second yarn. (I got both skeins at Yarn for Ewe.)

It was odd this time, because I graphed out the patterns on black and white paper and gave it to Wendy, my knitter… and I had no idea how the finished sock would really look, until she gave me the finished sample back. It was kind of wonderful how the stripes just happened to change at what seem perfect places, even though she didn’t try to control the striping at all. Great job, Wendy!

Extra, Extra, Read All about It!
And another bit: The new newsletter for Yarn for Ewe is up! I’m honored and delighted to do the web work for Marlene Osborn, the owner of this shop. She is very good to me, as are her employees… the most notable of which may be Ruth, who was the one who sold me my first double pointed needles, sock pattern and yarn for my very first pair of socks, about three and a half years ago. And my life has never been the same! Do check out their new classes.

I’m Teaching Soon at Threabear
Last bit: I’m going to be teaching for ThreadBear, as I’ve mentioned here before. I thought that would be starting in January, but no… my first class will be how to knit tams (sometimes erroneously called berets) in any yarn or gauge, September 14 and 16. You all know I wear hats nearly every day… I’ve knit a good handful of these, and each has its own personality. Contact Rob to register, at Rob AT threadbearfiberarts DOT com

A Digression
Am I disloyal by working for two yarn shops in Greater Lansing? Not at all. I work for Marlene in Okemos (Yarn for Ewe), Rob and Matt on the far West Side of Lansing (ThreadBear), Arlene in Chelsea (A Gathering Basket), Kim in Charlotte (Yarn Garden) and Joan in Lake Orion (Heritage Spinning and Weaving). I’m loyal to the Knitting Community as a whole. I feel that the more we love knitting, the more we need each and every yarn shop there is! Each store has its own personality, it’s own style, it’s own strengths, its history and its charm. I love each and every one of these stores, and stores where I don’t teach (yet).

I spend bits of my precious income at all of these shops, helping them stay here for all of us. We all need to make a living, and I personally want to do that by spreading the particular joy I have for knitting, either by teaching wherever and whenever I can, or by taking classes and/or buying yarn at as many yarn shops as I can find! I live a pretty simple life, so that I can work as a creative person rather than in an office. I don’t have many luxuries. Food and yarn are the two splurges I take. I urge us all to share and share alike, being loyal to the knitting business as a whole, and having wonderful adventures at all the stores we can find, one at a time.

Tuesday I went to Ann Arbor to meet my knitting friends. See the table full? This is the small group, the folks who meet away from Borders on the 5th week. I love this group, just love them. I wish I could let you meet them all one at a time but I can’t and the picture must do. Trust me, they are great people. Lots of variety, lots of passion for handwork.

Here are also some photos I took of the streets of Ann Arbor. It was twilight but I have brightened up the photos with the miracle of PhotoShop again. You can tell, though, the lights on cars and streets were shining at that point. Notice that even though it was getting dark, there are all sorts of folks walking around on the streets doing whatever they were doing. Some folks were at sidewalk cafe’s. This last photo shows a woman on the left, who isn’t with our Borders group (yet, we did invite her to our show and tell and to our next meeting), sitting at a sidewalk table outside Eastern Accents.

After the event was over, I went to Zingermans “Next Door” coffeehouse (thus named because it is next door to Zingerman’s Deli, not next door to Eastern Accents) and got some Organic Hujicha tea to go, and a piece of cherry pie for my beloved hubby, Brian. Brian likes pie! Anyone would like *this* pie, I’m sure of it. Quality is the byword at Zingermans, and I appreciate that.

The area where the photos come from, is 4th Avenue(?) just north of William. I think this area has had worse times… the YMCA and bus station are within a few blocks, but both have been beautifully renovated in the last few years and there are other signs of vibrant life on the street. Just see all the folks walking around!!!

I had quite a day. For one thing, I’m fighting the second day of a massive allergy headache, probably brought about by my full day outside at Renaissance Festival last Sunday. The good news there is that I won’t be going back to Ren Fest on Saturday as I’d expected. I can’t say I’m disappointed. I seem to get sick every time I go, no matter how enjoyable the audiences are.

So… I took today easier than I had planned originally. As I left the house, I noticed that the morning glory flowers my friend Ulyana had given me, were blooming. One is white with fuschia, and then there is this one, a purple-blue with stripes of purple-pink.

Then I took Altu’s daughter out to lunch (she starts school next week) which was delightful. After I dropped her off at home, I decided to go over to ThreadBear yarn shop because I’d started scheduling my classes for them last week and never finished up the job.

While I was there, Sarah of And She Knits came in and recognized me. We’ve chatted by email but have missed one another at guild events so far. It was great to see her.

Also Angie from my knitting machine class at Yarn for Ewe last fall, came in and said hello. And Nancy, who had run into me at JoAnn Fabrics when I worked there, and sent me a really great baby sweater pattern I still really want to try out.

And then a woman walked in who I didn’t know, wearing a beautifully knit sweater. She introduced herself as Natalie. I asked: “Natalie from Detroit?” She said yes. Natalie has designed a good number of things out there for public consumption, including at least a few on Knitty. She currently has a sweater of her design, on the front cover of Knitters Magazine. How exciting that must be for her! She had brought in a really lovely little capelet with bead dangle trim (so hard to describe, I wonder what she would say) which got rave reviews. I left without saying goodbye to her (she was in the back of the shop, I did say goodbye to those near the front door) probably because this crazy headache kept me from being full-speed.

In any case, here’s a pic of Natalie and Rob. Matt was in the photo originally, but he didn’t like how he looked so I cropped him out. I need Matt to stay my friend, you know???

Well, then I went home. And as I walked in, the phone rang. It was my dear friend Sigrid, who I met in high school. That means we’ve known each other about 30 years. She has lived in Oregon for perhaps 20 years now. She is one of those people that, it seems no matter how long we haven’t talked, we can pick right up as if nothing had changed. I had lost her address for a few years so this was particularly wonderful to hear from her. And she was in town, and could see me if I could get free today.

So I dropped everything and met her at Aladdin’s for an hour. It was far too short, but it was so wonderful to see her again! We had not seen each other since I met Brian about 8 years ago, because I’d lost her address. Thank goodness I just ran into her sister about a month ago at the corner Quality Dairy store! It was great to see her again. I didn’t want to stop hugging her!

We asked the waitress to take a picture of us. The waitress, someone new who I don’t know, seemed a bit nervous about the camera, and so she took only one shot. For some reason Sigrid is not smiling in this shot, but here’s the only picture I have of my very special friend who loves me.

Here’s how great she has been to me… after I got divorced (in 1991) I decided to go on a trip, first to California to visit a few people I knew, and then I chose to fly up to Oregon to see Sigrid and her hubby Ron. She treated me like royalty… she had me sleep in her bed and she fed me organic oatmeal for breakfast every day. Then a year or so later, I was really sick one night and it was around midnight in Michigan. I was so uncomfortable I was very upset being alone, so I called my then-beau and he got upset that I had awakened him. So I realized that Sigrid was in a different time zone, and I called her, and I basically cried into her ear because I was in pain and alone, and she just listened. I will never forget that.

We both chose partners, in our youth, who were not good for us. She learned sooner than I did. And now we are both happy, and we’re both musicians, and we have so much in common. I knit, she crochets. We both have done Polymer Clay.

I don’t know how I can beat this story. I got to see my friend after 8 years of thinking I’d lost her. What else can a woman want? Headache or no headache, I had a wonderful day.