I’m writing this after we got home from Ukefest, and I have so many photos to post here and so many things to say that I can not get them all up on my site before I need to sleep. I’m giving you a few photos I took at different times during our trip.

Unfortunately, I had no luck with photos of performers on Friday night but I do have some other shots of Indianapolis I thought I’d share. I had not been into the city before and it was a beautiful and proud city to view.

The first photo I just could not resist (I did get permission from the parent to post it). It was halloween, and everywhere we drove we saw folks in costume… from walking down a sidewalk in Indianapolis, to taking payments at the gas station. And when we stopped to rest and get a drink one of the times we stopped… a daddy brought in his son, who told everyone he was Bob the Builder. He had a very fine costume which had plastic tools including a hammer, cellphone, and sound effects. He wanted to fix all sorts of things, including Brian’s laptop. Brian convinced him to fix his shoes instead. Here’s a shot of the tyke hammering Brian’s foot. Isn’t this just as cute as it gets?

OK… back to Ukefest and Indianapolis. The concert (I’ll get back to the performances later) was held at an auditorium in the Veterans War Memorial building, shown here from the outside… and then a hallway inside. The architecture is just wonderful in every way, and the building is immaculately well-kept. I was amazed at how new the structure seemed, when it is about a generation old already.

Next is a photo of the street at Monument Circle. On the far left you see just the base of a large monument. We walked up there briefly and there was an inscription about the Civil War, so it must also be another war memorial of some sort. The whole circle (a sort of small park in the center of a traffic circle/roundabout) is well-kept and well-designed. The base of the light fixtures had brass bears holding up the pole if I remember right. Like Chicago, only perhaps more… more something, I can’t find the right word. And again, the level of upkeep that they undertake to keep things in good shape, is really apparent.

Oh, in the traffic photo on the circle, you will notice most of all a building where the lighting creates a yellow heart. That is the building housing the electrical utility company. You sure can not miss it!

The final shot here is Michelle Kiba doing a hula dance with the Kupa’a-Pacific Island Resources ukulele group. I can not tell you how this woman glows when she dances! She is so beautiful I could not keep my eyes off from her dancing. She smiles, but it is not just a smile, it is more like she glows. I’m confident her technique is excellent, though I don’t know the dance enough to have appreciated that fully. It did not matter, though… she smiles and glows and moves to the beautiful music. It was perhaps the highlight of my whole weekend, other than being able to perform onstage.

I talked with Michelle briefly after the hula workshop on Friday. She teaches Hula (in California) and used to also do Middle-Eastern dance. I wish I could have talked with her more about that, but we both had so many folks to touch base with, that we did not chat long.

Have I mentioned how much I love cities? This one does not disappoint in the least. Aaaahhh…

There is more to post, but it’s bedtime. Catch you soon!

What a jam-packed day it was. We did wake up slowly which was a lovely luxury. We got to the Ukefest and did a workshop. Actually, it was mostly Brian’s workshop… he did the planning and he made handouts, and conducted it for the most part. I got to sing, over and over, for an appreciative group. The workshop was on accompanying a voice with ukulele.

We used the song For Me and My Gal” as the song we worked with. The folks seemed to really like that (it is still pretty well known, and well-loved).

I was honored to see a few of the other performers of the weekend, in our workshop. That was special to me.

We let the attendees know (maybe those who read my blog because they love ukuleles, didn’t know this either) that Brian has put up a whole bunch of songs on our Fabulous Heftones website… lyrics, chords, photo of sheet music cover when available, and link to our version of the song. And when at all possible, he even links to other versions of the song out there in downloadable form, usually the original recording where we learned the song.

This is possible for us to do… that is, post this information on the songs, because so far all our albums (four for Brian as a soloist, and our joint Moon June Spoon project) are all songs we found to be the right dates to be in the public domain. The new “In the Garden” CD that we are working on now, is mostly music 1923 and later, so we will perhaps only be able to post information on one song when that comes out.

So… anyway, the workshop ended and we went on to other things. I went down and took the hula class as I had done last year. We have been lucky, both last year and this were so warm we could hula outdoors. Today it stayed 73-75 degrees F from noon until 7pm. After wearing my winter coat a good handful of times in the last week or so, this seems almost surreal to be so warm. I loved it! I danced barefoot outside and was very comfortable, in very late October. Maybe Indianapolis is more south of Lansing than I imagined!

After that, I spent time talking to a few vendors, listening to part of the open mic, playing jam tunes with friends in the lobby and planning dinner. We ended up agreeing to meet at 5pm at Bucci di Beppo (it’s an Italian food chain, and Sara and I had a good experience there in Chicago last August). In the end we had ten folks at dinner, and since this restaurant specializes in family-style meals, we all had a chance to taste several different dishes if we chose. I’m in love with the garlic escarole (greens) which is *really* garlicky. I liked that more than anything else. And the company was just great.

After dinner we walked the five blocks to the Veterans Memorial building where the evening concerts are being held this year. The building is very imposing outside, it sort of looks like maybe you could not even go indoors… but inside it was a highly-ornamented government building similar to those I have seen in Chicago. The theatre was incredibly decorated including marble at the front of the room, with a HUGE photo of a World War I general (drat, I’m going blank on his name right now) as the backdrop of the stage. It was really imposing, actually… even one of the performers mentioned it. It reminded me of those huge photos of Chairman Mao (maybe the fact that this one was black and white helped that association) or something… otherworldly to me, a woman with very little exposure to military things.

But it was definitely a great theatre, just the right size, excellent sound, and intimate enough even for a larger crowd than they had last year (last year’s auditorium held 240 if I recall properly).

After the concert, I went back to the room to sleep. Brian went to the Irish pub where they planned to jam into the early hours of the morning. The group will go there again tomorrow night, and I figure I’ll go then. Tomorrow we’ll have finished our concert performance and I’ll not have as many things to worry about/take care of, and I can truly enjoy being there.

Well, we made it to Midwest Ukefest in Indianapolis. We got here maybe an hour or two before we needed to go to the Thursday evening gathering, and so we settled in at the hotel and rested just a bit.

For some reason my laptop won’t surf on the hotel’s fast internet connection, so I am very glad that Brian’s is acting fine. I got a whole lot of photos at the Thursday evening event but since I’m editing the photos on Brian’s machine (which has Linux, not Windows, so I’m not as comfortable or quick at it) I’m only showing you a few.

The event was an intimate party for the performers and a few other guests, at a fabulous 1920′s house which is still a time capsule of the 20′s (the kitchen is not modernized, it was amazing in its authenticity but I didn’t take any photos in there). The place is called Tuckaway and it’s in a beautiful downtown neighborhood. This must have been quite the neighborhood to live in, when it was built!

First, we had a beautiful feast of finger foods and wrapped sandwiches (including some gorgeous cookies that looked handmade). Then we chatted and a few folks jammed a little. Then the Keystrummers did a little concert for us, and following that, Geoff asked those of us who are performing this weekend to do a couple pieces, a sort of impromptu living room concert. It reminded me of when I was a kid, and we would go to my uncle’s cabin, and we’d all take turns standing in front of the fireplace singing and telling jokes and otherwise entertaining one another. It was fun to sing for our friends we’d met last year.

Theresa from Dearborn took this photo of Brian and I singing. I also got a shot of the passionate and talented Fred Fallin. Fred is from Chicago and arrived dressed totally Chicago, with long coat and hat… it was as if this house was made just for him. Fred also gave me a very generous gift… but that will need to wait for another entry. And the last photo here shows just a touch of how the house looked… every inch of the home was covered with 1920s original decor. I really loved the base of this lamp.

OK, here are some pictures about Tuesday (now that it is Wednesday). First I must confess that I’m easily amused. I love to look at patterns of numbers. I remember when my last car, Martha, turned over 123,456 miles (it was in the driveway of my old house, actually). And I love the number 8, I always have. So yesterday just north of Ann Arbor, when my car, Joy, hit 88,888 miles, I pulled off on the side of the road and took a picture. (I told you I was easily amused!)

When I found myself with my friends at Eastern Accents, we had a little show and tell. Many of us were in the middle of projects, but Jackie had just finished a vest she made from yarns she got from Joslyn’s Fiber Farm. Isn’t it great? She was very pleased, and rightly so.

What I have been knitting the last few days (since I finished the rug sample for the Yarn Garden Class), is a pillow for Threadbear. I figure pillows are a great gift and we are heading into gift season. (Class is Friday, November 5, mid-day, for just 2.5 hours.)

I still have some pillows that my friend Sigrid (the one who lives in Oregon who I saw recently) made for me around 1992 or so (she used fabric from the 1950s because it was my colors). I love those pillows… they are getting worn out but I will not give them up because my friend made them for me.

So I’m knitting a pillow. I’m knitting it from this Lorna’s Laces yarn, called Fisherman. The pattern I’m using is a Michelle Wyman pattern where you knit on the diagonal, either garter or seed stitch, either one yarn or several in stripes. It is going fast enough, I guess, but the yarn swears it’s worsted weight but I would call it a DK weight. I’m knitting on size 6 needles, which is in between the sizes I usually knit. I’m either on size 0 (2mm) double points for socks, or size 13 (9mm) for stoles or rugs.

The colorway is called Yellowstone, and is cream with lilac, pale yellow and soft warm green. I like it fine I guess, but it is not really bright enough to keep my attention. I’m close to finishing the first piece, and the thought of doing another one exactly the same is not appealing right now. I must say, though, that this garter stitch on a bias is really mixing the Lorna’s Laces yarn very well. I think garter stitch is very beautiful with many handpainted or variegated yarns.

I *am* glad to be doing garter stitch after all that basketweave, but on these relatively small needles it takes a lot of stitches. I think I will add some eyelash yarn in stripes on the next piece. Just for fun. I have some purple Fizz… it’s a little more vibrant than the yarn’s lilac but they go well together, and fizz will be just some little lashes so it’s not like we have two solids that must match. They just need to “go” as I tell the preteens I work with. That could be more fun for the second pillow side. I think I’ll probably go for that. It’s not in Michelle’s pattern, but it will make my time go faster as I knit! And I think pillows are a wonderful place to use eyelash!

OK, so I started out Tuesday with a dentist appointment, really early for me. But after that things got better. The dentist was in Jackson (30 minutes straight south) so I went looking for Dropped Stitch, a shop in that town that had moved in the last 2 years since I was there last.

She had some alpaca at great prices. This is good because I am on a misison to knit an alpaca stole for a friend who really needs a hug, yet who lives too far away for me to hug her. This stole will be different than others I’ve done because it will be knit specifically to be warm and very very soft. The others were a combination of texture and color. This stole needs to be mostly alpaca, and thank goodness for the good prices I found so that I could do it “right.” It really needs alpaca to fit what I have in mind.

I came home, took a tiny nap to make up for the early alarm, then listened to the Flying Ukulele Radio Hour. Uke Jackson, the DJ, played Brian singing “Ghost of the St. Louis Blues” for his Halloween theme. It really is a good cut, not on any of our CDs yet. Brian recorded it thinking of Halloween/Midwest Ukefest this weekend. I think it’s a very good vocal performance for Brian as well as his typically wonderful instrumentals. Very bluesy, not like most of his other work.

Then I drove to Ann Arbor to meet my Brother, Eric, and his wife Diana, at the Exotic Bakery (Syrian deli). Yum! We sat for two hours. First we talked, then we ate, then Eric and I talked in between me answering Diana’s questions about making toe up socks. She’s doing her first pair after she does a little trial toe for practice.

THEN I went to Eastern Accents on 4th Street downtown Ann Arbor, and met with several friends I met originally at the Borders knit-ins at Arborland. They only meet the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays, and only January through mid-November. Except we like each other too much to meet that infrequently… so we meet elsewhere on other Tuesday nights. I was very happy to be there.

When I got home, Brian and I rehearsed (our normal time for beginning rehearsal, actually, is somewhere between 10:30pm and midnight). That was fun, though I didn’t sing much since I’m still babying a little bit of a cold.

Off to bed… no pictures right now, although I have a bunch of photos to process and then share. Have a great Wednesday.

It’s really pretty here, and the leaves are almost all yellow and gold. There are relatively few green or red trees, but when they are near the golden tones, it’s pretty spectacular.

Unfortunately, there was almost no sunshine for at least three days, so the colors in these photos are a little drab onscreen. Thank goodness, we have had some sun today. Seeing the sun shine through leaves is just beautiful.

I took this first picture on Saturday, at a produce market that is bicycle distance from my house. The pumpkins against the mums called at me as I drove by, and when I returned on the same route I parked and took these photos.

The other two photos are in the neighborhood of East Lansing, just behind Altu’s restaurant. I took these photos on Friday late afternoon. ColorJoy, for sure!

Today (Monday), Tony and I drove to Yarn Garden down in Charlotte (it’s a 30 minute drive one way) and back again. It was a great excuse to chat, and I had to deliver some samples to the shop.

The drive was beautiful and we had a good time, as usual. After we got back to Lansing, we went to New Aladdin’s restaurant for eggplant/tabbouli/hummous pita sandwiches, which is my current craving of choice. Yum!!!

Wowie, my dear friend Altu finally has a website as of right now. It took us forever to go ahead with it (a prototype site has been on my own personal computer for about a year) because we could not decide what the web domain name should be. Altus.com was taken, and who wants to make customers type out AltusEthiopianCuisine.com??? Assuming that they found the words spellable, of course!

So here it is, easy to remember and easy to spell, and we hope somewhat easy to read:

http://www.EatAtAltus.com

Yes, on the internet you typically have to worry about upper and lower case, but the part before .com can be upper or lower and it doesn’t matter… it’s what comes after .com that is case-sensitive. And it’s a little easier to read EatAtAltus than eatataltus.

Whatever the case, it’s easy to remember, and that is the key. So here we go… please visit. Eventually she will probably add the menu and catering information. for now we have an introductory home page, an explanation of the food with some pictures, a list of musical performers through the end of November, a map and driving directions, and other contact information.

Now all of you in Michigan, do make plans to go see Altu in the next week (her weekend is Sun/Mon, so wait a few days) and then tell her you saw the website! Right now I’m checking the email for the restaurant until we get her set up properly, so sending her an email will create a delay at best… but do go say hello in person if you can.

Kim at Yarn Garden in Charlotte (MI) is doing a special event the day before Deer Hunting Season. It’s sort of a “guys going hunting, gals going knitting” event, although your partner (if you have one, male or female) need not be a hunter for you to be welcome. We are doing my rug knitting class, but it will be more of a party environment in addition to the class.

It’s amazing to me how fast this class is filling up! We only decided on a date less than a week ago and we have nearly filled it already.

The pattern is perfect for those who have been doing scarves and want to learn a few things to take them into something else for variety (there’s nothing wrong with scarves but we all want a change of pace sometimes). It’s also perfect for someone who just enjoys the yummy, cushy fat yarns but doesn’t want to wear them. It is a basketweave pattern so there is a little variety there, for those who get bored with straight knitting. And it’s something you can finish quickly.

(Note that we will be using Cascade Magnum for this class rather than the Brown Sheep Burly Spun shown above… Magnum comes in a lot of beautiful solid colors but no handpaints. I’m doing another sample without stripes right now in a beautiful aqua, in a smaller size for a bathmat. You can see a part of that project here.)

Here is what Kim wrote in her email newsletter:

NEW CLASS—FILLING FAST!!!

DEER HUNTING vs. KNITTING

On Sunday, November 14, the men will be leaving to go hunting. So, push them out the door and come to The Yarn Garden to knit a beautiful wool rug. Lynn Hershberger will be teaching this class from 1 pm until 3:30 pm. The cost of the class is $20.00, plus materials.

There is a picture of this rug on Lynn’s website, http://colorjoy.com/patterns. If you are interested in this class, which is filling fast, please call The Yarn Garden at 517-541-9323, or send an email to kim@yarngardencharlotte.com.

We will be ordering the yarn soon and will need to know what colors you would like. I will be offering the yarn at a discount price for this class only.

There will be snacks provided, but your favorite snacks are always
welcome. If there is one thing, we knitters love to eat!

Please bring a beverage of your choice.

There are 4 spaces left in the class, so contact me, soon!

Thursdays are very long for me. I start teaching at Foster Center at 1pm. I have a two-hour computer class for adults (this week I had eight students for word processing, very exciting). Then I have CityKidz Knit! for one hour, followed by two hours of open computer lab (where sometimes kids knit… this week I had one boy working intently on his first wristband). Following computer lab, I have another computer class for adults.

This week I finished my Hidden Tips and Tricks in Word class, which is such fun for me. I don’t often get to teach advanced computer skills anymore, and these three women were so ready to learn new techniques it was really rewarding.

But my day does not end at 9pm when I leave Foster Center. I go home and make sure we get some dinner somehow, and then we work on our music business. Brian is in the process of editing about fifteen songs for a new album which has a working title of “In the Garden.” So our job is to listen to the prototype CD, over and over, listening for anything that needs fixing, whether it be a note that is a little off or a word that can’t be understood, a bass line that is too loud.

With our last album, Moon June Spoon, I re-recorded vocal tracks for two songs at this stage in the game. I knew the songs better by that point, and I just could sing with a more free feel. It was worth the effort to do it. But this album is going together much more easily than the last album. A big part of that is that we knew all of the songs, at least casually, before we started the project. Some of them we have been singing on stage for a few years now, so that went really well. I’m thoroughly enjoying the listening process. Well, except for the half a percent where I hear something that needs fixing. But the fixing is minimal, and Brian is getting so much better at editing that the process is not as difficult for him as it was when we did the last album.

Oh, and then of course after discussing and listening to the CD, we have our nightly Fabulous Heftones practice. Last night Brian had a dress rehearsal, because he just got a new tux with tails and tried it on, cumberbund and all, to get the feel of playing standing up in those clothes. He looked so nice!!!

We practice standing up for the last week or so before a big show. We found out yesterday that we are playing at Midwest Ukefest on Saturday night, for those who were asking. This is in Indianapolis, and the show is 7-11pm on Saturday, October 30.

I’m getting really excited for the Ukefest show. Our rehearsals are just becoming more and more fun. The only challenge is that we have so many great songs we love to perform, and we need to choose 20 minutes from all that material! Thank goodness they will also have more casual performances in the museum lobby where we will also perform (no date or time yet on that), so we can do different songs there.

Woohoo!! Midwest Ukefest can get me through my very long day, with a smile on my face!

When I am lucky, folks who read this weblog write to me. I love hearing from you all. Many of you get my email address from this web page, which states my address at the domain name of colorjoy.com.

However, for many years I have used an email address at purpletree.com for my groups and private mail. As of today, I’m totally switching over to ColorJoy.com for everything.

Purpletree was the name of my computer consulting business, which I started in 1999. It was really fun, yet I was pretty clear that the Y2K work would end someday. I’m still teaching computer classes in community education, and doing a few house calls (mostly for students and friends) when I can fit it in to my schedule. However, I have only one business client still active from the days of Y2K, and they sometimes don’t call for a few months at a time.

My new life, as you know, is sort of being a renaissance grrl. I am teaching classes in knitting, polymer clay, color. I am writing patterns and publishing them, sometimes in Heels and Toes Gazette and sometimes as single patterns I publish myself. I handpaint yarns and sell them to cool folks like some of those who read this weblog. I sing with my husband in The Fabulous Heftones and Abbott Brothers bands. I dance when I am lucky.

But I dance more than I do computer consulting these days. (I guess my integrity is intact, because I trained my clients well enough that they don’t need me much anymore.) I did love every second of my consulting. It was exciting, it was intellectually interesting, and my clients were genuinely wonderful, both personally and professionally. Some of my computer clients do stay in touch, work or no… one special client and I still exchange Christmas and birthday gifts.

Yet I love my new life, perhaps even more. It is all about ColorJoy! And so, as of right now I am using colorjoy.com for everything. For those of you who have my address in your email system, please start sending mail to Lynn (at) Colorjoy.com starting today.

Woohoo, another giant step for womankind… or at least this woman. On to the artful life. May I not look back.

Well, you all know how much I love teaching. You also know how much I love color, so it is no surprise that I would rather teach my ColorJoy Stole (where half the class is about color and yarn and how to put things together harmoniously) than anything else!

Sunday I lucked out and got to teach four students the ColorJoy Stole. I’ve taught the class twice before, once in my home to friends (when I was testing out the pattern and piloting how I taught/timed che class), and once at Michigan Fiber Festival in Allegan, Michigan. I’ve had a few shops around Michigan offer the class, but this was the first one that filled. I was delighted!!!

The stole is a pattern where we mix at least 5 yarns into a new fabric, that nobody ever made before nor probably will do again. It is very exciting to process how we figure out what works. For example, in this first pile of yarn, Dawn started with the lumpy-bumpy cream/blue/green yarn you see in the middle of the pile. She really loved that yarn. Since she loves blue, she saw the cream and the blue but did not even notice that one reason the yarn had such depth, was that there was some green in there as well.

She started out going around the store looking for other yarns to go with it, and they all matched… they all were soft blues with some cream. When I pointed out the green to her, we started looking for yarns with blue and green in them as well. It just livened up the mix a great deal, even though it was still soft and subtle, which is her style. In the end, she even found this magnificent mohair with all her colors plus a soft purple. That gave it even more depth, and she was just thrilled. When she left she had just a small bit of fabric on her needles, but we could see already that the stole promised deep beauty, all in colors that will make her look wonderful!

The second group of yarn here is Betsy’s colorway, in earthy warm tones that make her look wonderful. She will be able to wear this with her jeans and on some special occasions as well. What really made this group sing, was when we added the railroad ribbon yarn in copper. Beautiful.

Next is Marti’s yarn. She loved every color, every yarn in the shop, it seemed. It was hard for her to narrow it all down. She started with the Manos de Uruguay teal yarn in the center. This photo is losing some of the intermediate colors in a few of the yarns (purple doesn’t play well with other colors on screen)but it gives you some idea of the breadth of color that can be mixed into one fabric successfully.

The secret in this group is the ribbon at bottom right. It has gold and a deeper purple than the rest of the yarns, and some warm green. It just pulled the others together. She also has three types of eyelash yarn (the pattern calls for two, or one and a brushed mohair) and that will make a wonderful lush texture for her. It will be a warm stole.

Last is Sharan’s stole choice. She came in wearing all black with a gorgeous skinny diagonal-knit scarf she had knit with some Great Adirondack yarn in similar colors to these. Sharan brought in the black eyelash from her home stash (actually she brought a good number of stash yarns, but this was the one she settled upon). The eyelash is actually two yarns spun together, and the other yarn is a railroad in rainbow colors. You should have seen the start of this stole, it was spectacular, and very ColorJoy indeed! I sure hope I get to see it when it is complete.

While I was at Threadbear (I was there for six hours) I saw a lot of folks I knew. Sarah Peasley of handknitter said a quick hello on her way out, and then I saw Sharon P of Knitknacks. It was a good thing she was there, too… because I still had her stole that she had loaned me in August as a show-and-tell for the ColorJoy Stole class in Allegan. She was celebrating her birthday by sharing halloween cookies (and chocolate chip cookies) and had a wonderful smile on her face. I was happy to get her stole back to her, finally.

And last but definitely not least: Petra, who took my rug class only two Fridays ago… and who finished a large rug more than twice the size of mine in only three or four days… stopped in. I asked if she had brought her rug, but she had not. Nevermind all that, she went home and brought it back to the shop so I could see it. This rug is soooo perfect for her. The yarns are in the same colors she was actually wearing to class. Isn’t this just beautiful? Go, Petra! She is already knitting another rug, and I understand she is planning rugs for many of her holiday gifts this year. I think she has the knack for combining color (my pattern calls for only two colors but she took off and ran, and did a wonderful job). Wonderful!

While I was teaching (and then sleeping), Kathy P of Minxknits finished the beret we talked about earlier this week.

Go Kathy! She had to do some figuring to do this, and actually knit one hat and frogged it before knitting the hat she is so pleased with. Everyone has a picture in their head of what something should look like, and I’m happy for her that this last beret matched what she intended.

It’s really cold here, and it is serious warmth-garment weather. I’d love to knit a beret (or two or three) but I am not sure if that will work out for me. The problem is that berets, the way I like them best (short rows, purl side out, lightweight yarn fulled slightly) would take some fussing, I’ve not figured out how to do it yet. And that means it’s not brainless knitting like most of the knitting I do, in public.

I have a nice collection of berets, but five of them are black. It seems the ones made these days are so stiff that they are more like a fedora than a beret, and I like them soft and floppy. I can’t find a soft one in purple or other bright colors. I had a wonderful purple one but I left it in New York City in February 2001, when I saw my Godson Michael sing with his choir in Carnegie Hall. I haven’t found a good beret since then, other than black.

Luckily, last week I found a fuzzy angora purple beret in a store… OK, so I left it at the Allergist’s office last Thursday, but it was so wonderful to have a really nice purple hat again after about three and a half years without one. Now just need to get back to the allergist and hope they figured out it was mine.

Today is business-errands and oomputer-teaching day. May you have a relaxing-at-home-and-knitting day!

I taught a ColorJoy Stole class at Threadbear Sunday from 12-6pm. I had four students. One of them, Betsy, had been one of my computer students at Foster Center maybe six years ago. It was great to see her again.

We had a wonderful time. I got photos but I’m very tired and will post them later. I was far too tired to cook dinner, so I decided to take Brian to Emil’s Italian restaurant. After our meal, we went home and did more recording for our upcoming CD (which is coming along nicely).

It’s almost midnight and I’m going to take the rest of my night easy. Tomorrow I spend some time with Altu, which will be wonderful. I have not been easy to slow down lately, and she deserves better from me.

I’ll hope to get photos up tomorrow. You know, I think teaching is the best thing that a person can do and make a living. What a wonderful experience it can be!

Tonight I will sleep like a baby. I have had several extremely short nights this week and it’s my turn to rest. See you tomorrow.

OK, finally… finally I got my web pages up for selling the ColorSport Yarns I dyed on Labor Day. The good news is I’m also having a pattern sale.

On my Patterns Page, you will find three new patterns… my ColorJoy Stole, the Basketweave Rug, and the Turkish-Style Toe-Up Sox that were first published in Dawn Brocco’s Heels and Toes Gazette.

If you buy 2 patterns, I pay shipping. If you buy three patterns, take $3 additional off the total price. Or, buy the Turkish-Style Toe-Up pattern and at least one 100gm skein of ColorSport yarn, and take $3 off (it’s a make-your-own-sock-kit sale).

Oh, and there are a limited number (five 100gm skeins) of a traditional fingering-weight sockyarn with 85% wool and 15% nylon. These are found at the middle and bottom of the page that I usually reserve for my ColorSox yarn (which is totally sold out right now).

Some of you have written me to say you were waiting for the new colorways. Well, here your waiting is rewarded. Thank you for your patience.