Whew! I just am crazy-busy creating patterns these days, and delivering patterns to shops and individuals. The demand just keeps snowballing. I’m very grateful.

I am so amazed. I never started out to design patterns. I just make things up on my needles, and then people want to make what I created.

Now I know better, and I keep notes most times when I make up new things. My first patterns took easily over 40 hours to create, although I am getting a bit better at it now. It can be scary, trying to make sure there are no mistakes before it goes out. It took me a while to admit I’d intentionally design again!

That said, I’m very close to finishing my Cozy Corner Teapot Warmer (tea cosy) and even closer to ready for making Bags to Go! available for purchase. I’m cranking samples like crazy… my needles are hot! I am testing the pattern and taking photos to support unusual techniques I use. That means very little time for blogging. Thanks for your patience while I get through this push.

I have great photos from my Polymer class last Sunday at Threadbear. Unfortunately they were partly edited when my PC crashed the other day and I haven’t had time to do the editing again.

I was glad to be there under any circumstances, haphazard or not. I took this photo the week of Christmas, 2004.

Wowie, when it starts it keeps going. Molly just sent me this photo of her Fast Florida Footies. I have never seen this colorway (#9490, she says) before. These were for Molly herself, but wouldn’t this color of yarn look cute in a tiny size? Might be great to make kiddie footies and a matching hat or something, I’d say.

Thanks so much, Molly, for sharing your photo with me. Looking good!

Hey guys, I’ve focused so much on the sock class Sunday that I didn’t mention that I’m teaching my Bags to Go! class at Little Red Schoolhouse on Saturday morning. I found out today that it *is* a go, so if you want to join us there is still time. See the entry from yesterday for contact information.

The class includes several pouches, all made on double pointed needles, in the round. It’s fat yarn so it knits up really fast.

One bag is a flat pouch, and can be made wide for a palm device, translator, calculator, power pack for a lavalier microphone, you name it… or slim for sunglasses or cellphone.

The other bag is a tube of sorts with a tie at the top, intended for a water bottle holder. Wool is the perfect insulator for a water bottle… it feels dry even when the bottle sweats, and wool is a great insulator even when wet. The eyelash yarns are optional. It’s about using one good yarn (I use Lamb’s Pride Worsted weight single-ply, a thick worsted) for the whole bag, and then playing with color and texture by knitting a second strand along with the first here and there for interest. Great fun, easy to make it look fabulous.

These can be knit quickly… several in a day, if you have a lot of gifts to make. There is no boredom and even if you lose track of where you are in the pattern, for almost all of the bag it won’t matter at all. Only the beginning and end are for counting stitches… and it’s great summer knitting without a large pile of wool on your lap.

I hope to see some of you there. If you can’t make it, thanks for letting me brag a bit. I sure like *my* bags… when I wear them, people ask where I got them. Must be I did something right.

Oh, and last but not least, our band Abbott Brothers is playing at Altu’s Ethiopian Cuisine this Saturday. We will be there at 6:30-8:30pm, dinner hour. We would love to see some of you!

Linda M. Writes:

Are you still interested in photos of your Fast Florida Footies? These were made for my daughter with size 10 feet so there are 48 rows between end of the gusset and beginning of toe. I used Cascade Fixation on size US5 needles (apx. 6.5 sts per inch, I’m a tight knitter=) then switched to size US2 for the last 3 rows. Oh, I added 1 extra row at the top for more roll.

Thanks for the pattern, this is my third pair.

Thanks for sending the photo, Linda!

I am so fascinated about how different knitters get different gauges in this yarn. I get 6.25 st/in with size 2, Linda gets 6.5 st/in with size 5. Two of my test knitters had to go to size 4 needles to get 6.25, but at least one got the same gauge on the same needles as I did. And it really settles in a lot when washed, so I remember being shocked when I lost a full stitch per inch, after I got the socklet wet. Many folks report that their socks look shrunk after washing but that they fit the same because of the lycra. Fascinating stuff.

For local folks, remember I’m teaching this class at Little Red Schoolhouse on this coming Sunday. It’s a one-time afternoon session, so it should be easy to fit into your busy schedule. You can contact Linda L. at 517/321-6701 if you would like to register.

Linda M., thanks so much for writing! I’m sure your daughter will enjoy these footies in the upcoming warm weather. (Crossing fingers on that one… it’s still in the 40’s F as I type this.)

OK, so last week Tuesday we had summer. It was 79F and sunny. Saturday and Sunday it snowed and snowed, though it was very lovely snow if you did not have to drive. It was even easy to clean off the car… sticky, melty and warm, as snow goes anyway.   

I should not have been surprised. I can not remember an April without at least a few flakes. Some of the biggest blizzards come this late in the season. But wowie, that was so incredibly out of the blue!

Here is a photo of our spring garden under the mailbox, on Sunday, followed by a photo of our spring garden under the mailbox, on Monday. Also see our neighbor’s house. A forsythia bush, harbinger of true spring, plus a flowering bush on right (pink flowers center right of photo) and some red tulips (bottom right) are surrounded by snow. Go figure.

I could not help but think of a scene in the “Chronicles of Narnia” (a series of seven books for pre-teens, by CS Lewis). In the book “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” the land has been always winter and never spring for years, under the spell of the white witch. When she dies, the heroes are walking through the woods and they can see things turn to spring before their eyes. All the snow melts in a matter of hours, and those using sleds for transportation (the bad guys, of course) can no longer move swiftly, and eventually can not move at all.

So Monday as I left to meet Tony for lunch, there were several-inch piles of snow in most of the shady spots. At the same time, sunny spots were green, the birds were chirping, I didn’t need to button my coat, the sun was shining, and all I could figure was that the white witch was dead.

The Narnia stories are lovely, really. The heros/heroines are children who do real life things that aren’t always pretty, but they are quite real. Some things are messy in the physical sense, some bad choices have consequences. More real than many stories for this age group, never mind the parts about talking animals and magical happenings.

I’m sad that the bad guys in this series sometimes have dark hair and turbans, and the good guys are basically nordic. However, it was written in the 1950s and was a product of that time. The underlying stories and values are wonderful, not preachy at all, and although Mr. Lewis was a writer of Christian philosophy for adults as well, it doesn’t come across as specifically Christian at all. I am sure these books influenced my own personal theology in a good way.

My godparents gave me these books when I was 13 years old and I devoured them. In fact, I wore out that first set of paperbacks during my college years, and bought a second set. I still read them on occasion… at about 140 pages each, they can be read in one evening after work, while sitting happily on my heat vent. Adventure, but in a neat nutshell.

Hey, ho, the witch is dead! The nice weather seems to be sticking around here this time, and I’m really loving it.

Today is all about socks. Tony’s socks, Linda’s Socks, my socks. Why not? Socks are what got me back into knitting after over a decade of putting the needles up in the attic.

Monday, when Tony and I went to lunch at the asian restaurant, he showed me a pair he’s been working on for a long while. Tony has to knit a lot more stitches to finish a pair for himself than I do, which must be a drag. These are from a Lorna’s Laces sportweight yarn, I believe. Nice job, Tony!

Tuesday, I sat in two different waiting rooms for a total of 45 minutes or so, then I took myself to lunch and knit while waiting for my meal. I finished the pair of toe-up socks I started for my class at Little Red Schoolhouse. They are Reggio (not Regia) which I got at that shop. I love this yarn. It’s cushy, cushy, cushy. I knit these on needles a little too big for a dense fabric but decided to just go ahead with them. If they wear out early, I know how to darn socks just fine.

I am not much of a stripe fan, and the garish look of asymmetrical and unmatching high-contrast stripes just was not turning out to my taste. I realized that if I wore them with the purl bumps out, I liked how the stripes blended colors at the edges. It’s a softer look and I like it much better.

A bonus with this look is that when the bumps are out, the sock is even more comfy, an issue when knitting at a larger-than-ideal gauge. I did have to go back and do a rib at the top rather than a rolled edge, because it would roll toward the knit side, not the reverse-stockinette/purl side, and that would just plain look backward if I wore it that way.

I must confess, I’m still half inclined to overdye these, perhaps with turquoise, to unify the colors a bit. I am not a fan of pink and red together. But for now I’ll wear them this way, and see how much it bugs me in a month.

You do see the chains on the sides of the heel flap prominently with this way of wearing them. I didn’t plan to wear them this way when I picked up stitches for the gusset, or I might have picked up the stitches differently. In the end, I’m reasonably happy with the look of the socks and very happy with the fit/comfort. I’m sure I’ll wear them out!

I stopped by at Little Red Schoolhouse Tuesday night. Linda gave me a few hints on my crochet edge for my tank top, which I really, really appreciate. I’m hoping I can try that again soon. It may be Thursday, given all the promises I’m making to clients/yarn shops right now, and the classes I’m preparing for. However, her little session with me makes me feel more confident that I can make it look significantly better than I had it going on the first try. Thanks, Linda!!!

Linda had just finished a beautiful sock in Mountain Colors Bearfoot yarn. I convinced her to let me take a photo of her sock while I was there. Nice job, huh? This pattern looks absolutely beautiful in this handpainted yarn. She says it’s easy to knit, too. The color of this photo is a little too light and pinkish. Really, it’s this nice sort of combination of rusts and navy, very nice but hard to get in a photograph.

And the last sock of the day is a tiny infant-sized socklet I knit last night so that Threadbear would have a sample now that they are carrying the Fast Florida Footies pattern. I didn’t have many hours but I had most of an hour so I decided to make the tiny one. And it’s so adorable, don’t you think? Makes you want to knit tiny things all the time.

By the way, friends… I’m teaching this Fast Florida Footies class this upcoming Sunday, at Little Red Schoolhouse. The timeframe is 1pm to 4pm. Since it’s a top down footie, we can cover all the essential parts of the pattern in that short time. If you want to do baby socks you can finish a pair in that time. If you do a pair for yourself, you’ll finish part of one sock but have all you need to finish it at home.

The FFFootie pattern in 8 Sizes is included in the cost of the class, which is $25 plus yarn, and this yarn is very reasonable. You can contact Linda at 517/321-6701 if you would like to register. This footie is wildly popular, to my delight. It’s a fast knit in very fun Cascade Fixation cotton/lycra yarn. Please join us.

I don’t know why, but I just am slow to blog today. I hate to let you guys down, so I’m making a little bit of a “plain vanilla” diary-like post today. It does end with a new pattern, though!

Bad Weather and Banjos
After having summery 79F weather on Tuesday, we had a *lot* of snow on Saturday night which stayed all day Sunday. (It all melted Monday.) Brian and I had gone to Dearborn (near Detroit) Saturday night, to a four-string Banjo Convention (you’d be shocked to hear how many of these there are when you start looking for them).

It was so fun, all the jam sessions were a blast. (It doesn’t hurt the ego at all when people tell you how great your music is… does it? I ate it up.) We jammed until too long, and then the snowy roads made coming home slooow going. We got home after 4am. Too late on a normal day. Waay too late when I work at noon… no matter how great the work is.

Polymer Clay at Threadbear
So Sunday starting at noon, I taught a wonderful Polymer Clay class to four folks at Threadbear. Loved every second, and did not feel at all tired once we got moving. Once I got home I took a short nap in the evening, and thought I was caught up.

Tired Monday Morning
Not so! Monday morning the phone rang and woke me too early (bedroom is upstairs, phone downstairs, I woke up halfway down). It was someone asking me to do more one-on-one computer training for them, which will be great. I can’t complain when others have a more sane schedule than me. That would be *my* problem.

Tony Makes Me Smile
I did try to sleep a little more after that but it didn’t work. Luckily Tony came to the rescue. He called and we decided to go for late lunch to a Thai/Vietnamese/Chinese restaurant he likes. I was thrilled that they do not use cornstarch or corn oil, so I was able to choose from many options on the menu. I ordered a rice-noodle Thai dish, very tasty.

Tank Top on Hold
I got to show Tony my finished Watercolor Bag. He showed me his finished socks (photo later). I showed him my almost-finished tank top. All the knitting is done, all the sewing together is done. I did the single crochet around the neck and armholes. I’m not at all happy with the crochet edge, so even though I finished what the pattern says, I can’t consider it done yet.

Tony suggested a smaller crochet hook for the project, which did help. However, it’s still very uneven (and I think my crochet gauge is actually fine, it’s the nature of the edge I’m trying to finish that is uneven). I gave it up for today and just knit in circles on some toe-up socks instead (the ones I started for my class recently), to relax.

After lunch, since Beaners (coffeehouse) was two doors down and I have been craving really good English Breakfast tea, we stopped there to pick up some good tea and a shortbread cookie. We ran a few errands together and talked about art, yarn, digital photos, weather, you name it. He is *such* good company. I really enjoyed that time together.

I got home late afternoon, made one phone call for a client, then took a two hour nap! Just what the doctor ordered, I guess. I *know* I can not handle 4:15am any more. I can do 3:30 and I’m OK, but 4 is past my limit, for sure. I just don’t bounce back well these days.

Learning to Rest, a Little
So basically my Monday was a “recover from Saturday night” day. I guess other people take time off on weekends every week, right? Two days? I feel a little guilty taking even one day, but I had no choice today. It was nap or get sick. I did enjoy the nap.

At night, I did get some work done. I had the lovely work tonight of replying to a possible request for Brian and I to perform a concert in October as The Fabulous Heftones. I hope that works out, it should be a really fun event. If it goes through, I’ll write more here at a later date.

Garden Capelet Pattern Debut
I also got an order from Threadbear Sunday for some patterns, so I printed those, put them in page protectors, printed their invoice, and knit a tiny sample socklet (for the Fast Florida Footies pattern).

The guys at Threadbear spurred me to do the final finishing on the Garden Capelet pattern. It is available for purchase as of right now… no web page to announce it yet, but the price will be $5 retail. It is the same deal I’ve been offering for a while… $0.90 postage for one pattern, free shipping for more than one pattern. It’s a nice pattern, much easier than the ColorJoy Stole. It calls for merely 3 yarns, and is not knit randomly which makes it easier for many folks to knit. Still dressy, still lovely, easier to finish quickly if you are working toward a deadline like prom or a wedding.

I was working in PhotoShop with a lot of images at once, including photos of Sunday’s polymer clay class. However, I tried to work with a too-large photo, overflowed my RAM memory *and* my virtual memory, and crashed PhotoShop. Therefore, I have no new photos today (and I got a nice one of a blooming forsythia bush in the snow, I’ll have to show you at a too-late date for news).

Here’s a photo of the Garden Capelet again. I actually did a second capelet in purple and turquoise, and it’s at Little Red Schoolhouse, but somehow I neglected to get photographs of it completed. I don’t know how that happened. I’m slowly doing one more capelet in pale spring green and aqua/blue, but that one is only about 5 inches long on the needles right now. Tomorrow is another day, as they say!

I am so pleased with the classes I’ve had recently. My students are totally the best! I showed you Irene with her Watercolor Bag two days ago. Here are some more belated photos of my students and their projects of the last few weeks.

First, two brothers in my CityKidz Knit! program at Foster Community Center. This was their second week. They both finished their first project, wristbands. The younger one is already done with his second project, a dice bag for playing games, out of gray wool-ease someone out there (one of you reading this now perhaps) sent as a donation to my program. He did a finger-crocheted drawstring which worked great for his needs. He is now knitting a bag for his grandmother, from some purple acrylic also donated by someone wonderful out there (purple goes fast).

The other brother is working on a larger project that he came up with himself. I can’t remember what that project is right now. I did have a lot of first wristbands and other finished objects this last week, but with six knitters Wednesday and nine knitter Thursday, I was so busy I did not have time to take photographs.

But also, I had a toe-up sock class at Little Red Schoolhouse. Here are photos of Cheryl and her first toe-up sock (she has made other types of socks before), and Amy’s foot wearing her first sock ever! I had three others in the class, but two were not able to be there the last day and the fifth, Dian, decided her sock was not the way she wanted so she ripped it back and started over. Good for her, though it will take a while for her to catch up.

I have more photos of students to share. I’ll catch up on those soon, I hope. Meanwhile, can you see why I love this work I do? The best!

I wore my bag Thursday! I put my Kelly tank top in it, mostly knit, and carried it around with me. I didn’t knit out of it, but I didn’t mind. I love the size, the lack of weight, the rainbow colors, the soft texture.

It’s so odd, that Noro Kureyon yarn. The colors are what it is all about. I don’t really love how it feels when I knit with it. I don’t mind it much, but it’s sort of scratchy. Yet just throw it in the washing machine for 20 minutes, and it’s fuzzy and springy and absolutely lovely to touch. Cinderella!

Here are photos of my bag. First, you see the finished pre-felting size. It’s 20 inches lying flat, meaning 40 inches around.

Next, you see the bag after emerging from 20 minutes of hot water wash and then a cold water rinse (in my beat-it-up old fashioned washing machine). These photos are the same width, if that helps you see how much it has shrunk. The bag, after felting/shrinking, measures 16″ flat or 32″ around. You can also see that the colors of the yarn have blended in that painterly, watercolor sort of way. On this bag I liked the stockinette side best (for the pink/orange version I knit, I liked the reverse stockinette side out better).

By the way, the bag here in the photos has two skeins of one colorway and one skein (the center) of a different colorway. The other two bags on my pattern page, have three different colorways per bag, plus the solid colored trim.

Last you see my bag assembled and hanging happily on a doorknob. On my purple door with turquoise trim. I love my house!!! I love my bag, too!

Do you notice that the I-cord handle is a slightly darker/bluer color than the edge trim? I had 120 inches of already finished I-cord left from the first bag I made (the blues/turquoise version that lives at Yarn Garden right now, see my pattern page to see photo). I didn’t see any reason to make more I-cord when this went so well with the bag I made. So the edge trim and the bottom of the bag are sort of a dark turquoise, mostly greenish yarn. The I-cord is a little bluer. Both work perfectly with the whole bag as an artpiece. I love this bag!

My Watercolor Bag is in my washer right now! I had left it at my student’s house (that would be Officiallyaknitter) last Thursday when I popped in to fix a hiccup in her knitting, between Foster Center and visiting my brother. I’m so relieved. She *had* written to tell me I’d left a sock there, and a bag. I thought she meant a baggie holding the sock in progress. Actually, it was a sample sock, knit years ago (for my toe-up sock class, pattern released just a few days ago). And my knitted, AWOL bag. I’m delighted.

I can’t wait to have my own bag, just for me. Right now I’m knitting such large projects that this bag may be too small for my main carry-all, but when I get back to socks this summer, I’ll be ready. Or maybe I’ll make it my dance bag (holding a hip scarf, finger cymbals, shrug, a few CDs), who knows?

Here is a somewhat-fuzzy photo of Irene A. with her own recently-finished version of the Watercolor Bag. She took my class at Little Red Schoolhouse fairly recently, but I had not yet seen her bag since she finished it. Gorgeous.

Irene used one colorway for all three skeins of Noro Kureyon, but there is enough variety between the three skeins to give it that handpainted look I love. At her class, she decided to change the solid color of her bag to turquoise (I think from purple) and I think she definitely made the right choice, don’t you? Great bag, Irene!

By the way, that handsome guy in the background on the right (in focus, actually… the camera wanted him to be the center of attention) is my friend Rob (Black Dog) of Threadbear Fiberarts. Actually, you can see a tiny bit of Matt (also from Threadbear) in a white shirt hiding behind Irene on the left. This photo sort of gives you the guys’ personalities right there… Matt would rather be the observer more often than not, and Rob and I are two peas in a pod, social butterflies from the word Go! I love them both, for being just exactly who they are. So there!

In other news, it appears that my toddler sweater is done. Never mind that I forgot it at home today, it turned out that Anne couldn’t make the Habibi Dancers’ rehearsal today either. It can wait one more week, if need be. We are going from yesterday’s summer temperatures (78F), back to standard spring chill (55F), starting tonight. I will not worry, I will not worry, I will not worry…. everyone who has children and has seen this sweater says it will fit the child just fine with space to grow. I hope so!

Didn’t it turn out great? I modeled the final collar style after my favorite sweater, the one I always grab when I want to be warm and comfy all day during the dead winter. Mine is turquoise mohair, and the collar has about 13 rows (at a tiny gauge) of K2P2 ribbing, followed by about 13 rows of stockinette, that curls all by itself.

This sweater is at a much larger gauge (4.5 st/in) and so I needed only six rows of rib before 12 rows of stockinette. I used a crochet hook instead of my right needle when binding off, and made one crocheted chain stitch after every bound off stitch, to make the bind off stretchy enough for a child. Since I did that many rows of stockinette, it curls under enough to hide that bind off row that looks a little different than expected. Success!

The toddler sweater really needed to be stretchy to go over her toddler-sized head (read: bigger than one might imagine), but I did not want it to gap open and show the inner construction, as did the first two rolled-collar styles I tried. This one will work out just fine, I think. Actually, I just took a chance and pulled it on over my own head with no trouble. I can’t wear the sweater, but the collar is stretchy enough now. Whew!

And now… while I sat here typing this, my Watercolor Bag finished shrinking in the washer. Oh, my! I’m pleased, it looks wonderful. When I’m done posting here, I’ll prop it to dry overnight. I’ll do my best to bring you photos in the next few days. I also have a handful of photos of my students and their work… two socknitting students and a photo from my CityKidz Knit! program.

I’m on an odd mission right now. I want to fix things that aren’t right. I’ve darned 4 pair of socks in the last month, and at least one or two are waiting for me to complete them.

In the same vein, I finally sewed together that toddler sweater, after machine-knitting its four component pieces well over a year ago. I think I’m OK on the collar finally, will need to bind off more loosely and perhaps give the sweater to Anne tonight (if my headache doesn’t insist I take a sick day from dance rehearsal… we will see).

I bought a beautiful cotton-blend intarsia sweater at a resale shop right before I went to Africa. I love how it fits, but the sleeves are maybe 3″ too long and they look horrible turned up. The sleeves came with an interesting sawtooth edge that I really wanted to preserve.

I brainstormed with Sarah Peasley about this sweater last night at Knitting Guild and she figured I can unsew the armhole seam, since it’s a straight dropped sleeve design, pull up the sleeve from the top at a pleasing location, resew at the top, cut off the excess fabric on the inside, and sew up the extra 1″ or so of side seam under the sleeve. Brilliant. When I’ll do it, I’m not sure, but it’s on my A list. I really want to wear the sweater. A cotton sweater with brightly colored flowers is perfect this time of year.

And today I am finally dealing with a ColorJoy Stole that had THREE dropped stitches, just before the increase row. Those, thank goodness, are reasonably easy to hide.

I use a crochet hook to bring the loops up to the increase row, then I use sewing thread and a double-square knot in two strands of sewing thread, to attach the dropped stitch to the knitted fabric. Then I cut off that sewing thread at the same length as all the eyelashes in the stole.

While I’m wearing it, you can’t see the repair at all. If you hold it up to the window during sunlight, you probably can find it if you are determined to find it. I’m not re-knitting for that! This particular stole is two different mohairs and two different eyelash yarns, plus some “flag” yarns. It will be really really hard to find my repair unless you are really looking.

This stole has never been bound off properly so I am now ready to do the binding off. It’s a gorgeous stole, and I’m happy I will have it looking right today.

And I’m still working on the tank top. I have maybe 2 rows left before the decreases. I have to work decreases when I’m alone in silence, I’m not used to this sort of knitting yet. So that will be tonight, again if the headache doesn’t put me in bed. Last night my eye even hurt… so I went to bed and that helped. We had no pollen three days ago and yesterday it hit, nearly every tree went from barren to green in three days. I’m not the only one suffering right now. But I do love the warmth and the flowers, and this, too, shall pass.

Have a great spring day, those of you who are lucky enough to be warm.

Well, the maple pollen has arrived for the year, and that unfortunately has slowed me down. Headache week, a predictable thing each spring, has hit. Thank goodness for ibuprofen, I can be sociable with it and I might wish to stay in bed without it.

Nevertheless, I got a lot done today. I cleaned house and I can actually tell I did something. I did a little knitting on the tank top and knit three (count ‘em, three) collars for the toddler sweater. This third one looks like it will work, but I need to practice all I taught at my toe-up socknitting class, about binding off loosely. I need to un-bind the edge of the collar and do it again, with E-A-S-E and then some. After all, it’s for a toddler and toddlers have big heads. I’m really OK with doing it again to get it right, but I will wait on that for tomorrow. I see Anne, the toddler’s mother, tomorrow night. I don’t need to have this done before that.

We had Mid-Michigan Knitting Guild tonight. Love that group. It’s big but friendly. Tonight I got there late enough that it was a little hard to find a chair at a table that was not empty. I ended up joining our President and Vice President at the front, nobody seemed to mind. I do better when I’m not in the back row, I lose concentration easily and did not want that tonight.

It was good to see everyone there. Several folks had some amazing knitting done. Sharon P was wearing her Pyramid Sweater. Wowie, are the colors on that one just perfect. No photograph could do it justice (not that I have one to even try). Gorgeous.

Rob and Matt of Threadbear were there, and Linda of Little Red Schoolhouse Yarns also came. I sat very near her, and that was sort of fun. Usually when I see these three yarn shop owners, they are so busy with work that it’s hard to socialize. They are great folks and it’s fun to do something mostly social sometimes.

My, it was a fun night.

We tried to rehearse tonight after I got home. Headaches don’t like live ukulele music, or at least not this one, not today. Bummer.

I think I’ll go veg on the couch and try to start the armhole decreases for the front of my tank top. I hope I have enough focus left to do that, but I’m sure going to try.

Photo: Small and Large teacosies (pattern is called Cozy Corner Teapot Warmer). It’s my newest pattern. Well, it will be ready probably this week. Never a dull moment!

I had such a great day off! I spent a lot of time on the porch in my hammock, my favorite place in the world. I ate good food, made brownies, went for a half-hour walk in our lovely neighborhood. And touched a whole lot of yarn!

I knit a lot on my Kelly tank top, have started the fourth ball of yarn (and the piece will probably take 5 balls if I figure right). I’m something like 8 inches from the bottom of the front. I need 11 inches before I start the armholes.

I will finish the front before I tear out the back (see photo). I want to knit more back fabric and maybe widen the straps. This pattern calls for a single-crocheted edge at the neck and armholes (I like single crochet best of all crochet stitches so this part sounds fun, if I can make the gauge work properly). That means it will have wider straps than you see here, but I may still want it a little wider, I’m not sure. I am glad I do not have to decide that today.

Actually, I’m surprised with how the pattern goes for the front panel, since I read it more carefully. The photo shows what I thought were increases at the bustline, for the obvious reason that many women need a little extra room there. Well, there is shaping there, but it’s not really any increase. Apparently the shaping is just to bring the eye to the wearer’s pretty curves. The ribs just stretch to accommodate the shape. Boy bait! That makes sense, since the pattern is geared for a young audience… I am definitely not in their intended demographic group!

I don’t need a new man, I’ve got the right one already. I think I’ll skip all that shaping. That means less chance to make a mistake, faster knitting, and I wasn’t sure if I liked the look anyway. Cool! I’m so funny. I just can not knit anything without changing it.

I thought I’d crochet yesterday as well, but I could not find the crochet hook I bought last week at Yarn Garden for this project. So much for that. Then today I found myself at two different yarn shops and they didn’t have the hook I needed either, I must need some size that is an odd one or something. No matter, I have plenty to work on and will do crochet when it becomes easy to do so.

I was going to felt the Watercolor Bag I made for myself. Well, I can not find it anywhere. The darned bag is AWOL. Drat. I figured I’d left it in my classroom at Foster, but went there on Monday and didn’t see it there, either. That is the last place I remember seeing it for sure, last Thursday during CityKidz Knit. It doesn’t seem to be at Little Red Schoolhouse or Threadbear, either. It isn’t in my car. I guess it’s time to really get down to organizing my house/knitting stuff.

OK… so what I did instead of crochet or felt, is I finally sewed together the four pieces of a toddler sweater that I finished over a year ago. I took a machine knitting class at Yarn for Ewe and our sample project was a sweater in what I think is a size 3T. I didn’t know anyone that size at the time. Now my friend Anne’s daughter probably can wear it. Since it’s getting warmer, I think it’s time to really hurry and finish the sweater.

I think the sweater is really adorable, in turquoise and lime stripes (Encore Worsted, a washable 75 acrylic/25 wool yarn). It has rolled edges everywhere there is an edge. The bottom rolls up enough that I wish I had made the bottom two inches or so, all the same color. I have a lot of ends to hide on that bottom roll, where there really is not a front or back… all sides could show. Hiding the ends is a mess, but I’m doing my best with duplicate stitch.

All I have left is to pick up stitches around the neck and knit a few rows to make a rolled collar. Everyone warns me that children have way big heads next to adults so I need to be sure it will fit OK. I can not find the skein of turquoise yarn so the collar will be lime. No problem, the child has blonde hair, looks typically Norwegian true to her ancestry, and will look wonderful in it that way. Isn’t the sweater adorable so far?

Photos: Back of Kelly rib tank, Toddler sweater sans collar.

My class for today cancelled. I have an entire day off, with nothing, literally nothing, on my calendar.

It’s funny, I say I have put two days a week on my calendar for time off, but that is not true at all. Tuesdays I have a new dance class just before noon, and in the afternoon I rush home to listen to the Flaming Ukulele Radio Hour, usually followed at night by a guild meeting or knit in. That would be my schedule for a slow “day off” on those Tuesdays that I don’t make business appointments or class committments during the day. And lately I’ve taken to scheduling classes every waking moment, as a cushion for all the classes that naturally cancel.

Fridays also are my “day off” but Brian is also off which sometimes makes it a work-at-home day. Sometimes we have performances (we had a private concert this last week), sometimes I dance, and more often than not I schedule a class to teach.

But a full day with nothing? Not even a guild meeting? I’m a bit of a workaholic, although I truly love my work and don’t complain much. However, today I’m practicing a loose concept of a sabbath (as defined by me, not an organized religion). A day where pushing hard/working is not part of the plan. I will knit only what I love knitting, want to knit, enjoy. I will not knit samples or test patterns. I will answer only the emails that must be answered.

I used to work with a woman who implored me to take a day off, where I stayed on the couch and sipped tea all day. To knit and listen to music and truly relax. To not get dressed all day. Well, sometimes I don’t get dressed, but I work at my desk/computer the whole time.

So this time I may dabble in some crochet. I may bake brownies (I can only eat brownies when I make them myself… no corn oil, egg or milk… but I’ve been craving them lately so I may give in to the drudge of kitchen work for the delight of baked chocolate). I surely will take a walk in the neighborhood and look at all the blooming trees and flowers. I will drink many cups of wonderful tea.

I think I’ll even go out on the porch in the hammock (with many layers to keep me warm, as I get chilled easily). Maybe I’ll feel like taking the spinning wheel out there (I love spinning on the porch), or maybe not.

Today for lunch I’m having a roll-up, almond butter and pumpkin butter on a wheat tortilla… simple and fabulous. I hope you enjoy your day, as well.

Photo shows the lovely results of warmer weather this week. These daffodils were planted by my father, who died in 1973. They insist on thriving long past their life expectancy. The photo was taken with flash, in the dark. Exciting, huh?

I’m humbled and astounded. My First-Time Toe-Up Sock pattern is selling like hotcakes already. I can’t believe the number of people sending orders my way. OK, it’s not a huge number, but I’ve had more orders in two days than I sometimes get in a month. I’m thrilled.

Thank you so much, every one of you out there reading this, supporting me, ordering my small and humble offerings. I am grateful.

Thursday night when I was talking with Eric, I got a lot done on my ribbed tank top. I’m pleased with how it looks so far. I changed the back (it was supposed to be a deep V with yet a deeper slit and a ribbon to hold it together in a keyhole). My back is not my best feature and I get cold/sunburned enough that making the back fairly solid is a smart move for me. Never mind that the straps will be less likely to fall down.

So I knit straight across on the back until I was done decreasing on the sides for armholes, then I bound off the center stitches and prepared to make straps. But I don’t like it enough, and I’m going to rip back the one strap I finished and the bind off. I want it even higher, maybe another three inches of rib. Then maybe I’ll bind of a little more gradually so there is not an abrupt corner. We’ll see how that goes, I haven’t thought it out much yet.

This means that for about 12 hours I did not have any “brainless” knitting, the stuff I crank out like crazy when running errands and waiting in line. Ack! I do have two pair of socks in process but they were not with me at dinner with Eric. I will want to cast on the front of this tank top sometime in the next few days so I can crank again for many stitches of K2P2 ribbing. I’ll get you photos of this project soon… but I have even more exciting news to illustrate today.

The news is that I did finally finish my First-Time Toe-Up Sock pattern! WooHoo! (No thanks to Microsoft Word 2002/XP, which kept crashing my computer over and over when trying to spell check the nine-page pattern… aargh.) It looks good and includes all the information I really wanted my students to have at their disposal. I’m subtitling this pattern “A Gentle Guide through a No-Swatch Design” which really feels just right.

I am really pleased with this, as a teaching guide. It has really good photos (according to my students at Little Red Schoolhouse who are taking this class right now) showing exactly how to do the toe up process successfully. There is a two-page appendix with photos for unusual techniques (even hints on using Double Pointed Needles) and a sock sizing grid for making toe up socks for other folks besides yourself. It’s a winner. These three photos are all variations on the pattern as written, but you can make any cuff you like on top of the instructions I include.

Those who pre-ordered this pattern will see it in the mail very soon. Thanks for your enthusiasm! For those interested now, you can visit my LynnH Patterns page for information on this pattern and others I’ve written. Remember, I am currently paying shipping (First Class postage) in the USA for purchases of two or more patterns at one time. I’d love to hear from you that you learned of the pattern here (as opposed to Socknitters Email group, for example) if you’d be so kind as to make that note when you write me.

Now the Tea Cosy pattern is very soon to follow. That is what I’m working on this very minute. Busy, busy, busy!!!

Thursday was great. Knitting with kids, a bit of knitting for myself, darning a hole in a pair of fave purple handknit socks so I can wear them more, and then dinner with Eric. My brother. My best friend in the world.

He lives over an hour from me. We sometimes drive to a town something like halfway between us, and meet up at a Wendy’s there. They let us talk for hours in the corner. Eric eats their food, I get hot tea and bring food I can eat (I honestly don’t know anywhere in this town where I can eat the food on the menu). They don’t mind, they leave us peacefully alone to talk forever.

Then they close at 10pm. So we go to the car and sit and talk until we’re too tired to talk more. This time I left at 11:45. Home after midnight. I’d do it again in a second. My brother is the best friend I could ever have, and I don’t get time with him nearly enough.

A wonderful day.

Oh, my… what a wonderful Tuesday I had!

Dance Morning
First I went to my new dance class at Happendance Studio. This is the school run by the Happendance Modern Dance troupes (they have one company that goes into schools, another that does concerts). Diane Newman founded Happendance about 27 years ago and still is a leader there, although she shares the lead with other excellent talented folk.

Right after my divorce in 1991, I learned about Diane. At that time she had a private studio in DeWitt, a town just north of Lansing. I started to take adult ballet from her and I had not danced in about 16 years.

Many ballet instructors are downright mean. They yell at you and tell you how bad that was and how much you need to improve. Diane is just as loving as they are mean. I am not good at ballet, but it is good for me so I took it. I would fall over on many occasions. Once I was on my way to falling again, and Diane told me how lovely my foot was. This is the kind of teacher I want to study with. She always finds something you did right, and reinforces that. What a woman.

Well, I figured Diane was too busy directing a school and two dance companies, to be teaching people who were not destined to be a prima ballerina someday. Imagine my surprise when I get to the school, and Diane is my teacher. I am so happy!!!

The moves in the class are mostly based on modern dance, which I studied in high school. It’s all familiar stuff though unpracticed. This is another form of dance that I love but am not particularly good at. It stretches different muscles than middle-eastern dance does, which is what I need.

There were seven students, a nice class… a few probably younger than me and most older than me. I think this will be very good for rounding me out in a nice balanced way. I’m just delighted to study with Diane again!

Knitting Afternoon
After dance class, I headed over to the Sheraton where I took a half-day class with Lucy Neatby on finishing techniques (sponsored by Threadbear Fiberarts). My goodness! How wonderful it was!

We worked basically on a few pockets to learn several techniques. It’s amazing how familiar some of this was, considering it was mostly about sweaters and I mostly do socks. We did some grafting, and an afterthought pocket. I do kitchener toes (and grafted a new top on my bag last weekend) and afterthought heels. Gotta love it. A sweater class that relates to socks. I was pleased.

We also did a wonderful knitted picot bind off, a new modified bind off technique that is stretchy (very helpful for toe up socks) and an I-cord bind off that just looks wonderful, but will require a little more practice on my part.

I didn’t take any pictures, and my swatch from class has at least 60 ends on it, it looks like a wig rather than knitting. Just trust me, I loved my class. If you ever get a chance to study with Lucy, do! She is so very creative. She won’t shy away from anything that inspires her, she dives in headfirst. Amazingly creative, focused, grounded, centered, gentle, good at explaining. It was a wonderful time.

The image today is two soft block prints I made on small erasers a number of years ago when visiting my mother in Florida. My computer says the image was created in January 2001 and modified in March 2000. Go figure. Go Microsoft. But that gives us a general ballpark for these images. They were inspired by a ballroom dance book my mother had. The first one is the tango, I can’t remember what dance the second one was.

Lunch with Tony
I did sleep in on Monday, but then I had a busy one! Tony and I went to lunch for an (east) Indian buffet at the restaurant named Taj, and stuffed ourselves silly. I knit and he talked and it was wonderful.

New Yarn Shop Location
We tried to go to the new yarn shop near Foster Center (and near where we had lunch) but it is closed Sunday/Monday. Irene A. told me that it was re-opening on Vine Street last week (near Wallace Optical and Thompson Jewelers, close to Frandor).

Sarah Peasley has been teaching for this shop, I believe, since it was at its old location which I think was in an antique mall or craft mall on the north side of Lansing. I never went there at the old spot. It is tiny but it seemed to have a good selection of sock yarn so I will check it out sometime on a lunch hour.

Toe-Up Sock Class and Pattern
Anyway, after that I got some groceries and went home to work again on my toe-up pattern. I have the great fortune to be teaching the toe-up class right now at Little Red Schoolhouse. This means I have five students who can tell me how they like my new pattern.

I’ve been teaching the class for the last year or two, with a three-page handout sans photographs (and me in the room to explain things). This new version has 14 photographs so far. It is intended to be a novice pattern (and for people I may not be teaching in person), so I really felt that the photos would help people who were learning new techniques. Even an experienced top-down socknitter might appreciate the photos of the toe-up procedures, I figure.

The students tonight were really happy with the photos so far. They are big enough and clear enough to really illustrate things well. The photos and accompanying text have expanded my text from 3 pages to nine. I don’t mind. Some of it is in an appendix so only those who need help need look up that procedure, and it doesn’t slow the pattern for the rest of the folks.

I teach in a conversational style, and my patterns are the same way. I get good feedback on this, so I will continue being myself and hope that folks who like this style will find me.

I had a sort of funny “hiccup” when I was trying to get the new version ready for my students tonight (definitely in a sort of time crunch). Somehow I did a Find/Replace command that replaced all my K1 instructions with a K2 instruction, aaargh! It was a silly multiple typo that really made a mess of things. Fortunately we found it during class and did a bunch of corrections in pen.

I’ll keep working on the pattern this week, I’ve already corrected the K2 issue. Actually, I think the pattern is really, really close to done. I do need to print it out and look at it on paper rather than on my computer screen. Some things are just not clear on screen.

My Knitting
In other knitting news, I am ready to felt my Watercolor Bag that I made for myself. Well, not the I-cord handle, but the bag itself.

I have also knit a total of about 9 inches on my ribbed tank top since Friday. I also took the new purple Garden Capelet to Little Red Schoolhouse today so she can show it off and hopefully get some students for that class. This weekend I’m teaching the tea cosy at Little Red Schoolhouse so I’ll be putting the finishing touches on that pattern as well. Nothing like a deadline to make sure I get things done!!!

Yarn Garden/FFFooties
And somewhere in here, I’ll be knitting a Fast Florida Footie for Yarn Garden. She has one already there, in Fixation, and she gave me some other DK yarn in a wool blend so people can see more than one version of the socklet. We are planning a Saturday class probably, I think in July, to do the Footies. It should be fun.

Tuesday Plans: Lucy Neatby for Starters!
Tomorrow/Tuesday I start a new dance class around noon (something like modern dance, just for fun/no performances). And then I go study with Lucy Neatby, thanks to the boyz at Threadbear. It is another thing where I just want to be there, it’s not really “my subject.” But I studied socks with her last year and it was fabulous, and I just want to be in the room learning more. Even if it *is* mostly for sweaters.

And then if I am lucky, I get to drive to Ann Arbor again and have a late dinner with my brother. I hope. Catch you Wednesday!

Please forgive no photos. I’m still catching up from the too-busy weekend, and preparing for a too-busy Tuesday. Here’s a postcard I made with rubberstamps I made myself (it’s called eraser carving, or soft-block printing). There were five different print blocks used in this image, and five different ink pads. My computer is confused, because it says the image was created in January 2001 but then it was edited in November 1999? How it can be edited before it was created I don’t know, but clearly I made this image a good long while ago.

Saturday was the big dance show of the year for Habibi Dancers. It went very well, we all were pleased.

I was lucky enough that I was done dancing in the first act, so that I got to put on civilian clothes and sit in the balcony for the second act. It was wonderful.

Here are three photos from the show. First is a large group number, eight dancers. Four were working with swords (yes, they are real but they are not sharpened) and four with veils. Halfway through the dance, they trade, and the sword dancers become the veil dancers and vice-versa. That point is what you are seeing in this photo. It’s a very impressive dance (there were two choreographers working together, one on veilwork and one on sword work) and was very well received.

The second photo is a “scrim” dance. A scrim is a fabric screen. A dancer is placed between a bright directional light and the scrim, and her shadow shows to the audience. In this dance she was the “shadow” of the dancer in front of the scrim. It’s very difficult to do this sort of dance, since the performers can not see one another. We had two excellent dancers and they did a wonderful job.

The last photo is Yasmina Amal, the creative director of the Habibi Dancers and my outstanding dance teacher. She is absolutely electric on stage, she really keeps the attention of the audience. Isn’t she beautiful?

Pardon me, I’ve been so distracted by my Habibi Dancers’ show (pictures to come probably on Monday) that I forgot something. I’m repeating my travelogue… photos and stories from my trip with Altu to three countries in Africa. It is Today. Today, Sunday April 10. At 6pm to about 8pm. Maybe some local folks might like to attend.

It’s at Bare Bone Studios, 1236 Turner Street in old town (Lansing, Michigan, USA, that is). That is the first block north of Grand River… most of a block down from Creole Gallery, and approximately across the street from the visitors’ center. It’s a red brick building just before the parking lot, same/east side of street as Creole. Go in the right hand door and walk straight back to the far back room.

The event is sponsored by Working Women Artists, but all are welcome.

I hope you can come.

Photo is a boy playing flute in Bahar Dar, Ethiopia.

I have had to be away from my home/office a lot in the last few days. Fortunately for me, I’ve had a few projects I could knit while on the road.

First, I did re-knit the top garter edge for my Watercolor bag that I will be using as a class demo piece on Sunday, at Yarn Garden. I started grafting the new edge to the top of the bag and got almost half done, while waiting for dress rehearsal to start Friday night.

On Thursday I worked on two sets of toe-up socks for my Monday class (and also, consequently, for photos in the almost-ready First-Time Toe-Up Sock pattern I expect to finish early this week). One is in sportweight Reggio (not Regia) which is 80% Wool, and thus feels much better to me than the 75% Wool standard sockyarns. I think part of it is that it’s a little fatter yarn also, but I love this stuff. Cushy. I’m also doing a sample sock in bulky Lamb’s Pride, a sort of slipper socklet. The bulky one is a photo sample for the pattern. I will cry if I can’t keep that pair, though… turquoise and warm is my favorite combination!

AND… I verified that the K2P2 rib swatch I made in cotton/acrylic i-cord tube yarn called Kelly, is to gauge for the tank top I want to knit. So I cast on the 90 required stitches for the back and I have already knit about 3″ on that piece.

I pray I will finish this in my lifetime, but I really love the yarn and the pattern, and it seems like it will knit fast enough on this somewhat fat yarn for me to actually finish. The last sweater I made took me a year, and I did try to start a Sigma Tank a year ago but my gauge changed so much between my figuring moments and my knitting moments, that I had to abandon ship.

However, I just love this swatch after I threw it in the washing machine and dryer, so it seems worth the money for the yarn and the time to knit it. This piece looks pretty wearable to me for summertime. It’s more subtle in person, not as stripey, more like a whole bunch of pinks almost alike. Isn’t the swatch beautiful?

I’m not much of a garment knitter (that is, sweaters/tops), but I think this will work for me. Since I’m very focused on finishing things, I do not like to start if I am not convinced I can finish happily. This pattern is K2P2 rib which I am much more happy knitting, than 90 stitches in knit followed by 90 stitches of purl. Ugh. More than about 4 purls in a row makes me crazy. So far I’m liking this tank just fine, however. So far, so good!

Photos: 1) Watercolor Bag… the too-blue turquoise yarn at top, the too-light/aqua yarn at bottom, and the ball of yarn I finally settled upon, sitting on top waiting its turn. They don’t call me ColorJoy for nothing… color is ultimately important and worth extra effort and time, even for fun projects like this bag. 2) Swatch (4.5″ tall by 6″ wide) of Rosina Kelly yarn, color 101. I love how it’s slightly variegated but very subtle. This thing I should be able to wear with every single thing in my closet!

Here are the long-delayed spring inspirations!

First, I’d be remiss if I did not mention that the Habibi Dancers Show is surely the first harbinger of spring activities, at least in my book. I took these two small photos at rehearsal on Wednesday. This is only the tip of the iceberg… wonderful dances inspired by many cultures, beautiful costumes, wonderful music. Don’t miss it. Hannah Center Auditorium, Saturday, 8pm show, East Lansing.

Second… Here are photos of the daffodils in my yard. First, the two I mentioned two days ago. You can see that the only green in the photo is the daffodil itself. In fact, on Sunday as we drove to our concert in Ann Arbor, I noticed that the grass was not green… it was sort of hinting it wanted to become green but it was still the color of straw as far as the eye could see.

So the next photo here shows how far we have come in four days. This second flower shot is my side yard. Not only is the grass green, but we are just bursting with healthy and happy wild violets. You can see some daffodils on the far left, next to the house, just before the flamingos. We had two really warm and sunny days in a row and they just popped! Even though today was cooler, the flowers were not deterred at all. It was wonderful!

Third, here is a group of my CityKidz Knit! children. It is spring break this week, so I got a few back who have not knit with me in a while. It was great to have them back. The girl at right is holding some new yarn that was donated from a person on one of my email lists, just this week. The color was electric and my girl was thrilled!!! Notice I had three boys and two girls. One boy spent the time casting on and taking the stitches off the needle, then casting on again. The girl at left just learned to knit again recently and was going to town on a wristband.

The girl at right I’ve had for four years now. Her grandma taught her to crochet, so she first crocheted a little and then started a project with knitting and the wild yarns. The other two boys have the same grandma and they decided to crochet today as well. They have a toddler in their life so wanted to make blankets. I am not sure if they will ever finish, but it’s not my job to discourage them (I have tons of yarn, it’s needles I’m constantly short on). So they started crocheted blankets, the two of them. Why not?

In my own knitting news, I bound off the purple Garden Capelet today. I need to string it with its ribbon tie and deliver it to Little Red Schoolhouse. I may wait until Monday so I can show the piece to Kim at Yarn Garden when I’m there on Sunday.

Of course, I feel practically on vacation to have that done. I’ve worked on that far too long somehow. So I didn’t go back to any unfinished projects… of course not. I’m swatching like a crazy girl. I’m playing with some crochet, not sure if that will go anywhere.

However, I finished a K2P2 swatch of a yarn called Kelly, a tube/I-Cord of cotton/acrylic which has a subtle color change in it, mostly a soft raspberry. I measured gauge before blocking by hand, after blocking by hand, then I washed it in the regular laundry and measured again. It looks nice laundered, but definitely has a shorter row measurement. I’m thinking of a tank top, don’t faint. I even have a pattern that works with the gauge I got, the first time out. Woohoo! I’ll take a picture of the swatch another day.

But for now I’m working on things for my Sunday Watercolor Bag class at Yarn Garden in Charlotte, Michigan, and my Monday Toe-Up sock class at Little Red Schoolhouse.

The bag which I am making for myself (I hope), I started with a very bold blue-turquoise solid color. It looked good with the first skein of Kureyon but not the second. So when I got to the end I thought I wanted an aqua, like a color in all 3 skeins. Rob of Threadbear gave me a ball of Cascade 220 in the color I thought I wanted, from stash, and I was sure that would be the right choice. Nope. It’s too pastel, and the bag is bold. So I knit 8 rounds of 144 stitches and I will take that out. It’s worth it, to like the bag better.

So I went back today to Threadbear, and my friend Luann and Rob and I worked at finding the right thing. Rob found it, of course. It’s a sort of darker turqoise/teal on the blue side but not as blue as the first yarn and not quite as green as the second. I think it will be just the thing. So now I’m off to re-knit the border four rows, graft them on the bag, and then knit the bottom of the bag in preparation for my Sunday class. I want to have it ready for me to demo how to complete the bottom of the bag.

That’s all. Nothing new in Lake Wobegon, right? Quiet week and all that. Well, quieter than some times, not as quiet as others. And if it’s too quiet I get bored. But I sure am happy to have that purple capelet done. It’s gorgeous, but I just somehow didn’t enjoy the yarns I picked, thinking they would be easy and fun to work with. Live and learn.

I have to just put in a word for the fun we are going to be having at the Yarn Garden in Charlotte, MI this upcoming Sunday.

Kim and Pat really pull out the stops to make a fun party experience on these weekend classes I have been doing for them since fall. You can bring food if you choose, or just indulge in all the goodies other people bring. You will be full either way. And she has done door prizes for every one of my Sunday class/parties so far, so I would guess there will be more of that as well.

We will be doing the Watercolor Bag this time. You get a pattern included in the class. It takes only 3 skeins of Noro Kureyon and about half a skein of a coordinating solid yarn (I use Cascade 220, you might choose something else that felts). It’s a nice size bag, lightweight for a knitted bag, and it stays closed as you wear the thing around town, which I really like.

It is a very simple project to knit, doesn’t take much time to make up, and looks great. It would be fun for an experienced person looking for a little pick-me-up fun knitting project, and also for a friend who is just learning the basics. There is no purling in this bag, and only a few decreases on the bottom, otherwise it’s straight knitting that doesn’t get boring because of the color changes in the yarn.

I would love to see some of you at the class! You can contact Kim at kim AT yarngardencharlotte DOT com or 517/541-9323. Please join the fun, it’s a wonderful crowd there at the shop. And the pies at the diner across the street… mmmm… Brian always looks forward to that artform when I return from classes in Charlotte. The best!

Does anyone in the Lansing area want to usher for the Habibi Dancers’ Show this coming Saturday? You get a free ticket to the show, which promises to be a treat.

Contact me at Lynn AT ColorJoy DOT Com if you are interested. (If I don’t reply within 8 hours, something went wrong… so resend your email.)

Thanks.

Yesterday I saw my own mini-daffodils blooming. Two of them, they are beautiful. The weather is unbelievable here right now. Sunshine, slight breeze, no need for even a windbreaker at least while the sun shine. I’m in love with life today!

Late last night, this morning and early afternoon I worked on a new pattern… well, actually, I’m changing some class handouts into a real pattern format. Somehow when I started adding photos to the instructions around noon today, the Microsoft Word file corrupted. It thought the pattern was something like 9,000 pages! Ack! Fortunately, I’m a stickler for making backup copies of everything, every single night while I sleep.

Therefore, I’m back to where I was when I went to bed last night, other than having edited ten how-to photographs. (It is a toe-up pattern for new toe-up socknitters, and I want them to succeed. The best way I know to help knitters when I can not be with them, is to give a lot of photographs of the most unusual parts of the process.) So I just will have to re-start on that pattern tonight when I get home.

Because… right now it’s time to drive to Ann Arbor! Today I have dinner with my brother, Eric. I adore him, he’s my best friend. We do not get much time together any more, and I will savor every minute. He can not stay long but I’ll enjoy him while I can.

Then I go to Borders’ Books in Arborland (Ann Arbor, Michigan) for a knit in. I’ve missed the last 3 times this group has come together. I miss them. I’m happy to go back.

Pictures of daffodils tomorrow.

We had a wonderful time in Ann Arbor last night. I can not think of something I would rather do.

Gerald Ross started the concert. He is a talent par excellance, and he shared the stage with a few friends (Paul on fiddle and Kathy on ukulele) and a big handful of different instruments. He plays them all beautifully.

Gerald Ross is well-loved and well-respected in traditional music circles and ukulele circles. He has an amazing lack of ego, considering his wonderful talent.

After he played, we had our turn. We had a wonderful time. The audience was right there with us the whole show. You just can not buy such a fine evening!

And then today, Gerald Ross wrote a review on EZ-Folk, of our portion of the concert. It’s glowing with high regard, and from such a fabulous musician, I got a little choked up reading it. After all, this is what I always wanted to do… since I was a very little girl (just ask my Mom).

Thanks go to Gerald for taking the time and energy, and putting such beautiful words together on our behalf. Perhaps you would take a minute and go read it yourself.

Thanks to everyone who made the concert happen. Kathy, Joan, Richard (the three volunteers we met), Gerald, Paul and the rest at AACTMAD, thank you. We had a wonderful time.

This photo was taken by Kathy Gravlin with my camera, during the show. Thanks, Kathy!

Just a small note… today would be my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary. Dad died after they were only married 18 years if I remember right.

I did write mom earlier today to wish her a good day, and it sounds like she did have one. But it’s worth sending public good wishes to this very special lady… who had to raise two teenagers herself for about 5 years, something out of the blue. And who taught me by being strong and independent, how to be strong and independent.

Happy Anniversary, Mom!

First, a message from our sponsor: If you are in Ann Arbor or near Ann Arbor, Michigan today, please consider coming to our concert tonight. We are sharing the stage with the great Gerald Ross. Concert is at Pittsfield Grange, off 94. Concert information on the AACTMAD website. Now, we return to our previously-scheduled broadcast…

Happiness:
What a difference a day makes! I rested, knit, and took a leisurely 1.5 hour nap on Saturday. No more headache, no more tummy ache. I must have had a small gut bug, and sleeping (plus the magical properties of the ginger Altu gave me) made it go away.

Food:
Brian brought me dinner from Altus, total comfort food in every way. I had lima bean stew (her lima beans are to die for, really… Americans have no idea how good this food can be if seasoned properly) on rice. With extra cabbage (yum) on the side. My favorite food on the planet! Healing food.

Music:
After my nap and dinner, I felt energetic enough to have a pretty excellent practice with Brian on our music. Then I even took the time to make some Coconut-Brown Sugar Tapioca Pudding, which takes only a few minutes but will be a very nice breakfast for me tomorrow.

Watercolor Bag:
I knit almost all of my Noro Kureyon for my Watercolor Bag. I have perhaps one inch of knitting left before I change to solid-colored yarn and knit the base of the bag. Except I really want a different solid turquoise than I started with. (Note: Three hours after I posted this entry, I added a picture of most of one side of the bag, showing the edge color.)

This happened on my last bag experiment (a smaller as-yet unpublished bag)… I realized I wanted a lighter purple trim than I’d started with, so I cast on again, knit 4 rows/2 ridges of garter stitch, then I hand-grafted the new bag rim onto the Kureyon. I’m doing it again… I just need the right turquoise. The one I started with is very blue, and I really need a greener version to make this bag pull together the way I want.

I used two skeins of a Kureyon colorway that is mostly magenta/pink, with a little blue and green. Then the middle skein is mostly greens with blue and a little of everything, but mostly greens. There is a very bluish turquoise in the magenta skeins, but the middle has none of that color at all. I want to find a greenish turquoise, almost an aqua, and reknit the edge, and graft it on.

It’s 120 stitches of grafting, but I don’t mind at all when it’s flat. I don’t like doing kitchener/grafting on toes of socks very much because I can not lay the stitches flat on a table, and it is more distracting for me. But flat, that is a piece of cake, and I really love working with a sewing needle.

The only problem will be finding the right color of yarn in the right weight/fiber. I guess I will take a Sunday trip to either Threadbear or Little Red Schoolhouse, both stores which carry many colors of Cascade 220 (the yarn I specified in my pattern) and are open on Sundays. Lucky me.

Garden Capelet:
But I can’t spend all day knitting, because it’s concert day! I had really hoped to wear this Garden Capelet in sparkly purples, over my wedding dress (the turquoise silk dress I wear in our promotional photo). It would be gorgeous, but it will not be ready Sunday night.

In fact, I did do almost my quota for Friday and Saturday (that would be 16 rows), but then I realized I’d used a yarn out of order (I miss my random yarn thing that I use in ColorJoy Stoles, I just don’t do regular rotations very well). I had to unknit, one stitch at a time, about 175 stitches. So I’m two rows, or 200 stitches, behind my 4-rows in the morning, 4-rows at night, goal for the last 2 days.

I made my mistake when trying to read and knit. Drat. I truly need to just sit on the couch and knit this thing, without taking my eyes off it. This might be a perfect knit-in project, where folks chat while knitting, but lately I’m so busy with dance rehearsals at night that I’ve missed a month’s worth of knit-in’s, even my beloved Ann Arbor Borders group.

But my Watercolor Bag will be ready for phase 2 on Monday, and my class is not until Thursday. I guess I can start knitting my I-cord handles while I wait for class time to arrive.

Wowie, did I need a quick-knit project! I thought the capelet would be fast, but this particular set of three yarns is just fiddly… and I’m on bamboo needles when I really prefer the plastic ones I used for the first capelet (and the second, which is not even half-knit and on hold because it’s for my closet and not a yarn shop).

I like fast projects. That’s why I’ve done 111 pairs of socks, infinite hats/wristwarmers/legwarmers/scarves, but only 2 sweaters. I have a real need to FINISH. So I’m very happy that I could get so far so fast on the bag, while cranking away slowly on the other slower project.

This is the time of year when many of us need more rest. The pollen and the mildew (from the gorgeous flowers, trees, grass, and the rain which makes them beautiful) just take the energy right out of me. It’s also harder to sleep in the morning when the sun comes up earlier and earlier, and wakes me before my normal time.

And one day it’s 65F and so warm I leave my coat in the car. The next day (or even later in the same day) I wonder why I left my ear muffs at home! I think it is no surprise this is cold season. The body has to switch between cooling off and warming up, back and forth, and it is hard on us.

And then I did my annual stay-up-too-late evening before the meeting with the tax guy. I know better, I think I’m all prepared, and then the night before I panic and dig through all the millions of piles of papers I have until past 3am. It’s not a lot later than usual for me, but with the early sunrise it’s a bad combination.

So today… aaah. Today I rest.

I had scheduled a class for today, but the class is not a “go.” I then planned to dye yarn, but I’m very tired. For once in my life, I’m going to listen to my body talking to me. I’m going to rest. Preventative maintenance. If I rest now, maybe I can avoid illness later. That is my plan, anyway!

I did get up a bit early today, to go to a dance rehearsal. The Habibi Dancers’ big annual show is a week from today. I’m in two dances, so I have regular troupe rehearsals on Wednesdays, plus one of my dances has rehearsals on Fridays, the other has alternated Tuesdays and Saturdays. I’ll be glad to have fewer rehearsals in a week, though it is good for me to be physical more often.

But now I’m at home, alone in the quiet happiness of my cozy house. And I am knitting my Watercolor bag like there is no tomorrow (I’m almost done with skein 2 out of 3 skeins of Kureyon). I am going to just prop myself up with a zillion pillows on the couch, wrap up in my Ethiopian gahbi (a wonderful, warm hand-woven cotton blanket with 4 layers), and knit.

Altu gave me a bit of fresh ginger root today, so I am pretending I’m in Altu’s mother’s house in Ethiopia, drinking the good tea she always made for me. Altu’s mom made sure I had a full thermos of tea 24/7 while I was there, and it often was flavored with different herbs and spices, sometimes ginger. I’ve got some black tea from an Egyptian company (I think the tea is actually from Sri Lanka), and I’m dreaming of Egypt and Ethiopia while drinking this great tea. Mmmmm….

Photos today: 1) Tea at Altu’s Mom’s house… the spoon is silver and you can’t see it well upside down, but the handle is in the shape of a native Ethiopian animal, I think an antelope, with curly horns. Notice the green herb on the right side of the cup. This is a very aromatic herb which is often added to tea, we had it for breakfast a lot. An interesting point is that in Ethiopian restaurants they often serve you spiced hot water (it tasted like cloves and cinnamon at minimum), in a teacup or small pot. The teabag is often on the side, as you see in the US, but spices are already in the water. It’s very good!

An interesting note about this last photo, is that the woman is coming home from a funeral. You can tell she is in mourning, because she is wearing the decorative trim of the fabric around her head. Usually the decoration is on the bottom hem, but they wear it upside down when they mourn.

Thursday was fun and jam-packed, as predicted. (The only surprise was that I didn’t feel like driving to the east side to buy dinner, so I bought groceries and cooked a broccoli stir-fry instead.)

The CityKidz sure had a fun time making yarn again Thursday. I ended up with two batches of kids, but in one pot. This was predictable, as I start at 3:30 on Thursdays, which is really early for kids who get out of school no earlier than 3pm, and walk to the center.

I added the second group’s yarn on top of the yarn already in my roaster pan (the pan was huge and the yarn barely touched capa