Before I get into everything else, I need to thank my Mom for having me over to her house today for tea. I had a very nice time.

Possible Projects
The title is a little wrong today… I do dream I’m knitting sometimes but this is about daydreaming of possible projects.

I have my two precious skeins of Colinette Tagliatelli, and I want to do a slim-sleeved shrug for dancing in. I found Karen H on the Knitlist this week, and we have so much in common! She’s much ahead of me in the shrug-knitting department, and I intend to let her inspire me until I actually get my shrug knit.

I also found, while looking for other things, the mini-sweater (AKA boobholder, I kid you not) by Glampyre. Her site shows reader’s versions of the sweater, and I like the one by Fig and Plum, where she made it without lace edging and with fitted sleeves rather than puffy ones. Hers is striped, too, which in this sweater I happen to like a lot.

Here comes a maybe too-personal confession… about a year ago I became somewhat allergic to the polyester-wrapped elastic common on ladies’ support garments. I don’t like itching from elastic at all, but I’m getting tired of the pull of gravity. Therefore, this sweater looks like a possible relief from the gravity thing. Hmmm, might work.

Now, trust me… I’ve never been hip or cool or pushing the edge. I’ve learned to just be me, because we must be authentic or we can’t truly be trusted… but it just shocks me when I end up attracted to things from hip places. Glampyre is so not me in so many ways but she designed legwarmers and now this mini sweater. Both of which I would wear.

The ribbed tank top I just finished was from Knit 1, the mini-magazine sponsored by Lion Brand yarn and Vogue Knitting, aimed at young, cool, hip knitters. I did alter the heck out of it (no keyhole slit down the back, thank you, and no “bust detail” which did nothing to shape the garment, either).

I figure maybe it’s just that young people, for whom most of these garments are intended, are small people. And so am I, all 46-years-old, with a streak of silver hair, uncool me. So maybe that is why I keep finding hip, young-person clothes I like. Because they would fit me fairly well? Do you think that’s it?

A Slowdown this Week
/begin short whine/
OK so I’m a little bummed and will indulge in minor complaining and then I’ll shut up. The bad news: I’ve been having food allergy symptoms, since I got back from Africa. In the last week I had a doozy, where I felt like I had the flu from it. The good news: I think I finally figured it out. The one earlier this week clearly followed a day when I ate a large portion of cashews. I had suspected cashews as a problem a while ago and had mostly avoided them since. I have suspected walnuts once, also.

Well, today I ate something with sunflower oil and I had symptoms again. Luckily, my Mom noticed early on that my upper lip had turned red and blotchy and we put 2&2 together. When I go back in my mind to when I’ve had trouble before that, it was when I had a dessert from Aladdin’s restaurant which contains cashews. Drat. Nuts and seeds apparently give me trouble. I guess that’s easier to stop eating than a lot of other things (like tomatoes, which were another suspect food). For someone who doesn’t eat much meat at all, nuts/seeds are one possible protein source… but I’ll find other foods now.

I have been pretty darned tired of feeling bad for “no reason.” I’d rather not be allergic, but if I am, I really feel relieved that I figured it out.

OK, back to gratefulness. I don’t stop breathing when I’m allergic, I don’t need an emergency room… I just need rest. I’m clear this is not terminal. It’s an irritation and that is all.

Thanks. I feel better.
/end whine/

Socknitting Update
I’m still plugging away on Brian’s socks. I’m at the middle of sock #2 although sock 1 needs more work on the cuff when I get there. However, I’m at a point where I need to pay attention and I was going to Mom’s house to socialize.

So I grabbed some Naturally Merino Fine’ 10 ply (DK?) I’d gotten at Rae’s and some size 2 needles and started a toe up pair for me. I’m already where I need to mark the spot for my afterthought heel on sock #1.

Didn’t start sock #2 at Mom’s, cuz I didn’t have any needles. I’d tried to buy them at Threadbear’s sale this week but others beat me to it. Therefore I stopped at Rae’s (they are so close and it was almost closing time, or I might instead have stopped in to see Linda at Little Red Schoolhouse who I haven’t seen in *too long*). I really need to knit both sox about the same time or my tension changes and I end up with 2 socks of different sizes. No good!

When I was at Rae’s I met Elise, who recognized me from the Melissa Leapman workshop this spring. It was nice to meet her. We know a handful of the same people and she showed me this very cool huge felted bag she designed. It’s exactly the size of the canvas bag I carry, perfect for carrying everything all at once. I hope she makes the pattern available sometime. It’s that good.

Of course I couldn’t resist buying yarn, so I got some multicolored turquoise, spring green and white Kroy 4 sockyarn. I just finished that other pair #114 in solid pink Kroy 4 and I really think they will last forever. They went fast (maybe that was a fluke but I’ll give credit to the yarn) so I want more. It’s pretty well priced.

Gardening Dreams
Then I went to JoAnn Fabric and saw my friend Marie working, while I bought another ceramic pot to plant lettuce in outdoors. I seem obsessed with the thought of harvesting lettuce but not so obsessed with the planting of the seeds! I’m pretty funny that way. I’m excellent at dirt avoidance.

Mom’s Food-Plant Landscaping
Anyway here’s a picture of my mom in her front garden. (Please forgive the bad outdoor lighting.) The groundcover is strawberries. The low plants that look like bushes with large leaves, would be rhubarb. The tall bush to the right of her is one of her many elderberry bushes, with a grape vine climbing up it.

I’d say that Mom has the knack for landscaping with food plants! (The other 2 photos are a plant in my own garden, given to me by my Mother-in-Law, 3 years ago… it finally bloomed. Whew!)

I remember when I was in middle school science class, we were to plan a garden. I wanted to plant carrots as a border because I thought they had beautiful lacy leaves.

The other kids were relentless teasing me about wanting to plant food in a flower garden. They were horrible, and they kept teasing me long after that class was completed. I never let down my enthusiasm for the idea, but I also did not ever plant the carrots.

Now I see where I got that inclination. My mother is equally interested in practical but beautiful gardens, and if food plants can do the job, definitely choose them over mere flowers! Go, Mom!

Do you notice mom is wearing turquoise pants with pink, and hot pink socks to match (peek through the rhubarb at her feet)? The apple doesn’t fall very far from the tree, they say…

A Reminder
(Local folks note: Saturday/tomorrow is Tourist in Your Own Town day again. I’m meeting Altu for lunch tomorrow so maybe I can take her to Turner-Dodge Mansion. I know she would really enjoy that.)

Eric Maisel wrote Fearless Creating, a book I really love and have devoured very slowly, nibble by nibble, over months and months. It has been worth the slow and steady approach, to really savor and learn from it well. Here is a web page he wrote about creativity:

http://www.ericmaisel.com/create.html

Here are two quotes from that quite long page:

…whatever else you might need to do, one thing that will help you grow more creative is consciously engaging in new explorations. If we do not explore, we do not get to go anywhere new, and if we do not go anywhere new, we can’t be creative…

…The psychologist Otto Rank, who took a special interest in artists, likened them to heroes. We know that everyday creative people are very fallible, very human, and regularly unheroic, just like you and me, so to call them heroic feels like hyperbole. Yet, since so many people fear making a creative effort, it turns out that there must be something heroic about launching yourself across that gorge and into that unknown jungle. Maybe everyday creative people really are heroic and maybe the courage they show is among the very most important: the courage to leave for the unknown.

By the way, this page is written in the same style as his books. If you like the page, I’d say a book by the man would be worth your while.

What is notable is that he is clear while writing about artists/creative people, that he is one by being a writer himself. This makes his work different, to me, than many other books written somehow as if they were from the outside looking in.

Some lesser-known books Dr. Maisel recommends on this subject are found at this page:
http://www.ericmaisel.com/store.html

This site is worth a look, my friends. It’s a little overwhelming, perhaps, but just jam-packed with encouragement for any creative soul. As they say on the email lists, NAYY (No Affiliation, Yadda Yadda…)

Photo: Sunset over Mount Hope Cemetery in Lansing, approximately May 26 (a Thursday). The little building you can see on the hill, is the RE Olds family Mausoleum. It’s a beautiful cemetery and I pass it nearly every day. I took an autumn photograph there in October 2003.

I could not have had a better day. When I woke up I just wanted to stay home, but I’m glad I did not. I taught a polymer clay class in the morning, had lunch at Aladdin’s, then dropped in at Rae’s with a few samples for the patterns of mine she is carrying.

At Rae’s, I ran into a former computer student of mine, who is a very skilled knitter. She also happens to be the mother of the man who was my math teacher from 1972-1974 or so. He’s wonderful, she’s delightful, and it was great to see her.

I was also thrilled to see that Rae is now knitting my Turkish Toe-Up Sock design. It is always a rush to see my work out there in the world! I doubt I’ll ever get used to it, really. I’m delighted.

So, then I went to see my CityKidz followed by Habibi Dancers rehearsal, both at Foster Community Center. I can not tell you how magical my one hour with five knitting girls was today. They were worried because I will not be doing any knitring programa through the City Parks and Rec this summer. I told them I would miss them and maybe I would have a little knitting gathering or party this summer.

They left me their names and phone numbers (they are already registered with our office but sometimes I get confused… three of the 5 girls today have names that are really similar to one another, and each week I have a different combination of kids. Well, on that phone list they started writing me little love notes (all in cursive writing, they are very proud of that). As in:

Mrs. Lynn you rock

You Rule
your (sic) the
Best!!!

You are a wonderful person and knitter!

There were notes by their names, including “Knitting Rocks!!” and “I Love Knittig” (sic).

And then there are small drawings: a little heart, and three little depictions of knitting, one with knitting on one needle and an empty needle, two of balls of yarn with empty needles. Adorable. All this on a half sheet of letter paper that was intended to simply be a phone list for me (I have airbrushed out personal information). I’m enchanted. I’m positively full of love, bursting heart proud of these wonderful young ladies (most of whom are in 3rd grade).

One girl is knitting a pouch/small purse. Two of the girls are knitting baby hats for their principal, who is expecting a baby boy. Two are knitting “baby blankets.” Mind you, one of them insisted that she couldn’t knit more than 26 stitches so that will be a very small blanket (her mother is expecting next month). The last girl is a little older and fully prepared to do a lot of knitting. Her mother bought her some fat yarn and she has designed a blanket in four squares, to be sewn together. She drew me a picture so that I could see what she had planned. She wants two dark squares and two light, alternating. See why I’m proud?

Here is a photo of four of my five girls that stopped in today. The two on the right are wearing wristbands they knit in my class, though it’s hard to see the one on the far right because of her pose. Notice the sign they put on my whiteboard? They did ask first, they have learned to respect boundaries in my class… I let them do it this time (I can’t be wasting markers often but I bought some of my own markers this term). They wanted that sign behind them in their picture!

We had beautiful summer-like weather again today in Lansing. I am so in love… with life, with my husband, with teaching, with these lovely young knitters. I’m just bursting with it all. Yes, it’s corny to say it that way, but I don’t care! You can not buy passion, and I’m reveling in these feelings while I have them to experience. Lucky me!

Drat, it’s time to post this and go to bed, and my internet connection is down. I will save this text on my own computer until I can connect to you all. I am still working on Brian’s birthday socks, most of the way up the foot from the toe on sock #2. I got more yarn today at Threadbear so I am not in danger of running out now. Pictures when they are actually done… Till then, may you also find magic in *your* day.