On Friday I spent the day in Monroe, Michigan (11 miles from Toledo, Ohio). I went to a machine knitting workshop. There were 3 presenters, each was given about an hour and a half. Those women were pushing like crazy to demo as many great tips as they possibly could, in that short time! My head was spinning, but I was happy. I have a photo here of Joyce Banfi, my third instructor. She showed me some things I think I may incorporate in a new (handknit) felted bag, as sooooon as possible!

I still have not had time to sit down at my new knitting machine (A Singer 700 with ribber, which I got in late November just before I left for a month in Africa). I have many plans but no time, yet. At least I can flip through Knitwords, the Machine Knitting machine from Ontario published by Mary Anne Oger (one of the demonstrators this Friday). I have plans to make a few projects from this magazine as my learning projects. Not today, but soon, I hope.

Please don’t write me if you need information about my knit machines (I’m too novice to be of help), but consider subscribing to MACHKNIT @ LIST.LISTHOST.COM (remove spaces) if you want a friendly group who will actually perhaps have some answers for you.

However, I did sit this morning and I tried a new kind of cast on I learned at the workshop. I like how it looks a lot, but I made it significantly too tight for the project I was making (a wristwarmer). I will no doubt just rip out the whole thing and do it again with a looser cast on, and I will try again to do a proper bind off (there is one that matches the look of the cast on so I’ll give that one a try).

Saturday I couldn’t make it to Monroe again because I taught “Felting without Knitting” (wet felting with loose fibers) at Threadbear. We had an absolute blast! Here are Noel and Crystal (I’m hoping I spelled their names right, I can’t find my notes) showing off their class projects. Great job, ladies!

I met Chappy two Bloomiefests ago. (If you click that link to this year’s Bloomiefest, that would be Chappy in the plaid shirt 2nd from right, unravelling a storebought sweater.) That means we met March of 2004, I guess. We both are chatty, passionate and focused quite heavily on our fiberart lives. We clicked.

Well, two years ago at Bloomiefest she bought some handpainted yarn from me, a base yarn I don’t usually offer but that I love. It’s worsted weight and washable. Well, she liked the first batch (it was white, purple and pink). So this year I just happened to have a few skeins of another colorway, in the same yarn. This year it was turquoise, blue and purple on silver, and I named the yarn Cool Pool.

Well, Chappy is in the Six-Socks Knitalong, and she made their Chutes and Ladders socks in my Cool Pool Yarn. Today she sent me a photo. Here you see a before (yarn) and after (socks) set of photos. I love them both!

Chappy has an Ebay store called Chappy’s Fiber Arts and Crafts, where she sells a lot of things related to handwork. A lot of her merchandise right now is cross stitch and other needlework that I don’t know well enough to describe properly.

However, she also has several sets of these amazing sock blockers you see in her photo, with several motifs: cats, dogs, lightning bolts, acorns, who knows what all. And beaded stitch markers, and a few beaded knitted bags (I think they are kits to make the bag, from what I can tell). I just checked out her site and on page 9 was where the blockers started. At least right now, that’s where they are.

Chappy, thanks so much for brightening my day with this picture!

To the rest of you, I’m off on Friday for a full day in Monroe, Michigan. I’ll be at a Machine Knitting workshop (the workshop is Fri/Sat but I’m teaching feltmaking Saturday so I’m going for one day).

I’m really looking forward to meeting some of my online friends from a Machine Knitting list I recently found (the nicest people you can imagine). I have this “new” Singer 700 machine that I’ve never used, it has a ribber and I don’t even know how to cast on or do anything with the ribber at this point. (It also has punch cards, but I’m emphatically not ready for that yet.) I got it right before I went to Africa and thus didn’t have my normal December down time that I used the year before to play with my previous machine.

I figure I’ll go and watch some people use machines with this type of setup and see if I can jump-start my learning curve. And meet other folks who maybe live closer to me than 2 hours away. Then I can go home and actually try this gizmo I bought!!! In my spare time, right??? Right.

See you Saturday.

Wednesday I had lunch with my friend Sharon P/Knitknacks at the Better Health Cafe, and then we walked across the street to Rae’s Yarn Shop. It turns out that Sharon was Rae’s 8th grade teacher, so they had much catching up to do.

Sharon also brought me a goodie, a blue and silver feather boa she found in a shop on the wild streets of New Orleans several weeks ago! My, was that fun, wearing it into the grocery store, to Rae’s, to Foster Center, Habibi Dancers rehearsal, and Altus all in one day! I felt like a glamorous movie star from the 1960s, long slim gown with ruffle at the very bottom.

It’s funny… you can not see down into your purse when wearing a feather boa. You get distracted by odd movements that are feathers floating this way or that way. It is defninitely not business attire! But then again, my business is art, and I had such fun doing the glam queen thing all day! Sharon took photos, I hope she finds the time in her busy retired life to post them someday soon.

Saturday Possibilities
And now for a note from our sponsor… on Saturday I’m teaching “Felting without Knitting” (wet felting, from fluff to fabric) at Threadbear. It’s from noon to 3pm, $25 plus materials. Email Rob AT threadbearfiberarts.com to reserve a spot.

I started my journey back to wool with feltmaking (before I knit a single sock). I did a public feltmaking performance in August of 2001, called The Fabric of Friendship. It is an artform that you can succeed with early on, but it can become more refined the more you want to push it. Great hands-on fun! I hope you join me.

Bring a water bottle and you can make a wool cozy for it, if you want (this is really effective, good insulation and you can’t feel the drips on the side of the cold bottle)… or make bits of fabric for cutting and sewing later, or make pillow covers (these are really beautiful and not difficult). We’ll all start by making a mug rug to get the hang of it and then you can go 3-D, even felt beads, or keep growing your flat pieces, whichever you prefer.

Also: this Saturday evening from 6:30-8:30pm, Brian and I are performing at Altu’s Ethiopian Cuisine as The Fabulous Heftones. It would be a delight to see any of you there!

By the way, I got a confirmation email today from Geoff Davis of the Midwest Ukefest. We’re definitely on the stage there again this year. It’s in Indianapolis, the weekend of Halloween. Great fun for participants and audience alike!

Let’s face it, you can only approach a ukulele with a smile on your face. The folks who play uke are the most easy group to get along with you could imagine. And the different styles of music that can come out of a tiny instrument with 4 strings, are mind boggling indeed. If you don’t play, you can bring a different instrument (perhaps kazoo?) or just listen in. Consider a trip, it is a wonderful time.

Gratitude
I’m always so amazed when I mention something in my life to someone local, and they say “Yes, I know, I read that on your blog.” Whew! Cool.

I’m up to what we think are 800 visitors a day just to this blog page alone, who apparently are actually trying to come to the blog (I get 1200 unique page visits a day to my site, but some are at other pages and some are looking for “beautiful girls in hawaiian skirts” so are on the wrong page for sure!!!

Nevertheless, I somehow started this blog thinking it was for people “out there.” People I did not know yet, and might never meet. I didn’t have any idea that folks in my regular, everyday, local Lansing life would want to read it. I’m absolutely thrilled to find out I was wrong… both local and world traffic pops by here. I am humbled and grateful for every one of you!

Photos: Me hiding behind a piece of felt my mother and I created together; The Fabulous Heftones at Creole Gallery many years ago, playing for a concert called “Uketopia.”

Someone left me an interesting phone message today. It says basically: “Heliotrope, Lynn… Heliotrope.” So THAT is the name of the beautiful flower!

Now, this is unfair! I am very very bad at recognizing voices on the phone, never mind that my digital phone recorder is not the best. I know SO many people, see so many folks every week. But I know it has to be one of you out there who reads my weblog (and also most likely is local and somehow can easily get my phone number). Thank you, whoever you are.

The good news is it’s a perennial. The bad news? The page I found to tell me about the flower, says it wants full sun and doesn’t like to dry out. That leaves my garden out. My full sun area does in fact dry out sometimes, especially in August when I get so busy I don’t get home till after dark… or I leave town for a few days here and there. I teach at Michigan Fiber Festival for several days, for example.

Boo Hoo. The flowers are exquisite!

So what’s up in Lansing? Well, it is chilly after weeks of significantly hotter than usual weather. We usually get a few, maybe 4 or 5 hot days all summer. We’ve had weeks over 85F degrees. So right now as I type this, it is 60F. I have a sweatshirt, long pants, and thick (worsted weight) wool socks on, and a lap blanket as well. We do have the front door cracked open for fresh air but wowie, did the world turn upside down in 3-4 days. Literally three nights ago we put the air conditioner in the bedroom window for the first time all summer, because it was finally so hot we knew we would never be able to sleep well without some relief. And now this!

I am *NOT* in charge. This is my new mantra since just before I went to Africa. It works very well in relation to weather, not so well with work. (Although I can’t remember the last time, before tonight, where I went to the National Weather Service page for Lansing and didn’t see any thunderstorm predictions. I’ll take the good I can get.)

I guess I missed my wool socks, anyway.

Photos: The wool socks I’m wearing right now. My pair is shown in magenta, a design I call Pied Piper socks because the blue ones for Brian followed closely behind. Mine are pair 34, they are the next pair after those in my LynnH SockTour. Brian’s were pair 36, because I finished a pair for a swap between the two for us.

They look so clean and tidy in the photo… right now mine are darned using two different colors of pink yarns, but they are just as comfy and warm as ever. Both pair were knit using Dale Freestyle worsted-weight washable wool. I swear, this yarn never pills, even in washer and dryer! Amazing stuff.

Last Friday I went to the Ann Arbor Art Fair. It is a bit of a pilgrimage for me, I go to be with the other creative folks there. I spend my time talking to artists, and I often do not buy anything. I sometimes buy clothing from April Bates, a woman who has a distinct style of dyeing cotton and rayon clothing… when I have a few bucks to spend. Usually I just go to be there, and my expenses are gas and food.

This time I talked a long time to April B. and I talked to Deborah Banyas who makes soft scupture “dolls” from fabric, polymer clay and other “props” which are made to be hung on a wall. Then I made my way clear across town (this is actually 4 different art fairs held on the same weekend) to see Kathleen Dustin, a world-class polymer clay artist. She’s so polished and artful that when Ornament Magazine advertises itself, they often use her work to make them look good.

I have always wanted a piece of Kathleen’s work but most of her pieces top $1,000 USD (and are worth every penny). Once (around 1997) I found a small necklace piece of hers for $135 but at that moment even that reasonable price was beyond my means (I’ve never stopped regretting that missed chance, though).

Well, this weekend she had some earrings that were enough less than $100 that I went ahead. They are gorgeous and I’m delighted to have them. They are very wearable (I wore them to perform with Abbott Brothers on Saturday) and I just might wear them out over the years!!! Irridescent blue and turquoise with dots of matte hot green, on large earwires. I’m thrilled!

Anyway, when I was in Ann Arbor I found a beautiful pot of plants (put there by the city, I’m sure) with this interesting purple flower in it. The leaves are very dark and the purple is intense. I don’t know this flower at all, am wondering if anyone out there knows what it is and whether it’s a perennial or annual (am guessing the latter). This is a really beautiful flower! It was paired with sweet potato vines, that pale yellow-green color, and the combination was striking.

Monday was my last night of the term/school year, for my computer classes in Haslett. Boo Hoo! I will miss these fine folks.

In my first class, two ladies who are fast friends and who come to class together, brought me a lovely bouquet of deep red carnations. They did not know that red carnations perhaps are my favorite flower. Certainly they are my favorite hothouse/florist flower! I was very touched and honored by this loving gift.

Then in my second class (where Helen brought her incredible knitted bedspread last week), Elaine brought an assortment of amazing hats (in a wonderful genuine hat box, no less) and a piece she did with a rughooking technique, which she hopes to make into a cushion. The hats are all knit and fulled/felted, with really artful bands and embellishments. The one back row right has beaded trim coming off the edges of the brim. Wonderful!!!

And last but certainly not least, Marti brought her ColorJoy Stole. It’s about one or two rows from completion, she may just need to bind off and that could be it! She has really stuck to it and it really is just a beautiful fabric for her. The colors up close are almost reflective, they remind me of a peacock feather but not as dark. Congratulations, Marti! Make sure to wear it in sometime when you don’t have needles in it, and we’ll get an even better photo!

It is wonderful to see how my night class has turned into quite a cohesive group of folks who enjoy one another. Even out of class! I had about ten of my students between the two classes, who came out to my Alterra’s concert last Thursday. And tonight we got an invitation to join a potluck which is mostly someone’s Tai Chi class end-of-year gathering. It’s really a great group of folks!

I have no computer classes to teach now (on Mondays, anyway) until the second week of September. I’m not sure I know what to do with all that freedom. I will miss my students who are turning into friends (as often happens with adults). But I do have a few adventures up my sleeve, and I’ll enjoy those for a while instead, I guess.

Photos: 1)Flowers from students Dolly and Bea. 2&3)Hats and rughooked piece by Elaine. 4)Marti in her (so-close-to-finishing-it-squeaks)ColorJoy Stole.

I had a wonderful weekend at Threadbear. Saturday, I taught polymer clay and Sunday I taught ColorJoy Stole. As usual, there was a parade of great folks traipsing through the shop, some not from Lansing. It felt a bit like a party and I loved it.

Saturday I got an extra-special surprise… Jillian/Knittingfrau tapped me on the shoulder and then gave me the very best of hugs. She looks great, as usual. I introduced her to my students and we had a small chat about her upcoming book (Big Girl Knits, if you missed my blog entry a few days back).

Jillian’s book will contain designs with curves built in, for curvy gals. Gotta love it. I’m a small girl with curves, so I figure I’ll still learn something from it. As in, creating darts so armholes don’t gap in tank tops? As in, adjusting patterns to sizes outside the written boundaries? The way Big Girls have to do it all the time? You got it!

Sunday I met Janet from Lansing, who had previously purchased a pattern from me through the internet. She figured out I must be LynnH and introduced herself. It was great to meet her!

It’s alway satisfying to me when folks can recognize me in person, based on what they have seen/read on my web pages. Let’s face it, one photo is not really enough to know what someone’s face looks like… but I imagine that my business/website name “ColorJoy” paired with my manner of dress is a big hint. It delights me, in any case, when people pick me out in a crowd. I must be doing a good job of being *me* on the web.

Here are photos of my students’ works of art this weekend. First is a communal baking tray from polymer clay class, with buttons and beads and fun shapes by students (and two by me).

Following that are Cathie’s stole (with her pretty red hair peeking through to prove how great these colors will be on her), then Sherida with her just-started stole, and Sharon with her early stole progress, on the monster 20mm needle she will use every so often to create “dropped garter stitch” rows (rather than double-wrapping her needle to do the same thing). Sharon P., by the way, was the one who recommended the monster needle for this, and it works well for a good portion of my ColorJoy Stole students.

Saturday our band, Abbott Brothers, played at Altu’s restaurant. We had a wonderful time! Our friend, Edna, popped by with her washboard and played a few tunes with us. She sometimes jams with us, and Barbara gave her a call to let her know we’d love to see her at the show. That was great fun!

For some reason I was so into the singing that I forgot to ask anyone to take pictures of us. Go figure!

Oh… by the way, Anne Erickson of the Lansing State Journal focused on Altu’s and the Abbott Brothers, in her column this week. If you still have your Thursday paper/What’s On section, it’s toward the back of the section, under the subheading “A new dining experience.” The good news is that it is also readable on the web (scroll down a bit).

There were no pictures of restaurant or band, but Anne did a nice job with the article. For the record, Altu’s holds 50 diners… I guessed too low when I was interviewed. It’s very cozy in any case.

Since we got no photos at the concert tonight, here is one of my favorite photos of my dear friend, Altu. I took this photo at a restaurant in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, probably in the first few days of the year 2005. She laughs easily, and this photo looks like she is ready to laugh a bit. I love that sparkle in her eyes!

Brian and I played to a receptive crowd at Alterra’s in Haslett, this Thursday. It was a wonderful place for us to play, and we had a great time.

Alterra’s is a retirement community, a small and intimate one next to some of the others in town. The staff really seems to have it together and really enjoy the residents there.

I thought it was great to hear two of the residents talking after the concert, about their cats. I think it is wonderful folks can have a small pet at a place such as this. So often people have to give up their comfort and their lifestyle when they move out of their homes. I was impressed.

Alterra’s opened up the garden party (which ended up inside because of hot weather and threat of thunderstorms) to the local public. I saw twelve folks I knew, who came in to see the concert. My mom and her faithful friend, Fai, were there. Most of the others I knew were students in my Haslett community ed computer classes. Helen, the woman who made the bedspread in yesterday’s post, was there with a friend who happened to be a student of mine at Foster Center. And it turns out Helen’s friend/my student also knew my mother. Sometimes the Lansing community is such a small town!!! At least it seems so when I go to arts events.

Here’s a photo of Brian and I at Alterra’s, taken by our friend Hanno. Thanks for the photo, Hanno!

My computer student, Helen, is over 80 years young. She bounces when she walks, she smiles more than she doesn’t smile, she always has something interesting to say. And she’s a great knitter.

These days she’s lightening her load, and that means she has given me some wonderful pattern booklets (and many supplies for the kids at Foster Center). The coolest of them all had socks, ties, accessories (scarf/hat/mittens/gloves), and more socks. Argyles, cables, you name it. The copyright date was 1939, I adore the photographs especially i this one.

The ties are pretty wonderful as well (I’m planning to knit one of these fairly soon in red for a friend)… but the socks make me think I could stand to do a lot of purling just to have finished this artful style! Oh, the argyles and related styles are heaven to the eyes!

So last week, Helen brought in her bedspread. It is heavy! It’s a thick knit in pure 100% wool, which appears to be worsted weight. It was knit in strips but then sewn together, all in white. Then she did cross stitch in a lot of colors, to get the patterning you see here.

I think in the photo we have the motifs upside down, so I turned one the other way here in the detail photo.

The person holding up the bedspread is Marti. She is also in my computer class, but she first met me in knitting class at Threadbear. Right now Marti is about an inch or two from finishing her ColorJoy stole. I hope to have her stole photo here soon!

Tony and I tried a new restaurant this Monday. It is mideastern, the folks who own it are from Nazareth. I thoroughly enjoyed it. For locals, it’s on Michigan Avenue across from Resurrection church/school, between Emils/Green Door/Gone Wired Cybercafe’ and Sparrow Hospital, other side of street from hospital. I’m guessing it’s about the 1900-2000 block or so.

Tony had hummous and a schwarma sandwich, and pronounced them both very good. I had something called smeed (like a rice pilaf but with bulgur wheat instead of rice) which was a little sweet and very tasty, and I asked them to make me fava bean dip (called Foul Mudammas… pronounced “fool” and it’s a crying shame that the name is so funky in English cuz it should be more popular here).

They made me the dip, with fresh garlic and cumin and probably a few other spices (cayenne?) in it. We ate this every day in Egypt, it’s sort of peasant breakfast I think. It was better here than in Egypt, though. Somehow most of the spots we went in Egypt had little flavoring. Altu went nuts craving spice for a week when we were there! Poor dear.

I love Foul Dip and it seems to never be on a menu but I ask at any mideastern restaurant I frequent. Some places will make it for me if they aren’t busy, even if it’s off the menu. Some places just say no. It’s always worth asking!

Fava beans are very tasty, a meaty, fat bean that looks like a round pillow. My friend Marlene makes a great summer cold salad with these beans and tomatoes and olive oil and more veggies and spices. I’m lucky that we have a few groceries that sell mideastern foods and I can get these. At the super grocery (Meijer) they cost a lot, but at the mideast groceries they can be very affordable (they are beans, never as pricey as meat anyway).

You know, sometimes I put fava beans in red sauce for spaghetti. They are a very good flavor with the tomato, very satisfying.

Photos: 1)Tony under the umbrella on a hot Monday in Lansing, at the “new” restaurant.

This last pic was from a restaurant our guide knew, and we went there twice that week. It was the best food we ate in Cairo.

Jillian Moreno, otherwise known as KnittingFrau, has not had a blog for a while. She has been performing an even more creative act, she had a baby boy who is now a toddler. This in addition to the girl-child she already had. They are both picture-perfect beautiful, with wild curly hair.

I missed Jillian. But now she’s back! Do go visit her.

By the way, she’s coming out with a new book (working with Amy Singer of Knitty.com… we never really do know when a book will land, do we? Even when we have a date?

But it’s called Big Girl Knits, the smallest size fits a bust 42″ around. Jillian is a wonderful designer with big girl curves, and she is bound to just have the best book possible in a totally under-served area of the knitting world (We have Joan McGowan-Michael of White Lies, and the ample knitters email list, and I can’t think of anywhere else that is really a resource for curvy goddess-shaped women.)

Jillian’s design finesse can be seen in several designs on Knitty. Visit her flower-adorned cardigan “Folly,” “Boo,” “Boo Too,” “Bella” “Bob & Weave” (a wrap in a brushed silk yarn and a ribbon, that I would really love to knit… in my spare time). Photo here is Jillian wearing Folly (Winter ‘03) holding then-infant baby boy.

Anyway, please go to Jillian’s blog. Leave her a note and let her know how glad we are that she’s back, that she’s one of us again.

Hi, friends! It is going to be a busy end of month, and I’d like to tell you about it. This will matter more to local folks, so I apologize to those of you out of town and out of country.

This week on Thursday night, Brian and I are performing at a garden party at Alterra’s, a retirement center on Marsh Road in Haslett (there are two Alterra’s, this one is more north, near the Haslett High School, and it’s 2 stories rather than one). The public is welcome, but they do want a RSVP. This is Thursday, July 21 from 6:30pm to 8:30pm. Call Nicole Bunch for a reservation, by July 19 at 517/381-8700.

Saturday night, July 23, the Abbott Brothers will be playing at Altu’s Ethiopian Cuisine, also from 6:30-8:30pm. By the way, Anne Erickson of the State Journal’s What’s On section will be mentioning this concert in her Thursday column. Take a look!

This weekend I have two classes at Threadbear Fiberarts. Saturday, July 23 from noon to 5pm is Polymer Clay buttons and beads. This is such a fun class, there is no way to have anything but the best of times! Write me or Rob at Threadbear for more information.

Sunday, July 24, I teach my ColorJoy Stole. I almost need to name this “Combining Color and Texture” because that is equally as important as the object we create. The first half of the class, we make a mess of the store.

Bring any random orphan yarns you have in your stash that might like buddies (particularly novelty yarns). Then learn about color, yarn structure, and how to intentionally mix five or more yarns that are nothing at all like one another. The last half of the class is how to knit the project, and how to fix dropped stitches in garter stitch/novelty yarn. It’s a wonderful class, you’ll learn a lot. Again, write Rob at Rob AT Threadbearfiberarts DOT com for more information or a reservation.

On Friday, July 9, at 6pm, I’m teaching Watercolor Bag at Little Red Schoolhouse. This is a fun and fast project, a felted bag in Noro Kureyon yarn with one solid color for contrast. It requires 3 skeins of Kureyon and one solid, within reasonable cost for gifts, fast enough to make without getting bored, and large enough to actually hold something. I made one for my dance bag. It holds a coin-laden hip wrap, finger cymbals, head wrap/scarf and a shrug for when the dance room gets too cold. All that with a bit of room to spare.

July 30, I’m teaching Feltmaking without Knitting at Threadbear, from noon to 3pm. This is how I got back into knitting! I fell in love with wool and wanted more, and the next thing I knew I was knitting socks. We will first make flat pieces (think mug rug, pillow cover, pincushion) then we will cover a 3-D object with felt.

It’s great fun, I hope you come on down. Think about it, you could sew a really warm jacket/cardigan for winter with felted yardage on the body portion, and a knitted or crocheted set of sleeves and collar! It would be very unique and beautiful. We won’t have the space to make a piece that large in class, but you will learn the techniques you would need. I like the mug rugs a lot, actually!

The evening of July 30, Brian and I return (as The Fabulous Heftones) to Altu’s, from 6:30-8:30pm. Amazing great food, friendly crowd, pleasant music. What else could you want?

Photos: Fabulous Heftones at Altu’s, Abbott Brothers Band, Luann’s buttons and beads she made in Polymer class, Esther in her ColorJoy Stole, Irene with Watercolor Bag she made in class, felted fabric I made with my friend Marcia.

Brian spent the week in Evart, Michigan (a tiny town with a nice fairgrounds), at the Dulcimer Fun Fest again this year. He teaches ukulele workshops there. It is kind of wonderful to talk to people who learned to play uke from Brian there in previous years. There was a young man who sort of watched us from afar even when we tried to talk to him. His mom told us last year he learned to play at one of Brian’s workshops, and he is just really loving his instrument and doing well at it. I wish he had felt comfortable enough to chat with us but I never had a chance to say hello.

I went up for two nights, which meant parts of two days and a full day. My, the sun was hot! We sleep in a tent and both mornings it was so hot, the heat woke us up very early (8am the first day). When you couple that with staying up till 3am playing music with some incredible musicians and having the time of your life… well, I got overtired and a little grumpy. Of course, I always get a headache outdoors anyway (mostly allergies… either dust and pollen if it’s dry or mildew if it rains) but this time the sun was worse than anything I could have breathed.

I did enjoy playing music and meeting new people. I met two women who flew up from Florida just for this event. One woman, Nadine, was a chatty one like me, and we talked for about 2 hours the third day I was there. I hope I will be able to see her when I go visit family in Florida sometime. She is not far from where Brian’s folks sometimes go. Meeting Nadine and her friend, was the best part of the whole trip!

I came home on Saturday night, got home in time to shower and then get to Altus for the last half hour of the music set. It was SO good to be home! I just do not like dirt and sun and the great outdoors. I like people and gatherings and music, and I adore playing music with my beloved Brian, but I sure do prefer the Ukulele gatherings which typically are held in conference centers or hotels. I’m definitely a citygrrl.

Funny, when we were at this event, everyone kept saying that we were from “the Lansing area.” No, that’s incorrect. We are from Lansing. As in City. As in 30 blocks from the Capitol Building of Michigan. As in, I can ride my bike downtown in maybe 20 minutes max. As in, I LOVE being a citygrrl.

We have many beautiful parks and the riverwalk, two rivers that come together, we have the East Side where I used to live and still work (Foster Center) and where great ethnic food of several types is available. The town is green with trees. It’s pretty darned safe for a city of this size, safer than I’d expect.

We have musical venues, art galleries, Old Town, plenty of community theatre, places one can dance, sing, act, display art, perform poetry, do any sort of artful thing you can think of. You won’t always sell anything, you may not get paid to perform, but I’ve done all these things and more, and been welcomed even when I was a newcomer.

We have a community that is truly culturally and racially mixed (my former, east-side neighborhood had whites, blacks and hispanics all interspersed with old and young and straight and gay and Democrat and Republican all in one block… my new neighborhood is not quite that mixed but it’s getting better).

There are so many communities in the US where this mingling does not happen, although the law says segregation is not permitted. (For example, in Lakeland, Florida, it appears to this outsider that you cross Martin Luther King Street and the skin color of folks you see changes almost completely.) I’m not informed enough to understand why that is, but it makes me proud to be from Lansing.

Here in Lansing, for the most part we all know we belong and we have a decent place to live and work. Some groups still do stick more together because of a common language, but they live in neighborhoods with other groups as well.

Lansing is a great spot for getting around, whether to yarn shops or other things. Grand Rapids, Flint, Mt. Pleasant, Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti are all places I can get to easily via highway, most of them within an hour or so.

So when I say I’m from Lansing (population 119,000), I mean the *city,* and I like it. Sometimes I wish I lived in a bigger city, but I’ve lived in smaller places and I love this spot. I grew up in a Lansing suburb, pop. 10,000 then but 22,000 now (currently 84% white but my middle school of 800 had a total of 5 black kids in 1970); went to college in a quaint city with current population of 26,000 and college 28,000 but the college was 14,000 when I was there (currently 89% white).

I then lived 12 yrs in a lovely, peaceful historical city, pop. 3,800 (97% white), but sold my house after my divorce and moved to Lansing (65% white) in about 1991. (For perspective, the USA is approximately 75-80% white.)

In a more frivolous vein, we have many yarn shops where I live! And I am not kidding. In Lansing proper, we have Threadbear, Little Red Schoolhouse and Rae’s. Going east, in East Lansing we have Woven Art; in Okemos (east of East Lansing) we have Yarn for Ewe. Just southwest a half hour, we have Yarn Garden. In Jackson, half an hour south, there is The Dropped Stitch. In Howell, 35 minutes southeast, we have Stitch in Time. In Eaton Rapids, 45 minutes West, there is Old Mill Yarn. And those are only the ones that are less than an hour away, that I know about and have personally shopped.

I have no desire to go back to a smaller community. I nearly moved to Chicago in 1991 but chose Lansing in part because of the great cost of living/housing prices… I sometimes wonder what my life would be like if I had chosen Chicago. However, I met Brian in Lansing, and that is reason enough for me to be happy with that choice.

I love the energy and the cultural mix of the city. The world is big, many people don’t look like me, and I don’t feel like holing myself up in a community where folks mostly look the same, you know? Yes, that is a really big simplification, but the essence is what I feel. I adore the diversity in the city, even if I don’t love every thing my neighbors do. That’s the nature of living together on this planet.

But heavens, I have digressed long enough!!! I went to the Dulcimer Fun Fest, which was a bit more culturally mixed than it was the first time I went. (For an admission price of $3 for the week, it’s the best entertainment value I’ve had in a long time!) And I found fascinating people and played music and sang. And had a good time (when I wasn’t being grumpy focusing on how hot it was)!

There was a ukulele jam session on Friday night, and we attended. I tell you, for someone who doesn’t play uke much, they sure treated me (and Brian) mighty fine! OK, we all know it was Brian they were so impressed with, but they seem to like my singing, too. They asked us to stand up and play a few tunes like a mini-concert, which we did and they made us feel very welcome.

After we did that, there were more group numbers, followed by a very special appearance by Gil Ogawa (I hope I spelled that right). He sang Hawaiian War Chant, first in Hawaiian and then in English, followed by a novelty/comic number. Boy, does that guy perform! Not only is he a good musician but he just really relates to the crowd as he performs. Maybe you can see it in his expressions in the photos. He played with a friend and I don’t have the friend’s name (playing banjo).

Photos: Gil Ogawa alone, and with friend. Ukulele jam, as much of the crowd as I could fit into the camera lens. Workshop leaders relaxing with their feet in a wading pool to cool off. Two guys playing an impromptu bass duet on Friday night. I took the shot from a long distance during twilight but it shows the essence.

While I was away from the keyboard, I knit a pair of Fast Florida Footies in a wild green color. Someone flipped about my cool yarn when I was knitting in public, so I gave her the ball band, thus I don’t know the color number.

These I intend to keep for myself. I have knit at least 5 pair and at least a half dozen baby FFFooties from this pattern, mostly in Fixation yarn. Never have I been able to keep a pair for me. They either are gifts, or they are destined for a yarn shop that (thankfully) carries my patterns. People would ask me about how this unusual yarn felt to wear, and I never could tell them! I knew how it felt to knit, but not to wear.

Now in one week’s time I’ve finished a dance top and a pair of footies, both from Cascade Fixation yarn. And both for me. The dance top is quite comfortable, really. It is a thick fabric right now in the 90F degree heat, but so is almost anything else I could wear. I like how the top feels when I wear it, though.

And now we will see how I like the cotton socks. I’m not a cotton fan, I can’t remember really loving much cotton other than brushed flannel and thin, drapey commercial knits (sometimes cotton/lycra). Woven cotton broadcloth (shirt fabric), in particular, does nothing for me. I don’t own a pair of blue jeans, though I have 2-3 pair of black jeans I wear very occasionally for camping and/or dyeing yarn in the studio.

I take that back… I do like that super-lightweight cotton used in the “broomstick” skirts often imported from India. Sometimes they are two layers thick to create some modesty, they are so transparent. I love that fabric, it moves so well, it’s very feminine without being prissy.

However, thicker cottons, woven or knit, can be very lumpy and unmoving. They can make me look like I’m wearing someone else’s clothing. And the only pair of mostly cotton (and acrylic) socks I ever made (my second pair) were too lumpy underfoot to be comfortable worn while standing up. At least for me.

Now I have my very own FFFooties. I’ll be interested to see how I like wearing Fixation on my feet. It *does* feel softer than a lot of other cotton yarns, and the lycra makes up for cotton’s lack of spring. There sure are a lot of folks out there wearing these socks, so I know they are favorites of many!

I’m away from the keyboard for a while. Check these out:
Speakeasies, Flappers & Red Hot Jazz
Wikipedia: Flapper
The Flap over Flappers
The JAZZ AGE - Flapper Culture & Style

My favorite singer, Annette Hanshaw, was an early jazz singer and darling of the flapper era.

I finished my dance top and wore it to Habibi Dancers’ rehearsal Wednesday night. Brian is gone so I have taken the artsiest of photos, of myself. I have no real way to get any other sort of photo right now.

I designed this top myself, with some help from Knitware Sweaters software. Of course, I had to change the pattern or I would not be me (I knit in the round, for one thing, and the straps are about half their specified height). But the software made a much better pattern than the one I knit from a magazine recently, by a long shot.

It’s funny. The garment looks like a bunch of rectangles when it is on a flat surface. The back and front were knit identically. But on me, the front has a deeper scoop thanks to the pull of my curves, and it actually is enhanced a lot by the stretchiness of the fabric. What a nice neckline it turned out to be!

The yarn is Cascade Fixation, cotton-lycra yarn, DK weight, knit on 2.75mm needles (US2 in Crystal Palace needles, US 1.5 in Brittany Birch, I used Crystal Palace circulars here) at approximately 25st/4″. I would perhaps do this again! Maybe a full-length tank next time, with skinnier straps. Or not. I sure have enough projects already on the list, where I currently own the yarn.

At least from this angle, I think Brian is right. It *is* “kinda cute.” Thank goodness! I had real visions of ripping out the whole thing once I had it done. Can you hear my sigh of relief through the ether?

Today I held a little knitting gathering at Gone Wired Cyber Cafe’ in Lansing. It all started because a few of my knitting kidz were sad that they would not have CityKidz Knit! program this summer. So I thought about it, and decided that outside of Foster Center, I could choose a relationship with the kids that involved a get together or two during summertime.

This was the day the girls wrote “Knitting Rocks!” on my whiteboard. So the “Knitting Rocks!” summer knit gatherings were born. Today was the first.

This was not a class, not a City-sponsored event. I didn’t get paid to do it. I just wanted to give my kidz a chance to ask me questions if they got stuck during the summer. And I wanted to see them, because I do miss them terribly when we don’t meet regularly.

What happened after that, was I invited some of my other students (adults) to also come and join us. I was not very methodical at all, I just asked those people who I ran into between the concept and the party. But those who did come, had mostly met one another before, except for OfficiallyAKnitter (far left in photo) who usually gets private lessons with me, but who enjoys a gathering as much as anyone. She got to know the rest of the gang quickly and we all had a blast!

In total, I had four young participants, and two adult students of mine. That made seven of us in all, which pleased me very much. I figure that is a really nice success rate in the middle of a summer Wednesday. We are going to do another one next month, August 10, from 3:30-5:30pm (or so). If anybody local would like to come and join us, we’d love your company!

I wish I had more photographs. Here there are 3 of the four kids, but the fourth finished a wristband as a gift for his sister, in one session. Well, he bound off and will have to sew it together at home, but he was a speedster indeed.

Joy, the adult on the far side of the table, is in the middle of two pair of socks. One pair is my First-Time, Toe-Up socks, in Naturally. And the second is top down, two at a time on two circular needles. She’s taking a class at Rae’s learning this technique, tonight was the second of three sessions.

And OfficiallyAKnitter has finished her first pair of socks as well. She also used my First-Time Toe Up Socks pattern, and she made them in some wonderful bulky wool/acrylic as sort of slipper socks, sunshine/egg yolk yellow with orange Fun Fur in the rolled edges. She finished them up today, learning how to close up those pesky holes that happen at the corner of the gusset so often. The group was properly impressed with her excellent work!

The lone young girl brought me a present, a lovely pouch in sort of a half-moon shape which fit my cellphone perfectly! She made it in single crochet, something she just recently learned in CityKidz class between a little bit of instruction from me and a little bit from Jennifer, Joy’s daughter who could not join us today.

Note that she is holding two pouches in her hands in the photo. The pink/purple one was my gift. The purple/blue one she started and finished today in one session, with her brother’s assistance. She had been crocheting in circles and asked me today how to knit a rectangle (Whoops! I guess I needed to show her more in her first lesson.)

The first boy here, the brother who helped her out, is wearing a unique necklace. The dark navy part hanging center is his first attempt at I-Cord. The cord around his neck was a crocheted chain made with a crochet hook, something that he is still working on (he crochets very tightly). I am constantly amazed by the ingenuity of my young knitters. They can figure out how to make anything useful!!!

The second boy knit and sewed together this Lion Brand Microspun wristband in this one session. The yarn is so pretty, he really enjoyed it although it is slippery and can split more than the yarn he is accustomed to knitting. I think he was eager to have a simpler project this time, as he did bring the toe of his First-Time Toe-up sock (yes, you heard that right, this child is knitting in the round on double pointed needles and several inches into the foot of his first sock).

Can you see why I’m so in love with my job, with my kidz, with this teaching life? I had an amazing day.

This Tuesday was a blank-slate day. My calendar did not have a single thing on it… no radio show to remember, no appointments, no teaching, nothing requiring me to be anywhere at any time. Oh, I had some plans, but it was divine to know that I’d be alone most of the day with no expectations. Tuesday is usually my day off, but often I have a guild at night, and sometimes I make dates for lunch or tea.

I slept in as long as I wanted, had a pleasant cup of tea, caught up on my weblog reading, and started to do some maintenance work (a little bookkeeping… yes, it is work related but it was at my own pace and I was happy to do it).

Then the phone rang. I hoped it was April, and it was. She was taking the baby to get her pictures taken, and would I like to tag along? Of course, I would! We had fun, doing what we could to get sweet Isabel to smile, giggle, laugh, and take a few steps on her own trying to get to this or that toy.

They got some very nice photographs, and while April was picking out the shots she wanted, I got to hold sweet Isabel again. Lucky, lucky me! She is a very social baby, loves talking and cooing to the folks who go by, but she really has a preference for being held by her own Mommy. I’m pleased that I’m becoming enough of a constant in her life, and a safe one apparently, so that she allows me to hold her for longer and longer amounts of time. And she’s a delight. She likes to be entertained (I was the same way) but you can not help but want to entertain her! I had the time of my life.

After I got home, I spent a little more time on bookkeeping and then gave myself a reward… time in the hammock with my almost-finished dance top knitting project. Brian came home, and took me out to eat at Taj, a local Indian restaurant. Mmmm, Channa Masala is my favorite… chick peas with a tomato sauce and a bit of spice. I could not finish, but that just means I can eat the rest tomorrow. I love that!

After we got home I finished the neckband on the dance top. I tried it on, and Brian’s thought was that it was “kinda cute” so I am pleased with that! Only two armbands remain, and working in the ends. It’s possible I can finish this before I go to bed tonight.

But between then and now, Brian and I will rehearse a bit. We are still working on a collection of songs we expect will become a CD entitled “In the Garden.” Many of the songs on that album we had not performed before we put together the project, so we have a lot of work to do learning them all. We have two private party performances next week, so we are working to see how many of the new songs we might be able to work up by then. It is always good to strive for something new!

Have I mentioned how much I love summer? It is warm and breezy tonight and I am soooo happy to have the door open! I love opening the doors and windows as much as I can. This time of year delights me, in part because of the fresh air factor. In part because of the flowers outside. In part because we don’t have to wear so many clothes to keep warm that we can barely move! I love wool, but during winter I get tired of feeling like the Michelin Man or the Pillsbury Doughboy all the time!

Off to sing a few songs. Then back to the dance top. I’ll hope to have photos of my top, soon!

Meanwhile, here are some photos I took on July 2, on a trip I took to Charlotte (Michigan) to visit Kim at Yarn Garden. The sky was amazing, with tiny fluffy clouds, and Sharon’s Cafe downtown looked as colorful as ever! (If you ever get to Charlotte, go to Sharon’s and buy pie. That pie is an artform itself!)

I finished darning two balls of feet on a pair of sox I originally finished knitting for Brian on December 10, 2001. They were not all the way worn through but some places looked more like sewing thread than yarn.

There were a few places on one of the toes (dreaded ladders) that needed some reinforcing as well. But I did not spend even 2 hours totally rebuilding two socks, and now he will be able to wear them for another several years. That pleases me.

The repair does not show in shoes or sandals. It’s just a little secret between you, me, and Brian.

We both enjoy how these look repaired. I used yarn of the same striping style, but in a different colorway. The stripes are fatter since I didn’t have to take the yarn all the way around the foot. I think it is like a little greenish rainbow on the bottom of a grayish sock. Fun! By the way, the patches are odd-shaped because the wear patterns were also odd-shaped. I replaced only the stitches that needed replacing (including an edge stitch to anchor the patch to solid fabric). It looks a little like a map, doesn’t it?

In other finishing news, I do need to work ends in on the Cashmerino Aran wristwarmers that are a gift. I also made myself start in again on the cropped Fixation dance top I’m knitting. It’s on size 2 needles and it is impossible to know how it will look until it’s done. This stuff settles in and “shrinks” (except with the lycra it stretches out again) when it has been washed. It looks too big on the needles, but I’m hoping it will be fine after washing.

Sunday night I finished the last strap on this top. I connected the straps and tried it on, all 6 needles holding stitches in place. (Ack! Nervewracking!) I did so without poking myself once, yeah!

Given this preliminary try-on, it looks like it probably will fit although very differently than I’d imagined. However, the straps were inches too long! Good thing I tried it on before starting the neck band.

So, I ripped the straps back, connected them with three-needle bindoff, and tried it back on. Much better. Now I need to pick up stitches and knit arm bands and neck band. Then wash. Then determine if that was a waste of time or if it was fine. I’m ready to have that mystery behind me!

I’m also plugging away on that Fast Florida Footie I started in my class Saturday. It’s good away-from-home knitting. I did a lot on it Sunday waiting for our turn to perform music at a little potluck party for a friend.

Photo: Darned socks. These are my pair #23, from December 2001. Ready for a new life with reinforced sole. (This sort of darning can only be done easily if you catch the socks worn thin but not worn totally through with a hole. I typically darn a hole by weaving rather than duplicate stitch.)

I am delighted. I got an email from my friend Susan Luks today.

I have known Susan since we were in elementary school. She and her sister, Bethany, were big influences on me in Middle School… they were expert sewers even then.

I made several Easter dresses with the Luks sisters as my inspiration, at that age. I remember staying up all night one year to finish a dress. It had two overlapping short sleeves (like a tulip). The fabric was chambray (pale blue workshirt broadcloth) which was machine embroidered with flowers in pastels. My taste has changed, but my inclination to create has not.

I have mentioned her work here before but it was about a year and a half ago. Susan has a new website to show her amazing, beautiful, wearable artpieces. She makes something like collage from fabric, and makes it into capes, coats, totebags, you name it. She even has some really great jeans jackets with back panels that are her fabric collage. The new photos really show off her work well. I know she is pleased.

Of course, this is merely my way of describing her work. Maybe you should go check it out for yourself? The colors and textures are rich and wonderful. I’ve seen her work in person, and it’s even better with true light showing all the textures.

Do go check it out.

Saturday I taught at Yarn Garden. I did Fast Florida Footies… for one woman who had never done socks and one who had done one form of toe-up socks, one time. We had a very pleasant day.

I have half of a footie in hot green finished, in my size. I can not tell you how many of these footies I have knit, but they all seem to become gifts or store samples. Maybe this time I will be able to keep one pair for myself? That would be fun, though really I’m such a wool fanatic that I am OK if I use Fixation (cotton/lycra) yarn for tank tops rather than socks most of the time.

When Brian got home from work, we went to Altu’s restaurant for dinner. Blue Jello was playing tonight (Ben and Pat, two of the guys from Mystic Shake). They are fun guys who are cranking out the songs lately. They are in a really creative, songwriting time, and it is fun to hear their new pieces.

At one point they asked Brian to sit in and play Mandolin with them. Here’s a photo of Brian, Ben and Pat… at my favorite Saturday night haunt, Altu’s Ethiopian Cuisine!

Sunday I will teach my new class, Darn Those Socks! at Threadbear. This all happened because I was at the store one day and a customer asked me to schedule a class on darning. I was excited to do it!

I love darning socks, I find it very relaxing. It also makes me feel clever to fix my knits! I have one pair (worsted weight 100% wool, no nylon to help the wear and since they are fat and warm I wear them a lot in winter) which have been darned three times, in three different colors. I sort of like the mix and match look on the bottom of my foot! Nobody else can see it but me, but it makes me feel accomplished that I was able to fix my very-loved socks.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer weekend… those of you in summer, anyway!

What a great day it was. I did get up too early, after a night of making polymer clay buttons and a whistle. That was fun but I was up too late!!! No problem, I went to Mom’s and we drove down to see Eric. We met at Zingerman’s deli again, this time to celebrate Eric’s birthday a day late.

The sun shone but was not too hot. The sky was full of fluffy clouds. The neighborhood near Zingermans was just full of beautiful gardens, as usual. Zingermans’ garden was wonderful, and since they have added a canopy we prefer sitting outside in the garden to eat. Lovely.

We must have sang Happy Birthday three or four times in all, but we all enjoyed it each time so no harm done. We talked and talked and talked, for about three hours. We ate and sipped good tea and had dessert. We enjoyed the outdoors and one another. And then Eric went to work and we drove home.

After I got home, I took a wonderful nap in my favorite spot, the hammock on the porch. Even after the nap I sat there and read until it got too dark to read. Such a luxury! As much as I talk about the hammock, say I’ll go out there, plan to go out there… I don’t get out there much. This is the first time I’ve spent more than a half hour out there all season. Aaaaahhhhh….

Later, Brian and I had dinner and then played music together on our instruments, rehearsing some songs we know almost well enough to perform. That was also great.

And now I’m wrapping up things. I downloaded a trial version of Knitable, which is a knitting program for a PDA (palm device). I don’t have any interest in taking time to enter the inventory levels of my needles, yarn, books and patterns, but I like the conversion feature (metric to US, for instance) and the decrease/increase calculator feature.

The increase feature I tried twice (preparing to knit my Tagliatelli shrug) but once it seemed just right and the next one (almost no increasing over a long stretch) it returned very odd results. I’ll have to do some manual math to see if that second one makes sense. One line was repeated twice and I think that is a bug rather than true directions, but maybe it really doesn’t increase in 38 rows (it said 19 but said it twice.) We’ll see.

I finished a pair of wristwarmers today in Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran (purchased at Yarn Garden), a gift. I need to work in ends for those and the baby blanket so I can cross them off the list.

I’m off to bed, I teach Fast Florida Footies Saturday morning at Yarn Garden and Darn those Socks! at Threadbear on Sunday afternoon.

The only thing imperfect about this day is that it must end. I guess there is nothing to complain about, then. Is there?

Photos: Eric, Mom, Zingermans’ Garden, Ann Arbor street/garden. Mom and Eric looked so good and happy and relaxed, I just had to take close up portraits this time. Notice what Mom is wearing? The apple does not fall far from the tree, I’d say!

It’s my brother Eric’s birthday today. I love my brother so deeply into the cells of my body, I can not explain it in words.

He and I have been through some things nobody should have to go through… the biggest being the loss of our father when I was 14 and he was 1 week before his 13th birthday, and the second being the loss of his first wife when she was 27 and he was 30. I was there with them the day she died, very unexpectedly.

What I often say is that I lost my father, but I gained my brother in the process. Before that, we had our typical sibling conflicts. After that, we had to pull together or we were clear we would not really make it. Mom had enough to deal with, being a single mom out of the blue at age 38 (Dad was 40) and she had a full time job as a teacher. So she became the Dad, so to speak, and we sort of became the Mom. We did grocery shopping, on our bicycles at first. We cooked together. And when I cooked with Eric, I enjoyed cooking. Today it is a necessary chore, but with Eric it was entertaining and artful.

I’m a moody grrl, and sometimes I get stuck with thinking in circles and not knowing where to go, what to do. I just have to call my brother, spill out all of what seem like random thoughts rattling around in my brain, and then stop and listen. Eric will ask me one question. And that question tells me where I need to go. He never tells me what to do, he knows how to lead my mind to my own solution.

When I chose a difficult relationship for 16 years, Eric was always there. If I needed to get away for a weekend, I could always go down to his house and crash, and talk, any time I wanted. And I did. When the marriage was over he admitted that it was painful to see me make that choice but it was clear I was choosing and he respected my right to choose my own life. Well, I’m big on boundaries, and my brother was good at that one for a very long time. Bless his soul, he loves me just right for me.

By the way… all you fiberartists out there, Eric is probably the best embroiderer I know. Lucky me, I have a pair of pillowcases he made years ago… they still are in good shape because I don’t use them much, they are so precious.

He also sews well. For my first wedding, he made his then-fiancee’ Kelly (late first wife) a dress just as she requested… blue with ruffles and added lace. Exactly what she wanted, and beautifully executed.

And one time he sewed a pair of blue jeans from scratch, that looked like he’d purchased them at the store, with proper overlapping seams and the whole nine yards. When he wants to be particular, he can do it better than anyone else I know. Fortunately he is usually a mellow and relaxed sort of guy… with other people, anyway. With his art, he’s picky just like me.

Here is a photo of Eric last Thanksgiving, when we were finishing our meal at the Sushi restaurant we finally found open that day. And a photo of the neighborhood kids in about 1969. Eric is the far right kid with nearly-white hair and red shirt. I’m in the back row just behind his shoulder, sort of hiding. The other kids lived next door. I wonder what they are doing now…

Today the best thing that happened to me was that I finally got to hold sweet Isabel. She knows me well, she sees me several times a week. She often reaches out to me as if to hug me but stays stuck to her mommy (my friend April).

Well, today at rehearsal for Habibi Dancers, April brought the baby, and Sally brought her baby, and I sat on the floor with them all. And Isabel leaned up against me when she was still leaning on her mom also. Next thing you know, she had crawled up on my lap and was smiling at mommy. Mommy even got to dance a little today without holding her sweet one. I know this was a treat for all three of us!

There is nothing like holding a child you know and love. It has been a long time since I’ve known a child well enough to want this. I don’t have any interest in holding a child I barely know. Yet I can not tell you how delighted I was to hold this baby for maybe ten minutes today.

I have said before, that a happy child is definitely a work of art. This child is a masterpiece.

I started my workday today when Threadbear called to say they were out of my Fast Florida Footies pattern in 8 sizes, and could I bring some right over since there were 2 people at the cash register who wanted to buy them?

Of course, I bounded over there with the six patterns I had printed and in stock. The customers were happy, and I got to meet them which was delightful. I’ll be delivering more patterns tomorrow. Woohoo! I’m just delighted that folks like my work. It doesn’t hurt me that a few folks who work at Threadbear are knitting or have knit this pattern. I need to send thanks out to the whole staff there, everyone is so good to me and here they are now, selling my work as well!

I hung out at Threadbear a little and knit on my interminable project (a cropped tank in Fixation yarn, which looks too big but hasn’t been dunked in water/washed yet so it may actually fit soon). I’m almost done. I have one more strap to knit and then neckband/armhole bands. We’ll see how it goes. I keep telling myself that I so often have successes it’s OK if something doesn’t fit right sometimes. One day at a time, there.

I then ran over to Little Red Schoolhouse to see Linda. Unfortunately, she was stuck in a huge traffic jam because of a big accident. I waited until I couldn’t wait any longer, but I did help out one customer who needed assistance there, while Linda was gone. It was good for everyone I guess, and I did have a relaxing time sitting on the couch and knitting, again on the cropped tank.

I finished my baby blanket today as well. I am ready to be done with that! Too much of the same, with a little more thinking than usual for me (this was knit flat, basketweave… I missed my stockinette tubes). But the colors are really pretty and I’m overall pleased. I’m not sure if this will be the final shape of my pattern when it’s written (it is very long and rectangular, and somewhat small, but friends with babies say it’s a good size for wrapping a baby). I’m not in a huge hurry here, so it will evolve as I have time to knit yet another one, I expect.

I went from there, to Borders Books in Ann Arbor. What a great group that is! We talked and knit and talked and knit, it was wonderful. I started a pair of wristwarmers for a special person, out of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran. Wowie is this stuff nice. I got it on sale at Yarn Garden last weekend, 15% off. It’s a soft purple, just perfect for this person. And I am really enjoying the knitting process, the fiber is so wonderful to touch!

It seems my photos are always one or two days behind my stories! These photos are the flowers June gave me from her garden. First is the whole lot, still in the boxes from transporting them home. Second is a close-up of the two flowers June did not have names for. Both re-seed easily, she says. I’m crossing my fingers!

I had a lovely 4th of July/Independence Day holiday. I slept in a bit, had good food, was alone at home (my favorite thing in the world these days) for several hours, did housework, knit on the porch in the hammock.

Music Party
Then Brian came home (he had to work part of a day) and we went to a music party. It was lovely. While I was there they played a song I used to play on guitar. I was pretty sure I could still play it, at least the basics. But we hang out with steel-string-guitar players and I learned on a “gut” nylon stringed guitar. Well, that is the kind I’ve owned since probably Christmas 1972. I tried to play someone else’s steel stringed guitar, but the strings are so close together I could not get my fingers to the right spots!

My Guitar and its Story
As a kid, about 11 years old, I wanted to play guitar in the worst way. It was Karen’s fault.

My cousin, Karen (who reads this blog but lives in Texas, hours and hours away) had lived in St. Louis for a year or maybe two. Mom drove my brother and I down one Easter weekend to see them, because that was the closest they had ever lived to us (they were in California before that) and we knew it might not last.

When I was visiting Karen, she showed me two chords and taught me a folksong I can’t even remember now, maybe “Down in the Valley.” And I was in love! All I wanted was a guitar. They were not cheap, and my parents were not sure I would stay interested (I was very much into singing but this was a new thing). I can see why they were worried.

My father told me he would buy me a very basic guitar and if I proved I actually was playing it, he would buy me a good one in a year. So off we went to Century Discount (or was it S&H Green Trading Stamps?) and got me a 3/4 sized guitar with steel strings and plywood top. For $14 USD. That was waaay cheap even then. The strings were probably a good 1/4″ (6mm) from the fretboard, uncomfortable to say the least!

I took group lessons at community education that summer. I learned chords and I learned songs… I played for hours, until the steel strings dug into my fingers so badly that I could not play because of the pain.

A year later my father bought me a “real” guitar, as promised. Now, I had only some input on this. I remember he ordered it over the phone, talking to the local music store. I was very sure I wanted nylon strings. For one thing, folk music was very big and I was sure that folksingers such as Peter Paul and Mary would be playing nylon strings. For another, I was really tired of those steel strings digging into my fingers when I practiced, and nylon sounded softer!

For years after that, I played guitar with my church youth group. There were three of us who played guitar at the front of the room, all at the same time. We all had nylon strings, if I remember right. I played nonstop during high school, pretty regularly during college. Then I stopped. The guitar continued to be my most precious belonging (Dad died not long after he bought me the guitar) but I stopped playing. I had a life with so many challenges that I dropped a lot of pastimes in order to stay afloat emotionally, or that is how it seems now. But I loved my guitar.

Waking Up, Creatively
I only started being creative again just before my divorce, around 1990 or so. I started with polymer clay and did that obsessively for maybe 10 years before I tried anything else! After that came soft-block printing/Mail Art and then feltmaking/knitting socks. And that is only my visual arts (not performing arts, which I also stopped during my difficult marriage and started again afterward).

In the years before I “woke up,” I did a lot of sewing, I was very good and had 3 sewing machines. I also did a little bit of housepainting/decorating but only those domestic sorts of creative outlets.

My first performing art since high school, was to dance a bit, modern and jazz at first. Then I performed in Pippin, a musical at Riverwalk Theatre. Then came Brian, and the music we do together now (including learning to play bass and a bit of ukulele). Finally I picked up the mideastern dance, just after Brian and I got married.

The Reunion with My Loved One
But the guitar! I love her. (I’m surprised I never named her, really, I’ve always named cars.) Tonight I played her for 20 minutes and she still feels the same, still smells the same. I’m not as good as I once was, but it was a wonderful reunion. I think I’d still rather play ukulele or bass than guitar these days… but it felt good to touch that beautiful piece of wood today.

Tuesday Plans - Ann Arbor?
I need to get to sleep because I have a very-early-morning dentist appointment Tuesday. Big Yuck!

If I feel OK at night from my dental experience (I expect I will), I’m planning to go to Borders Books, Arborland/Ann Arbor, Michigan, tomorrow night. It’s about 7pm to 11pm (not everyone stays late but I usually do). I’d love to see some of you there! Say hi if you heard of it here.

Photo here is of me and my family, probably just before the time my father bought me my first guitar. Notice I’m wearing turquoise?

I went to June’s Garden Sunday morning. It is absolutely beautiful. It’s mostly perennials, many of them blooming right now, with strategically-placed huge pots of dark red geraniums. Absolutely beautiful.

I was there 2 hours. First she invited me to sit on her great-grandmother’s white wicker porch swing (June is over 80 herself, and this swing looks new). We chatted a while, and then I got a tour, and then we got out the shovel.

She sent me home with seven different types of plants. I got 3 small dill plants (I could eat dill on every single lunch or dinner meal and never get tired of it), and six other perennial or self-seeding plant types. The ones I remember are Feverfew and field Daisies, which are both white with yellow centers but very different structures. She also gave me what seemed like a huge yellow blooming flower, and a plant with purple bell-shaped flowers, and a plant that has white leaves but which is not lamb’s ears. She didn’t know names of the yellow or purple flowers. The purple flowers originally came from the home where her great-grandmother had the porch swing, if I have the story right.

Brian was gone all day so I did my own physical labor today. I know I can do this sort of thing, I was single a long time and did a lot of things back then that pushed my body past where it enjoyed the experience. Brian is quite cheerful while digging holes for me these days, and I gratefully accept his assistance. However, today I was alone and I rose to the challenge.

I dug six holes in the back yard, between our walkway and driveway, about 3 feet from the sidewalk. This is about the only part of our yard that gets sunshine most of the day. Only about a week ago I decided I wanted to have a sun garden so here I am already!

I don’t enjoy digging, do not like being dirty, do not like soil under my fingernails. It was hot and my sun hat kept falling off so I just finally got a rayon wrap (the kind they sell to cover a swimsuit, but I wear them as a summer shawl often) and wrapped it over my head, shoulders and upper arms. It made a difference against that strong, hot sun, and was pretty comfortable. (Women had this look often in midday in Africa.) It created me an instant sunscreen, and it kept my head from being so hot from the sun.

It was only 84F degrees, which is a temperature I adore when sitting still in the shade of the porch. However, when I was moving 40lb bags of composted manure and digging holes in a packed-soil yard (in full sun), it seemed very hot to me.

Anyway, now I have planted the dill with the other dill and parsley, and I have planted the 6 new decorative plants in their new homes. Cross fingers for me, friends. I really would like these plants to be happy here.

I’ve never had very good luck planting things in our soil. I do fine, actually very well, with planting things in containers, as you’ve seen before here. But our soil is a problem, I believe, and many smaller plants do not make it, or they take a good 3 years to survive being planted here. I’ve lost several plants the first year, and I have one plant (a bleeding heart) that was blooming and beautiful the first season but it’s down to a few leaves that don’t die but don’t thrive, either.

So today I dug holes deeper than necessary and wider than necessary. I mixed a combination of reasonably-dark soil from the yard, potting soil, composted manure (it looks like very dark soil, is not smelly at all but has a lot of nutrition for plants and holds moisture well) and peat moss for drainage. I put that mixture in all the six holes and then planted the transplants in with that mixture around and on top of the roots I was given.

I really, really, really want this to go well! I watered like crazy today, several times (I’ve learned that the first time, water does not get all the way down through new plantings to the deeper roots). Tomorrow I’ll water a few times as well. Then I’ve been advised that many plants do best if you only water every other day, because they grow longer roots under less than perfect conditions, looking for water further from the plant stem.

I wish I had photos of June’s garden for you, it is magnificent. My new garden looks like a few sticks coming up out of the grass right now. Thank goodness at least my tomato plant is happy and the climbing wild roses, although fading in the light/heat, are still colorful and abundant. I will enjoy each phase of summer as it arrives.

It’s so late I’m not going to post a photo now. Perhaps I’ll add photos when I awaken tomorrow, perhaps not. I hope those who have holiday weekends are spending more time with loved ones than reading blogs, anyway!

Late update (noon Sunday): Photos of women in Africa, wrapped in fabric (as I did yesterday) to protect them from near-equator sun. First in Kenya, a woman on the street in Mombasa. (Sorry for the bad photo, she was moving and I was in a moving car. She’s too pretty to pass up, blurry or not.) It was blistering hot there, in the 90s F (the only place on our trip where we were actually hot), and yet all those layers do protect a person against the direct sun.