It’s Saturday on a weekend most Americans call a holiday weekend. That means no classes for me to teach.

On top of that, we have had beautiful weather this week. The daffodils came out on Tuesday, and yesterday I think it was that I saw the first forsythia bushes in bloom.

So what did I do today? I started with a lot of paperwork, especially entering things into my Quicken program. (Did I ever mention how much I like Quicken? That is, other than its budgeting feature…) My business runs quite a bit on cash, so I have to enter business cash receipts into a cash register (like a check register) if I want them to show up on my year end reports for tax time. It’s good to get those entered as soon as they accumulate, but sometimes I fall behind and end up data-entry queen. I did that this morning.

This afternoon I actually got out my spinning wheel. I love spinning on the front porch with good music playing. I put on my Seth Bernard and Daisy May CD and started back spinning on some roving I have not touched in months. Now I have an overfull bobbin (and I have a Louet which has large bobbins) with lumpy-bumpy single-ply washable merino. From my friend Tracy Bunkers of Bonkers! Fiber. In raspberries and related dark/light pinks/purples. It’s pretty lovely, I’d say.

Then I took the bag of three other colors of the same superwash (darkish purples, spring green, and turquoise with green/purple accents) and divided it into small bundles. I put the bundles back into the plastic bag. It looks like very large candy or something! Now I plan to spin a second single-ply, also lumpy-bumpy, by pulling out random colors from the bag one at a time and spinning them into one multicolor. I’m hoping I have about the same amount of fiber in the bag as I do on the bobbin I’ve already spun. Then I can ply the two together and make some pretty fat lumpy-bumpy handspun in irregular fun colors, tied together with the berry strand.

My dream is that I’ll have enough multicolored yarn for a pair of legwarmers. I’m not sure if that will play out, but I really hope it will.

It was good to be back on that porch today. I wasn’t out there very long, but it was great. Yesterday it was really warm, summerlike at 69F degrees. Today, it was more like 60F, still sunny but slightly breezy and on the porch I had to wrap up to be comfy. It was still worth the time out there. I sooo needed to have it warm up outside! I was so done with winter!

What else did I do? I’m not really done yet, but I re-coded my patterns web pages. My old paypal buttons had ceased to function. I put new buttons in, and tested the main pattern page but I still need to test each individual page and see if the buttons work right. In fact, I just got an email from Thalea letting me know of one “hiccup” I programmed in. Aaargh! I did fix it fairly simply but I really need to doublecheck everything, and soon!

I’m going to sleep earlier tonight than last, and hope that nothing on my website confuses anyone too much while I’m sleeping!

Photos: Images of the last few weeks, the end of winter and start of something warm. 1) First mini-daffodil, bloomed about a week ago in the side yard, in a protected spot on the south side. I love these for being so early! 2) Over a week ago this was the view out my side/back door. It was hailing, you can not see that, but as I stood in the doorway there were small bits of ice bouncing off the ground into my back entry. Notice that at the same time, there was incredibly bright sun just about a block away, with shadows in the middle of a hailstorm. Brian saw a rainbow but none could be found from my yard, I definitely looked.

3) The last remaining snow pile on my side of town, maybe ten days ago. It is the back parking lot behind Sears at the Frandor Shopping Center on the east side of Lansing. You can see that when they plowed the parking lot, a shopping cart got in the middle of the pile and became frozen inside. A few days after I took this photo I went by, and the pile was still there but the cart had fallen to the bottom of the heap. Yes, for those of you who live where there is no snow… this is the nasty side of that pristeen white stuff you see in art photos. Snow forms itself around imperfections in the air. That means that when the water melts, the dirt/dust/smog remains and the pile of snow looks black. Sad, but true. By the way, this pile has been gone almost a week now.

4) Finally… my favorite view each spring. Our side yard, full of blooming violets. They are wild. If we put weed killer on the yard, we would not have this riot of purple blooms before anything else blossomed. They usually bloom a week before the daffodils. Pretty, aren’t they?

When we were at Magdalena’s Teahouse last Saturday, one of the performers was Seth Bernard. Brian knew who he was but I’d not met him before. We traded CDs, as performers often do.

Then I went home to do some deskwork. I popped the CD in the computer drive. (The CD is called Seth Bernard and Daisy May. Period. Keeping it simple and direct… like the music.) And I had a hard time paying attention to the deskwork.

Oh, My! I love this. It’s not my normal thing, either… it’s earthy, grounded but more twangy in places perhaps, than I usually would listen to at home. (I typically choose from 1920′s early jazz/tin pan alley, 70′s folk/pop, and African/world music.) Yet it’s just right. It’s just plain authentic. It’s what it is, they are who they are, and there is so much to love about that.

I’m SO glad I have this CD. I’ve played it several times already and not done with it for a while, for sure!

They both are clearly great musicians, upon which the rest of the magic stands. He’s got a sort of grounded, calming voice that makes you want to listen to every word. And I really love his lyrics. He’s truly a poet.

Her voice… as a singer myself, I’m blown away. The sound is wonderfully expressive without pushing too hard, soulful without trying to be someone else. I kept thinking Janis Joplin, to be honest. In all the good ways. She is young, but she is strong and grounded. What an instrument that voice is!

I like much about this CD, but I *LOVE* Daisy May’s voice best of all. What a talent; a down-to-earth, expressive talent. A young woman who already clearly knows who she is and sings her heart out from that centered place.

For the record, these two also clearly have friends in all the right places… that is, as backup musicians. The CD website says “…Dominic Suchyta on bass, Drew Howard on pedal steel and Andrea Moreno-Beals on cello.” Top notch, seen often at some of the better gigs in Lansing that I’ve attended.

If you love good vocals, check this out. If you love authenticity, dive in. It’s just as good as it gets.

Follow the link above and you can listen to “Shine On” by Daisy May (bottom left of web page). Not just a little clip, either… the whole song. Go on, follow the link and listen away.

The Fabulous Heftones (Brian and I) have some big excitement coming up this year. Some of this will have more information coming (times, for example) but here is part of our schedule coming up:

New York Ukefest, Sunday April 30, Greenwich Village NYC
Special Artist, Magdalena’s Teahouse, Thursday May 25 9-10pm, Lansing, MI
Altu’s Ethiopian Cuisine, Dinner Entertainment, Saturday June 10, 6:30-8:30pm, East Lansing, MI
CD Release Party, Magdalena’s Teahouse, Sunday June 25, Lansing, MI (Time to be determined.)
Cooper’s Glen Music Festival, Saturday August 26 (I believe 5:45pm), Kalamazoo, MI

Can you see I’m getting a bit excited here? What a fine set of performances this is, and we have a few more pending. You’ll hear it here first, my friends!

OK, this is the re-constructed post I lost the other day. Sigh…

I taught Bloom Shawl at Threadbear, to Crystal and Kathy. I’d met both of them in previous classes. Kathy wanted a special wrap for her sister in law, and found the perfect colors in Cambridge mohair blend.

Crystal wanted a cotton, casual wrap for baseball games and other outdoor events in the summertime. She started out with a neutral multicolored Butterfly mercerized cotton. She ended up with the same yarn but in red, burgundy, and charcoal. I think she’ll enjoy wearing this one.

Both shawls are very different from the three yarns I’ve seen the shawl done in so far (Noro Blossom, Multicolor Mohair, and Noro Silk Garden) yet very nice, indeed, in new ways. I think they are going to like their results.

Oh, and to answer Hobbit’s question on the blog… those funny padlock-looking things in several of my photos, are stitch markers made by Clover. I *love* these tools! They work like a safety pin but without coils to catch in the fabric. You can either mark the fabric itself or keep the marker on your needle between sections of knitting. In this pattern, we used them for both purposes.

I got two emails Monday regarding healthy, organic foods. The first came from Miko Fossum of Magdalena’s Tea House on East Michigan (just a few doors west of Emil’s restaurant, across the street from Green Door Lounge and Gone Wired Cybercafe). They have a new healthy kitchen there, and I’m sure I’ll be trying it out soon! Miko writes:

…we have vegan and wheat free options on our menu. I don’t know what your allergies are but hopefully we offer something that works for you. We get our delicious organic greens from the Giving Tree farm. I suggest trying our “raw” soup. So delicious, uncooked, full of enzymes and it makes you feel really good. I also do an amazing green smoothie, or a purple blind date smoothie that is getting well received.

The next note came from Teresa Lee, of the Mid-Michigan knitting guild. I’ve known Teresa since we were kids, though it took us a while to figure that out. She found an article on a stone grain-grinding mill that has been put back into production, not far from Lansing. That article is from the Argus Press, Owosso’s daily paper. Read it here:

http://www.argus-press.com/articles/2006/04/08/news/news2.txt

Thanks to those who write. I really appreciate you!

I just hit Ctrl-W (close window) by mistake and lost my lovely post about my recent classes at three shops. Whoops! I’ve lost heart so I’ll have to retype that when I feel more up to repeating.

So I’ll talk socks. You know I love socks, right? As in, I had over 80 pair of storebought socks before I discovered that I could knit my own? So I’m really really really happy to be back focused on my favorite knitting subject lately.

I finished that Turkish-Style Toe-Up pair for me this week (started in a class I taught at Threadbear), which was my 126th pair ever. Since May 2001, my notes tell me. Then I just finished one sock for my brother and will mail him that sock before completing the second. I know the foot fits, but we’ll see if he likes the way I finished the cuff. Crossing fingers, these are different than what he buys because he’s hard to fit.

I taught Fast Florida Footies and Afterthought heels at Threadbear in the last few weeks. It’s great to share my enthusiasm with students. My FFFootie that I made in class was an infant size 0 (will be a sample at a yarn shop, no doubt) and it was cute but doesn’t count as a pair in my sock count.

I’m knitting a First-Time Toe-Up pair, very slowly, in fingering weight yarn that I dyed myself. On size 0 needles. For me. Eventually, that is. They are my waiting-in-line socks between other projects. I’m on the cuff for both of them, so it won’t be forever, but they are low priority.

But now I’m teaching two First-Time Toe-Up Sock classes at the same time. One’s on Fridays at Rae’s and one is Mondays at Little Red Schoolhouse. At Rae’s I’m knitting along with multiple-turquoise Opal fingering/sockweight yarn on size 1 needles. At LRSH I’m knitting a Lamb’s Pride bulky slipper-footie on size 7′s. Loving both of them! They are very different socks but made with the same pattern. Love that, too.

Right now it’s a little too cool in the house and I’m wishing the slipper footies were done so I could wear them as bedsocks. ‘Night!

Photo: Sock Rae (of Rae’s Yarn Boutique) knit from yarn I dyed. It’s my Cushy ColorSport yarn (DK weight washable merino) in colorway Lynnabelle… which consists of three different turquoises. I do repeat the colorway from time to time but have none in stock right now. She knit lace with an afterthought heel, for a female friend with a large foot. For the record, afterthought heels can look funny in photographs, but they look very nice on a foot.

As promised, here’s a photo of some socks. The one on the left is Irene’s sock (she’s finished a pair now, surely, as she had less than an inch to go on the second sock over a week ago). It is knit in a handpainted DK-weight yarn (light sweater weight, knits for sweaters at 5.5st/in) which she bought at Threadbear Fiberarts.

She can’t remember the brand and neither can I, but it’s just perfect for this pattern! The color changes really accentuate the center-front slipped stitch pattern.

For the record, the center sock is the first one I made, from which I transcribed the pattern. The right sock is my own that I’ve been knitting with Irene. I finished my pair on Thursday night.

I admit it. I LOVE clothes. I love fabric, color, and assembling things together, sometimes in such a way that nobody but me knows I really planned to look like that.

I can look odd to today’s fashion sense. The longer I live, the less I worry about that. In fact the longer I live the more inclined I am to dress in an outrageous fashion. If the colors “go,” why shouldn’t I wear a plaid sweater with a print skirt? I haven’t done quite that yet but I get pretty close. I amaze myself.

But whether your style is urban casual, rugged outdoorsy, drama queen, goth or country-club chic (or anything else I haven’t mentioned), I strongly believe that costuming is an artform. And I mean not just on stage but every day of the year. Some of us are not into thinking about it, some of us make a life of it.

And the most glittery, fun, shiny, dress-up clothing I own is the dress I got in Cairo the week of Christmas, 2004. I wanted to show some friends the dress so the photo I posted in the previous column was not quite enough to show it off.

This dress is all about making a girl look as much female as is possible. It has accents where my curves are, and there are little glass-beaded fringe bits that move everytime I move. There are sequins, rhinestones and beads all on the same fabric surface. It would be “too much” if it were not made for theatre. It’s a costume that could be worn no other place but on the dance stage. And it’s just incredible at making me look great when I move to the music.

Yes, I can be a diva. OK, I admitted it. That is not the only character attribute I have, but this dress brings it out in a big way.

Some other days, I want to wear the largest sweater I own with leggings (like thick cotton tights without feet), legwarmers and a shawl… and just curl up on the heatvent or couch at home in total comfort. Not worrying about how I look at all.

But some days call for rhinestone jewelry and (gasp) even makeup. And I become Eudora, the diva dancer. I look so different that people who know me casually don’t recognize me until I speak to them. That’s sort of fun, actually.

I’m not the greatest dancer I know, but I’m pretty good or I would not have been able to audition into the Habibi troupe. I really love dancing and I smile like crazy the whole time I dance. Folks always remember my smile after the dancing ends. People always enjoy having me dance for them- I’m having such fun that they can join in and have a good time with me. How cool is that?

OK, done talking about myself for at least a short while. I present here two more pics of the dress for my friends to see… and then I’ll come back with photos of (gasp) knitting! My usual obsession, that is.

Friday night I had great fun dancing as Eudora at Aladdin’s. I was joined by Jennifer, whose dance name I don’t know. The crowd was great, and the employees were particularly into the dancing last night. I always have fun. This was no exception.

Saturday Brian and I play from 6:30-8:30pm at Altu’s Ethiopian Cuisine in East Lansing (next door to Silver Dollar). More fun will be experienced there, I’m sure of it!

Here are two photos of Friday night. 1) Me, as Eudora, dancing by Brian’s table. Sally got this shot, and it makes me smile. 2) Jennifer looking serene as she moves with grace across the floor.

I always make a horrible mess pushing toward a deadline. I typically also don’t sleep properly when in the big push. So now my taxes are mailed and my house is screaming for attention, and I’m in need of a full night of sleep (or two or three). So what did I do after getting home from Rae’s on Thursday night?

Movies. You heard me right. Me, the “I don’t like movies and TV” person. A friend sent us a handful of very old MGM shorts in DVD form (I don’t have a VCR but our computers can handle DVD) and we watched them while eating dinner on the couch. I knitted and crocheted and fell asleep on the couch while Brian was still watching.

It was amazing stuff. Sort of Zigfield Girls/Vaudeville. A lot like the old Jackie Gleason Show, which I do remember watching in the late 1960′s. Preposterous skits, sort of melodramatic, seriously glamorous clothing (sometimes with huge feather fans, sometimes with furs or white gloves, etc.), extreme everything. There were some of the shorts that were more about moving people around (while they were singing) into formations. Lots of filming from the ceiling to see the movement.

It reminded me of marching band, synchronized swimming, the June Taylor Dancers (dancers in a circle on the floor moving legs and arms so that it looks like a kaleidoscope, I remember them from Jackie Gleason if I recall properly)or just plain “staging” for dance numbers on a stage. When I dance with the Habibi Dancers, some of our choreographers are quite good at creating good staging so that the audience does not get bored. (Less experienced groups will do a dance all standing in one place… even when the moves are executed well, it’s more interesting if there is some movement on stage between dancers.)

One of the MGM shorts was more about staging than dancing, it was all about airplanes and the dancers carried around airplanes and they swished them around in the air while walking around the stage bunched into a group the shape of an airplane. Campy and cool.

It’s true I don’t like movies or TV much. However, I do love dance. These shorts were more about dancing (at least the ones I enjoyed best were). I can watch figure skating and dance for a very long time without getting bored, though I mostly would just as soon not watch anything, I’m not much of a spectator.

While I was watching, I finished a pair of Turkish-Style Toe-Up socks for me, the final bits of the socks I started in the class that finished last week. I’m sort of excited, I haven’t been finishing pairs of socks as fast this year and I’ve never worn a pair of socks from this pattern though I’ve knit perhaps 4 socks in this design before this pair. I get to wear them! Woohoo! They are my finished pair 125. Maybe now that taxes are over I will download the photos from the last 10 days or so that are still on my camera and give you folks a peek, finally.

After I finished the socks, I went back to my crocheted bag. I’m starting to make fewer mistakes but I find it painfully slow. I count and count and count and count. The way my brain works, I lose focus somewhere before 50 stitches even when counting by 2′s and then I have to start counting again.

With knitting I can put markers between the stitches and know that, say, 20 stitches should be on either side of a marker. With crochet, each stitch is separate and once you place a marker, that marker is only good for that one round. Ugh. I’ve never been diagnosed as ADD but this particular quirk of my brain sure makes me wonder. It is really a problem with crochet and slows me down a lot.

Anyway the bag I’m making is called the Boho Bag from a Patons Classic Wool pattern booklet. It includes knitted and crocheted bags to shrink/felt/full and many of them include beads in the design. If you follow the link here, my bag is the third photo in the list. It’s shown in black, red, spring green, white, orange, dark green. I’m doing it in peacock colors: four versions of turquoise/teal/jade and two versions of purple. It is turning out really pretty.

But this bag may take me forever. My class is complete today, this is our 4th week and we’re doing some things in class that I have not done, so I won’t just be finishing the bag in class. And I have so many other classes (the ones I’m teaching myself) where I need to stay up with the class. I have two First-Time Toe-Up sock classes going right now, one at Little Red Schoolhouse and one at Rae’s. I started a new pair in both classes. At LRSH I’m on bulky Lamb’s Pride yarn for some practical slippers. However, at Rae’s I started some Opal in turquoise/cream/black specks, in fingering weight. I’ll love them, but I must confess I did not need to start another pair of socks in skinny yarn right now.

I can not TELL you how many pairs of socks I’ve knit on this week. All what I consider current projects. There are the 2 pair for classes, plus the pair I just finished. Then there is the pair for my brother which have both feet/gussets finished and just need cuffs. And the pair I did in my own handpainted fingering weight yarn, in the same pink/purple colorway as the Turkish pair (but lighter, different yarns take dye differently).

I have other pairs sitting languishing in the “current projects” UnFinished Objects (UFO) boxes. Yes, two boxes of UFOs. I so often start a project to demonstrate to a class, and then the class is one or two sessions and the project gets dropped for the next current class. Often it doesn’t bother me, because typically I do finish these things given some time. Right now it is starting to bother me. I think it’s because lately more of the projects are not socks and they need me to knit on them at home. And I almost never knit at home.

But in the scope of things, if two boxes of UFOs is my worst problem, I’m doing pretty well, don’t you think???

Photos: Dancer at Cairo Marriott Hotel, December 2004. I’m giving you you old news from my trip that was over a year ago. However, these photos haven’t been on the blog before (and at least the theme is right since Friday is dance night for me at Aladdin’s).

I’m still catching up on my current tasks including processing the photos currently on my camera (from the last week or so), but I’m guessing you’ll get more current photos soon.

Oh, Joy! I get to dance at New Aladdin’s this Friday! I’m sorry that one of the two originally scheduled to dance is not feeling up to par, but I’m so very excited that I get to dance!!!

I had a class with 3 people in it scheduled Friday, and then 2 had to drop out. So that last one will get a class but with a revised schedule, and then I get to dance. Woohoo!

I am just like a little girl. I love to play dress up. I put on my turquoise dress and I become Eudora. Sort of like Cinderella only better!

For those of you in Lansing, Michigan, the show is in an outer building of Frandor (same building as the video store). Show times are about a half hour, one show at 6:30 and one at 8:00pm. No cover, but the food is so good you’ll want to try something. If you don’t want a meal they have fresh smoothies and great mideastern baked goods such as baklava, and the best rice pudding in town. Please join us for a fun time!

Photo: Me as Eudora at Aladdins last September.

I finished taxes at 1:18am, gave myself an hour of crocheting in peace on the couch and crashed. Wednesday I seemed to be more-than-fashionably late to everything, but I got through all my appointments. After dance rehearsal I had dinner at Altu’s with my friend Anne and her delightful 4yr old daughter. Life could be much worse.

Tonight the only deskwork I’m doing is printing out the tax forms and envelopes to mail. Then more crochet, or so goes my plan. The bag is developing very nicely, the colors I chose are really really nice, and it looks like nine zillion single-crochet stitches from now I’ll have a beautiful, peacock-colored felted crochet bag. I’m swearing at it a little less often, anyway, and ripping out is bothering me less than it did a week ago.

Off to sign forms and stuff envelopes. Then I’ll practice music with my sweetie and end the day with more crochet.

I’m scheduling classes this week for the next few months. Last minute requests, anyone?

I get to be alone today, at least for several hours. I sooooo love these days. The loudest sounds are the furnace fan blowing and the keys clicking as I type. I thrive in public (though I definitely prefer tea with one friend to a room full of chaos) but all things need balance, and after days of teaching I really am loving this quiet.

I did start my day socially. My friend April called and she and baby and dog were going for a walk, did I want to go? Yes, I did. So I held the leash of a curious but timid large dog, and April pushed the stroller.

It was a pleasant walk, if chilly. I saw my first robin of the year, which was a great way to start the day. At one point we found wild violets and picked one for little Isabel (who will be two this month). She held that violet between her two fingers for the longest time, just checking it out. Very sweet.

In case anyone wonders how small this city of 130,000 really is, small would be the answer. April and I were walking several blocks from home (we live next door to one another with a side street between us) and someone drove their car into their driveway in front of us. April exclaimed that she knew this person, and darned if I didn’t know her as well! April works with her, and she’s in the knitting guild. Small world, this town of creative souls.

But now I’m alone. The sun is behind clouds but I can tell there is a sun up there. I am at my desk, which is my favorite place in the house. I’m drinking some good Ceylon tea I got at American Bulk Food yesterday (which surprisingly has a great selection of mideastern foods such as great black oil-cured olives and incredible whole dates). This is the best new tea I have sampled in a long time. The label is written partly in Arabic, and it reminds me of my visit to Egypt. Over a year ago, already.

As soon as I hit “save” for this blog I’m back to taxes. (Thank goodness, the headache seems to have exited the picture.) I expect to finish the tax reports today. Then I will laze on the couch and knit whatever the heck I wanna knit!!! Or so go my best-laid plans…

Photos (December 2004): 1) Tea in Cairo, Egypt, at the Marriott Hotel restaurant with the Egyptian theme. 2) Tea on the road between Cairo and Alexandria, at a sort of tourist spot, with a peasant theme. The best breakfast we had in Egypt! A sort of flat bread (fresh from the clay oven) with local honey and a cottage-cheese sort of dip, incredibly tasty and authentic. Notice that both these restaurants served tea in glasses rather than cups.

It has rained a lot in the last few days. Tony and I saw slushy snow coming down on Monday so I’m crossing fingers that’s the last snow of the season. After all, we always see at least a little snow in April. I love the thaw and flowers of spring, but not the rain/mildew. I guess that is life, the up and down come together often.

I started a First-Time Toe-Up sock class at Little Red Schoolhouse Monday night, for four ladies who all work together. It was quite fun indeed! There is nothing like teaching. Nothing.

Before and after that, I did taxes and had lunch with Tony. My dear friend. Who just bought a bit o’yarn for socks and is going to try my First-Time Toe-Up sock pattern on at least one of them. Or at least he’ll try my toe. He’s an experimenter, so there is no way to know today what heel he will try when he gets to that point. I’m delighted he’s trying my sock.

More rain-induced headaches in the last few days. Today it did not arrive until almost all the class was over. I had dinner and napped the headache away. I’m hoping tomorrow it will be gone. Most of these headaches last 2 days, so I’m crossing my fingers.

I plan to finish the tax project tomorrow. If I finish soon enough I can go to Ann Arbor (Arborland Borders Books)… to the knit-in I’ve not attended since maybe before the holidays. If I feel crummy, though, I’ll just nap and take it easy instead. I have planned a lot for Wed/Thurs so I need to be rested and happy for that.

I just noticed what I just typed. Why is it I have to feel crummy to take a lazy day? I overschedule myself so much that I have to not do something I love in order to take a lazy day.

Sometimes you need “bathrobe days” where you slouch around in clothes that never get out of the house, hang on the couch knitting or reading or listening to comfort music, perhaps napping. But I seem to only do that when I am sick. Seems that every few months anyway, I should just take one to rejuvinate my inner self.

OK, off to bed (I’m dating this Monday but am actually typing it in the wee hours of Tuesday morning). I thank every one of you who have ever taken a class from me, or bought a pattern from me, or yarn or buttons or a kit. I love this life I live, although it means a lot of running from class to class and project to project. I could not do this without every one of you. Thanks.