I tell you, my friends… today (Monday) the heat index was well over 100F and this is Michigan. I’m fond of warmth but not oven temperatures. I tried to have a day off but it was too hot to go on the porch in the hammock, even the hammock was sticky and hot. I read a little in my Yarn Harlot book, I knit a little (finished a footie and have only to bind off a shawl I started last week).

Mostly I drank water and iced tea and more water. I made up excuses to run errands where I’d be in air conditioning for a few minutes here and there. I do not like being cooped up in a building with air conditioning, I’m really big on opened windows… but today I gave in. I still have a headache from the heat in spite of the care I took. And tomorrow is supposed to be worse.

Tomorrow I’m going to see if our wireless internet connection will work in the upstairs bedroom where we do have a window air conditioner. We’ll see.

In any case, this all means I didn’t feel like sitting at a computer much today. What I just did was add photos to yesterday’s post. I’ll get photos from Ann Arbor when I can get cooler. Thanks for understanding.

Oh, Rae and Sarah posted their pictures from yesterday already…

It’s late, I’m tired, but I want to check in. I have taken what seems like a zillion photos in two days and will need to sort through what is just the right stuff for the blog.

Saturday night was the night of my 30 year High School reunion. I chose not to go, then I was sad about it when it became too late to join in. Brian was kind enough to take me on a date so my mind would be distracted. We ended up in East Lansing at an outdoor Yellow Sub Marines free concert. (It’s a Beatles tribute band, can you tell?) That was fun. Then we had Indian food (Channa Masala for me… that’s chick peas in a tomato sauce with onions and flavorings, comfort food).

Sunday I spent the day in Ann Arbor. I love Ann Arbor, but I have not been there in far too long. Months and months, really. Of course I went first to the library to hear Stephanie Pearl-McPhee/Yarn Harlot speak and have her sign a book for me. (The inscription is “Obsession is normal.” Gotta love this woman, huh?)

I got there 20 minutes before the event and was issued to the overflow room. They had some tech problems right at first but in the end we got to see a live “video” of Stephanie as she was talking. She even waved to us, how kind that was. Then we all piled downstairs to wait in line for a signature and a chance to say hello. The library was surprised that the event which started at 2pm was really challenged to close up shop by 6pm. I wasn’t surprised…

There were SO many people there I sort of lost it for a little while until I got situated. There were a lot of folks there I knew… students, colleagues, other designers and bloggers… and unfortunately even though I practice names for new folks I know, and should not have to practice names for those I’ve known for years… I was out of my element and I missed a few.

I’m really sad about that, I really do care and I just am not so good in big crowds. I guess I should not be too bummed, I once even forgot the last name of a friend I’ve literally known for over 40 years. It’s just how I respond to too much visual/sound input. OK. ‘Nuff said there, I guess.

Riin and I went to Zingermans for dinner. I love that place! We talked until past 9pm. Good food, good tea, good company, good knitting-in-public time. One person to pay attention to, and only one. It doesn’t get better than that.

Photos tomorrow. I have one work task for Monday and that is to mail out two skeins of yarn. Then I will play in PhotoShop and see what I can show you. I may just add photos to this post, or maybe I’ll go ahead with extra posts. I’ll know more when I see what photos worked out.

Good night.

Images posted 7/31/2006: 1)The Yellow Sub Marines at Ann Street Plaza, East Lansing. 2)Crowd watching concert, this was only half the crowd if that. 3)The Andersons at right, she’s a dancer of retirement age… they always come to our first-Friday New Aladdin’s dance performances… they were dancing to the band. They are a delightful couple. Notice at left is a woman dancing (swinging) a child. There were so many children dancing, it was wonderful!

It’s so hot here I am noticing it. Now, I’m the one who goes to dance class, everyone else is fanning themselves to cool down and yet my hands are cold as ice.

I like heat. I actually must admit that even I adjust my activity level when it’s hot, but I really want to feel summer. When I worked in air conditioned spaces, I would ask “Where did the summer go?” When I live it, I don’t wonder.

So today I had a bunch of orders, some patterns for 2 of the shops where I work and three packages to mail out. I spent the morning working on a pattern, and early afternoon preparing my orders. At 3:30pm or so, I got ready to go. And realized that the display Perfect Hug shawl I had knit for Linda at Little Red Schoolhouse, I had forgotten to block last night.

Now, I don’t block my knitting in any fancy way. I get it wet, stretch it here and there to even out stitches, and then just smooth it out to dry. I don’t pin or stretch. So I did the unthinkable. I dunked that baby in the sink. I mean, at the moment I thought I’d be driving out of the driveway.

I delayed my trip just a few minutes… tossed the wet shawl in the washing machine and put it on spin dry. I waited until the washer spun out the excess water. I grabbed a large towel and left on my errands. With the damp shawl in hand.

I opened the car which was so hot I could barely put my hand in there until the doors had been open a while. I put the afghans I always carry in the car, on the back seat, and topped them with my towel. Then I stretched and shaped and prodded that shawl and laid it out nicely on the towel. On the back seat of my New Beetle. The very hot back seat of my JoyBug.

I drove the 3 miles to Rae’s shop first. I dropped off a few things, was there maybe 20 minutes. Then I got in the car, and drove to the west side of town (maybe 10 miles if that) where Linda’s shop is. And by the time I got there, the shawl was so dry it was light as a feather and the edges were flapping in the breeze back there.

(For the record, the car was mostly in shade while waiting for me… but I did block the shawl with the inside facing up, just in case the sun could have an effect on the colors in such a short time. It’s knit in a multicolored, lumpy-bumpy yarn that would not show problems readily, anyway. Someone is bound to ask…)

Hey, whatever works!

Sorry, no photo. I forgot my camera in the excitement.

I wrote a Granola Bar Recipe here this month, which called for Sorghum Syrup (though I did indicate a good substitute for those who could not find the real thing). I just was looking for shoe polish, of all things, when I found an online store called the Peas & Corn Co. They have Sorghum Syrup on their site. Amazing.

The site itself reminds me of an old general store. They have waistband-stretchers and collar stretchers, mink oil paste, hat brushes, onion cookers and a steam-free milk frother. All things I did not realize were available to me, sitting here at my desk looking at the computer. Too much fun… when I have other things to do…

Oh, my friends, what a good summer I’m having. I’m so busy I can barely get here to tell you about it but it’s good fun, I tell you. We are singing so much it’s my primary business this month. Loving it!

Yesterday we sang for an upscale retirement center. We’ve performed for one wedding ceremony and one wedding reception. We opened at Creole Gallery, we sang in the garden at Applewood in Flint. We sang twice at Magdalena’s Teahouse, once for our CD release party. We sang for thirty retirees at a luncheon and a half dozen for a birthday party on a deck surrounded by trees and flowers. We jammed nonstop for three days at the Evart Dulcimer FunFest and are looking forward to another three-day jamfest at Wheatland Music Festival in September. We helped our friend Bob McCarthy at the Meridian Historical Society and we played at Altu’s Ethiopian Cuisine as we often do.

Next Friday we are playing with Thomas Boles/Waypastfrown (of California) and “Daniel The Minstrel” Cook at Gone Wired Cybercafe on Michigan Avenue, show starts at 8pm. Who knows what might come up soon? On August 26 we are in Kalamazoo at Coopers’ Glen Music Festival and we just got word we are playing in Warren for a Banjo gathering in October. And we have been invited back to New York (city) Ukefest next April already. Things are singingly lovely these days.

We are particularly enjoying our private engagements. There is nobody as appreciative of our music as a retiree who grew up singing this genre of music. They sing right along and smile through the whole concert! It is these groups who fill out our schedule and make us know that we are on the right track.

However, I am also relishing my attempts to get this wonderful kind of music in front of a generation or two who have never heard it before. This was the popular music in the USA, in the 1920s, when my Gramma Ruthie was a young woman. It’s engergetic, emotional, saucy, fun and sentimental. And more.

It’s music written when a song was created by at least two guys who were paid full time to write. One guy made a melody, and one or two more guys would write lyrics. They did this all day every day. They got really good, no surprise! They didn’t take time to go perform the music, they just finished one song and started up on the next. No wonder the music is so finely crafted. You just get better every time you do something.

I’m not surprised that music written in this sort of system is great. And it’s no wonder that some of these songs still persist though almost none of us still alive were around when it was the music of the day. Since no singer wrote the music, one song might be performed by dozens of popular singers. The music got around! And I still sing April Showers (1921, download our recording of it here if you like) whenever we have a spring rain. It just makes me feel good.

OK, back to my pattern designer business… one day it’s singing, the next it’s counting stitches and photographing samples. I never get bored!

Photo: Brian and I performing as The Fabulous Heftones, at the wedding reception of Ann and Steve last Saturday.

Wowie. Today I went to a one-person class at Rae’s where Julie was my student. And she had a gift for me. Not just any gift, mind you. Something she made specifically for me.

Julie loves rainbow colors. She and I are both focused on bright color but we often choose different combinations. We understand one another, in this town which is generally conservative about color.

I met Julie in the contradancing community. I knew long ago that she hand-dyed commercially-produced cotton socks. In rainbows. Wonderful rainbows. Enthusiastic, bright, sunny rainbows.

Well, today she presented me with some wonderful super-thin summer cotton socks that she dyed in a LynnH rainbow colorway with me in mind. They are purple, cherry/fuschia, blue-turquoise, aqua-turquoise. And they fit my little feet comfortably. They are just plain perfect. (She also made me a rainbow bandana for my hair… of course I’ve always been obsessed with socks so I focus on those here but I appreciate both gifts.)

She was worried I would not like my gift. Imagine! She’s right, they are not wool, but in summer I do sometimes wear thin cotton socks with my sandals (yes, I’m a geek, but my feet just are not comfortable barefoot in any footwear).

And the colors? Notice how perfectly they coordinate with the skirt I wore to our class today. Incredible. She got it down to a “T.”

Julie, you rock! Thanks SO much.

I’m about to discard the veil of secrecy I’ve kept for a while… I just shipped out a lot of skeins of yarn to one person. I dyed more yarn in one colorway than ever before, even a bit more than the time I did my Seaside colorway for Annie Modesitt’s retreat a few years back.

The secret? I dyed yarn for the knitalong group for August, in the Yahoo group called “Whenever” (instead of a sock of the month they have a sock of the “whenever you want to participate”). Kathy Nehrenz designed the sock and asked me to design a yarn colorway (she had colors pictured in her mind for the sock) for the knitalong.

The design is called “Summertime Socks” and my yarn is called Midday Garden. I’m doing the colorway only this once. I did make a few extra skeins in case they have late additions to their knitalong, and if for some reason there are leftovers after the knitalong is on its merry way, I can sell what is left. I won’t be dyeing it again.

This is the first time I’ve done four colors (plus white) on one skein. I usually stick to three or fewer. She pushed me to try something new… and the tiny 80-yard test skein I made for Kathy to swatch looks pretty lovely… I’m pleased.

Of course, I could not do any sort of automation at all with four colors (in the fear that I’d overlap colors that turn into mud when they touch) so even though I did three dye lots, the skeins are as individual as you and I. Two skeins right next to one another will be a little different, it’s just the process of pouring dye on the skeins as they lie on the table together. That makes it sort of wonderful, though. Absolute uniqueness.

I am sure it’s not too late to join the group and get involved if you are inclined. It’s a short sock for summer with a bit of lace, it should be a perfect summer project. If you are interested, go to yahoo groups and join the group called “Whenever” and Kathy can get you going.

Or not. Your choice. But that’s my project of the week, one more reason I’ve been gone/silent for a while. I had no helper this time around, and it was an incredible amount of labor for just one person to do. Winding the yarn is the boring part (first I wind from white yarn on cones into loose dyeing hanks, then I dye, then I take the dyed hanks and re-wind into tidy skeins to show the colorway more as it looks knit up). However, I worked on learning words to some songs while winding away for hours and hours.

After mailing the yarn out Wednesday morning, Brian and I went to Muskegon (a 2 hour drive) for the day to see Brian’s family. They do a camping trip each year and the sisters from out of state come in. Since for some reason I know those two sisters best of the family, it’s really special to see them and it was worth the drive to be there a while together.

It’s too funny now that it’s over… but we got back home past midnight and there was a bat flying around our house. Ugh. Luckily Brian found it in the unfinished part of our attic and with gloves and other gear, caught it in a crumpled-up old shirt from the rag bag, and took it outside to let it free.

It was nerve-wracking especially when we didn’t know where the bat had gone, and when he was trying to catch the thing. Now it’s just a bit funny. Have I mentioned I’m not much of a fan of nature? Especially when it moves in to my house? That’s a bird and a bat in less than a month. I hope that means we’re done for a while.

OK, so now I’m home for a while. My next overnight trip is Michigan Fiber Festival in Allegan, Michigan, where I’m teaching the third weekend in August.

I have a few local classes coming up, and I’m working very hard to get my three new patterns finalized for my website and my local shops where I teach/sell patterns. Bags to Go is in shops but not yet on my site or Knittingzone.com, the other two are very close to their first release.

I’m knitting my fourth Perfect Hug Shawl, Diana knit her third yesterday. Once I have all the writing down I’ll have it tested one more time by someone else. I’m hoping it will be in a week or less, since the shawl takes a day or two to knit.

OK: meanwhile I need to sleep. Goodnight.

Photos: Summertime Sock by Kathy Nehrenz of the Sock of the Whenever Yahoogroup (group name is Whenever). One of the two piles of yarn I shipped to Kathy for the kits for the August knitalong, though the colors aren’t exactly true on my monitor.

I’m over-busy yet again… dyeing 30 skeins of yarn for a special order (I swear I don’t do special orders but I broke the rule this time) takes a bit of focus and a lot of time… so I asked my Mom if I could take an excerpt from her email newsletter and post it here.

Mom and Fred drove to Minnesota for the same 50th anniversary party Brian and I attended on July 9. From where we live, Lake Michigan (a huge huge lake, more like a sea) is directly in the way of driving as the bird flies. Brian and I went southwest around Chicago and Mom and Fred went north and then west, through the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

(She also mentions briefly that she holds a luncheon in East Lansing, Michigan… for friends they know at the mobile home park in Florida where they winter. Folks come from many states/provinces to have lunch and chat, and Brian and I perform music for them as well. It’s a fun time.

Mom is very observant of things others miss. I particularly love her description of the trip up north. But you can read for yourself:

…I have been abundantly busy. Isn’t that wonderful? We left July 6 for Minnesota and drove through the upper peninsula as there are very few trucks that way, and it is fun. In northern WI, there were roads: Love Knot Ln, Everybody’s Rd, Hay Meadow Rd, Squash Lake Rd. There was a “Cheap Seats Sports Bar” and a lot of snowmobile crossing signs. Their trails even have small sized stop signs for them.

At the crossroad town of Laona, WI, there were six bars in the one block of town. A sign in one small town advertised “cold beer and doughnuts”! There was an apple farm that advertised with signs like the old Burma Shave signs. It said: The time is near; so do not fear; the apples so dear; will soon be here. A sign near the drive announced the apples were “ping pong ball size” right now.

The cat tails were brown. There were a lot of flowers on the farms but few vegetable gardens, a lot of deer may be why. Some put electric fences around their gardens. Some parts had very dry land and some places had enough rain. We enjoy eating at mom and pop places and had to make sure we got pasties in the U.P…

…On to my brother in law’s home in Janesville. When we arrived, I came into the house looking for this “really old couple”. It was their 50th wedding celebration the next day. They are a very young looking couple for being married that long.

Lynn and Brian came, too. They sang on Sunday, but had been in Minneapolis on Saturday for the opening at Susan Hensal’s Gallery at a showing of art in knitting. Lynn knit a self portrait. (weblog July I couldn’t believe she would even think to do it. It is wonderful. You can see it on her weblog…

…There were 31 that came to the Coral Gables in East Lansing and out to my home for dessert afterwards. It was a good afternoon.

We had a good meal, The Fabulous Heftones played, next, 25 came out to the house for dessert. We had four from Canada, two from Wisconsin that flew in, and the rest were from all over the middle of Michigan…

The animals have been loving the backyard. There were nine blackbirds eating up a storm. A chipmunk did not want them around, so was chasing them. He was outnumbered, but tried, even jumping up in the bush to chase them. A female cardinal, a blue jay and a robin came to eat, too. Looking out my windows is my live “TV”. I do not feed the birds, I just have a lot of things they like to eat in my yard.

…I’ll bet you are enjoying your summer. We had the first of the green beans.

Somehow I took a picture of this shawl on July 3 but I’ve been so crazy-busy since then (mostly with the self-portrait and then a lot of musical peformances) that I guess somehow I forgot to post it. And it’s such a nice photo, in my opinion!

The shawl on the mannequin was the first test knit of this upcoming pattern, knit in commercial (rather than handspun) yarn. It’s exactly three balls of Debbie Bliss Soho (210 yards thick/thin) on size 15 needles. It’s shaped simply and easily, to be a sort of a rainbow shape.

You can see the shape of the shawl in the teal version drying here on two sweater dryers. The teal one is Rio de la Plata, two hanks with leftovers.

The first one is at Rae’s Yarn Boutique right now, the teal will be at Threadbear Fiberarts sometime later this week. I have one more in process, in sand and denim Soho, for Little Red Schoolhouse. And I’m keeping one in Rio de la Plata in two pinks, for me! Well, that’s what I say now but if another shop picks up my pattern line and they carry Rio, I’ll be sending the sample as sure as you’re born.

I’m working on finalizing this pattern right now, there are some wording issues that are really important (explaining two elongated-stitch rows one following the other is an issue when I give more than one possible method of creating the elongated/dropped stitch). I’m working with my test knitter (Diana, my sister in law, has knit two of these already and it’s very helpful that she’s also a writer) to get it clear as day before releasing the pattern. If I need to limit the options to make it more clear, I will do that.

I’m excited, too, that I found an Adrienne Vittadini thick/thin two-ply yarn (wool and alpaca, yum) at Threadbear. It looks structurally very like the handspun yarn I used for the very first test version of this design. It has exactly the same yardage as the Debbie Bliss Soho. It comes in a gorgeous red and some other subtle colors but I chose the natural gray because it looks so handspun. I think Diana’s working on that one this week (bless her, what would I do without her… she absolutely cranks out samples sometimes).

The good news is that all five of these shawls I’ve assembled so far were less than $40 in yarn, most closer to $25. And they knit up in a day or two. It seems they will be the perfect gift, as well as the Perfect Hug.

(You can see a partial view of me wearing the first version of this shawl. That version which I knit from yarn I spun myself. I got the rovings from Traci Bunkers of Bonkers Fiber. That photo is part of my post about our CD Release Party, June 27.)

Last weekend we spent three days in Evart, Michigan (not far from Big Rapids, where Ferris State University is). Each year at the fairgrounds, the Dulcimer FunFest is held here. Some people come a week before it officially starts, and many stay beyond the final date of the musical events.

It’s quite a gathering, mostly focused on acoustic music. A hammered-dulcimer group organizes it, but all acoustic music is enjoyed during the event. Brian teaches ukulele workshops here each year. The vendors said it was a boom year for selling ukuleles. I say this is good for everyone!!!

Brian’s mom and dad always go, as do his aunt and uncle. I really enjoy their company. Also this year and last Brian’s nephew Joe also has attended. He plays a number of instruments including viola and ukulele, and was having some good fun learning more about the uke during the festival. There are a lot of uke afficionados, including a club from near Dearborn (Detroit area) and so there was no lack of jamming opportunities for anyone.

Brian and I did what we could to jam as often as possible. Of course, we are still a relatively new act in the Michigan acoustic scene, so any contact we can get with other musicians or appreciative listeners, is good for us.

Since we will be playing at Coopers Glen festival in Kalamazoo in August, and some of the folks who come to Evart live on that side of the state… Well, it seems a good idea to try to meet folks from that “neck of the woods” while having great fun playing music.

So we played and played and played. We shared as much of our music as we could with new folks who had not heard us before. I tell you, it does not get more fun than this.

Our friends, Judy and Whitt McKinney of the McKinney Washtub Two, were there. We always have such a great time with them. They have been performing together a long time and have a really tight act which is quite amusing, musical and intelligent. I love jamming with them and chatting in the dark while swatting mosquitos away. It’s as much fun as someone can have outdoors, I think!

Whitt and Judy pushed us to play on the main stage this year (we have not done that before). In fact, Whitt woke us up on Saturday to make sure we got in line to apply for a Saturday afternoon slot.

It turned out that our performance time was when the McKinney’s were doing a workshop so they couldn’t come hear us, but we did play and had a very welcoming crowd. It was wonderful fun.

Our friends, the club Uke ‘n Sing, also performed on the main stage Saturday Afternoon. We stayed to hear them, and they were incredible fun. They are so enthusiastic and they have the knack of picking excellent crowd-pleasing songs. The audience really loved their set.

It was really cute… there was one toddler girl dancing to their music, pretending to play ukulele. Then when they played “Bye, Bye Love” she had one hand strumming and the other waving “bye bye!” Just as adorable as a child can be without trying at all!

On both Friday and Saturday Brian taught intro to Ukulele workshops. At one point he was teaching them a song that had only two chords. He decided that he would jump in the air every time they needed to change chords. Considering that Brian is a relatively soft-spoken guy, this was quite fun and entertaining to watch. We all enjoyed it.

Following the Friday workshop, there was a ukulele jam session as well. Brian really helped out the new players by putting chord diagrams up on the front wall. Then when they played during the jam, Brian would point the neck of his uke to the chord chart that was required at that moment for that song. It was a fun way to keep everybody together, and a great time was had by all.

I think it was John from the Uke ‘n Sing ukulele club who said he counted at least 60 people at the uke jam. (I wonder if he counted me on my bass?) That was a highlight of my weekend, for sure.

Friday night there was also another ukulele jam with the Uke ‘n Sing folks and all other uke friends. Bruce and Karol were there… Bruce does the other uke workshops that Brian does not do at this festival, and Karol plays uke and also performed a few hula dances for us (once solo and once with a friend). That was really special to me, as a dancer. She did a wonderful job.

We had such fun. We hung out with different folks different times, played old banjo music with Morgan and Sherry of Picks N Sticks stringband, played with some excellent oldtimers in the big building by the water fountain, sat on park benches and watched the crowds go by, met many new folks whose names we may never know, who were kind enough to go to the vendor building and buy our CDs. We sold more CDs than we’ve ever sold at one event, and we are humbled and delighted.

Do consider coming to the Fun Fest next year if at all possible, whether you play or just like to listen to good music. (And if you get to the Lion’s food booth, you can get some of the best homemade pies I’ve seen!) I had such a good time, sauna temperatures notwithstanding, that I am eager to return already!

Photos: 1) Jam Thursday Night, crowd, 2) Jam with Brian on uke, 3) Jam with Morgan at front on Banjo, 4) Saturday jam with piano and accordion, 5) Night crowd observing Sherry and Morgan and friends, 6) Judy and Whitt McKinney showing off their new “Fabulous Heftones” bumper sticker on guitar case, 7) Stage Veiw of Brian and I on main stage, thanks to Bob of Uke ‘n Sing, 8) Uke ‘n Sing on main stage, 9) Child playing air uke and waving bye bye, 10) Brian and I at Friday night uke jam, 10 & 11) Crowd at Friday night Uke Jam, 12) Karol doing hula for us, same jam, 13) Gil once more entertaining the crowd as no one else can… he is incredible and I never want him to stop singing, 14) Friday Uke Workshop crowd (Brian’s dad and nephew Joe in front row toward left), 15) Bruce and Brian preparing to jump as a chord-changing cue in Friday workshop, 16) Saturday workshop crowd, 17) Another photo of first jam shown in this post.

Thursday night was so much fun I can not even explain. It was a good-sized crowd full of ukulele fans, Travis Harrelson fans, Fabulous Heftone fans, and Creole Gallery fans. Such a good crowd it was!

We were the opening act. We sang and it really felt that everyone was totally with us, every note. I am a performer who is very intent on relationship, and when I sing I do my best to go around the room and sing at least a few notes to everyone whose face I can see. At the Creole, I can see the audience well from the stage and I was able to enjoy singing directly to many people.

After our set the audience (and the management, which matters more) asked for an encore, which is not a usual thing for an opening act. (Our job is to get up there, make people smile, and get down before the energy lags.) The extra song was an honor. But the excitement was yet to come… Travis Harrelson was delightful.

He did some songs I’d never heard before, songs perhaps I should have known my whole life. He has a way of playing the uke like nobody else… he strums, picks, dances on those strings. It was wonderful.

Gerald Ross and Tom T. Ball on guitar and bass respectively, really rounded out a lot of the numbers for the show. And then when they could talk Mr. Harrelson into doing a few numbers alone… well, that was a real treat as well. He is something of an intimate performer, it was like he was whispering directly to me. As a singer I enjoyed those solo pieces very much.

There were so many Ukulele friends there! One wonderful surprise was Peter “Madcat” Ruth, who lives in Ann Arbor. He has been known for harmonica for a very long time but we played on the same stage with him last March (?) in Ann Arbor, he has a relatively new CD featuring ukulele and it’s wonderful. In fact we’d been listening to it Thursday morning with our friend Bob who came up from Cincinnati for the event… and there he was at the concert! Very exciting to see him again… he’s such a warm person, I really just love seeing him any time at all. And our friends Bruce and Karol from the Evart Dulcimer Fun Fest were there as well, another surprise treat from out of town.

After the show, we walked around the corner (this is the Old Town Main Street area which is getting quite fun and funky these days) and popoed into the Unicorn Bar to hear our friend Frog perform with his band. When we got there, Madcat was sitting in with them on harmonica. More special treats! However, it was so loud we could not talk, so we danced one number and then left.

A group of us (the performers, the organizers and a few friends from out of town) went out for dinner and then the night ended too soon. It was a wonderful, wonderful day!

Photos: 1) Audience at Creole Gallery. 2) Brian and I near the stage (photo taken after the show by Oren… thanks bunches, Oren!) 3-5) Three photos of Travis Harrelson in concert, one with Tom T. Ball on Bass and Gerald Ross on guitar. 6) Frog and band with Madcat Ruth on harmonica.

Thursday (today) Brian and I are opening at the Creole Gallery for Travis Harrelson, Ukulele Great from California. The show starts at 7:30pm.

Here is what the Creole website says, in part:

Thursday, July 20 – 7:30pm
TRAVIS HARRELSON
with Special Guests, THE FABULOUS HEFTONES
TICKETS: $14
Expect to hear sounds that you never expected could come from a ukulele.

Travis comes to us in a very special appearance outside of his home state of California.

He has been playing since the 1940s and mostly covers great old tunes from the beginning of the 20th century through the 1940s.

So why are we paying attention this guy? Because in the uke world, Travis is considered one of the best never-recorded artists ever. That’s about to change, as two fans/patrons are bringing him to Lansing to record his unique and complex style: Elderly Instruments owner Stan Werbin and local uke collector Dave Pasant.

We are honored to be included in this event. Please consider joining us in an evening of ukulele enjoyment!

And big thanks to Corrina of the Progressive Torch and Twang show on The Impact 89. Last night she not only mentioned the concert, but in addition played two cuts from our Moon June Spoon CD. Corrina, you are the best!

Photo: Brian and I at the Temple Club this past March.

Oh, My! I’m so behind I can’t even think straight. I have assorted and miscellaneous photos I need to show you. Pardon me that this post has no theme other than “photos close to their expiration dates.”

First is the most important. The thing I do each week that makes my heart sing. The most incredible thing I may have ever done. It’s teaching my incredible kids to knit. They are getting so comfortable, and they know me and my methods so well, that these days I don’t have to give them step by step instructions. I can give them “shortcut names” to procedures and they are off and running.

I can not tell you how fine these young people are. So without further ado, let me show you the work they are doing, and their work will at least speak for itself.

First is a 2nd grader who is knitting a bag in the round. She is preparing to hand felt it with me next time I see her. She also learned how to make I-cord (a tube made with double pointed needles) and pronounced it a fingerwarmer. She’s wearing it here in the photo.

Next is the second pair of socks by my 7th grader, who is a good deal of the way into her third pair and collecting sock yarn as I type this! These are intended as a gift for her mother, made of Brown Sheep Lambs Pride donated by one of you or my guild friends, and trimmed with some purple Pastaza I gave her, which was leftover from a Watercolor Bag I knit.

Next is a 2nd grader who is in the process here of knitting baby booties without a pattern. We figured out what shape she needed to make, I cut out the shape from a piece of paper, and we talked about how she could fill that shape with knitting. The next time I saw her (photo later here in this column) she sewed the first bootie together and was nearly ready to do the same for the second one. The baby shower was July 18 so I’ll have to ask her how it went later this week.

The pile of squares was knit by the bootie knitter and her mother. They are intent on making squares for a blanket for charity. I’m getting a good pile of them started up so I will soon be attempting to fit these un-matched squares together somehow. I expect I’ll crochet them together and fill in any holes with a bit of crochet as well.

Last is a photo of my bootie knitter and my socknitter, showing off booties and a purse (which she made up all by herself), knit with yarns donated from you folks and local guild members. Aren’t these guys just the best??? Can you see why I’m bursting with pride on their behalf???

OK, now for a few music photos. On the Wednesday after we returned from Minnesota, our friend Bob McCarthy (a swing guitar player and a wonderful friend) gathered some friends into a band to perform for the Meridian Historical Society behind the Meridian Mall. Brian played with the band and I sang two songs. Thanks to Fred for taking photos for us!

In the first photo you just see the lovely space. It’s right behind the Meridian Mall but feels very rural. The second photo is the band… from left to right is Willie T., Tim, Brian, Bob and Travis. In the last photo they have added me singing a bit. We had a very fine time indeed.

Finally, a few photos of work by adult students. I’m absolutely sure I’m missing something but this is what I can find by looking back through photos right now. I’ve got a photo of Colleen’s First-Time Toe-Up sock from a class at Little Red Schoolhouse. She’s a very accomplished knitter but had not made toe up socks before. Nice job, don’t you think?

And thanks to Julie L-W, a photo from last Sunday’s Polymer Clay buttons & beads class at Threadbear. This is just the tray we baked in class, they took home more creations to bake at home. I’m always delighted with the quality of the work in a first time button class. Thanks again for the photo, Julie!

I’ve been gone from here, my friends. I’ve been gone longer than I’ve ever been since I started blogging. After two weeks of pushing to accomplish a CD release party, followed by two weeks of heavily-focused knitting (and an illness) creating a self-portrait, followed by three days of camping in a tent and singing in sauna-like weather, I got home and sort of collapsed.

I worked one day, teaching polymer clay at Threadbear… and I sang with Brian at a private luncheon. Other than that I’ve been preparing for another special project I’m doing for a group of knitters, dyeing them a special colorway for a knit-along.

I’ve processed many photos in the time since we returned from Minnesota, but did not have the energy to write the travelogues to go with them. Today I posted the story of the Threads in Space opening and I backdated it for July 12. So if you want to read that, please page back a few days and read forward. I’ll post more tomorrow.

I thought I’d go to sleep early and then go to the Ann Arbor Art Fair to see my friend Susan Luks’ booth Wednesday. Instead I may just have to give up Ann Arbor this year for the first time in a decade or more. My car needs attention and a 160-mile round trip is no doubt not wise. Sleep is wise, though. Maybe tomorrow I’ll hook up the system so that I can blog from the hammock on the porch. Now *that* would be the life!

Good Night.

We got home past midnight, I teach Sunday noonish at Threadbear so there’s little time to write now. We played lots of music, sold a good number of CDs, had a good time. It was hot hot hot with a monster thunderstorm around dinnertime Friday. Tunes were hot hot hot, too.

I’m behind, tried to connect to the internet but Evart is just too small a town or something… the McDonalds and Super 8 supposedly both offered wireless internet but neither could offer access to a soul when we actually got there. The library had their own slow computers but by the time we got there, it was 15 minutes to closing time. Such is life. I’ve never expected to get online while camping before, but I did try. Then I just gave in and camped and sang. It was fine.

I’ll catch up on the Minnesota travelogue and tell of the dulcimer festival when I get home from work. Thanks for hanging in with me while I was incommunicado.

After lunch in Madison we had to decide what to do next. Should we visit Milwaukee just because it was not too much out of the way? Even if it meant we would surely be fighting rush hour traffic there or Chicago depending on how our timing went? We decided to go for it. It was fine. I don’t mind driving at all, and the traffice was crowded but not stopped so that was OK for me.

There was incredible construction downtown in Milwaukee, whole bridges taken out. We wanted to go downtown by the water and the way we came in didn’t really allow for that. We actually went slightly south, got off the highway, turned around and went back. I mean, if you are going to go to a city, taking photos from a construction site in rush hour traffic does not really count as a visit.

On the way in, Brian got a photo of the baseball stadium: Miller Park. It’s impressive from a distance. It seems every city we hit, I take photos of the baseball stadium… except for Chicago where it just is not easy to photograph from the highway… the passenger taking photos is on the wrong side of the car for a good photo and there are bridges in the way.

We wandered around the city a bit in our car, and got a photo of the Hyatt with a round (maybe rotating?) room on top. There were people still downtown walking around even though businesses were done for the day. We decided to go looking for a cup of good tea before going on. We saw a sign for a Borders Books which surely had a cafe, so parked near that… but ended up at a locally owned spot instead.

On the way to finding the coffee house, between the car and the tea, we wandered into a lovely renovated old building with a sculpture of a prominent early-1900s Milwaukee citizen. The building was erected in his honor by his descendants, a decade or two after his death. It was a gorgeous building which is a sort of city mall, with a TJ Maxx as one of the shops. It was a gorgeous detour, indeed.

We were not downtown all of 20 minutes but enjoyed walking around a bit and seeing the city from ground level. I’m glad we took the detour. If only we’d known we were going to be there, and could have stayed a while, we might have looked up our friend “Lil Rev” who is a very fine ukulele musician (and who will be playing at Altu’s on a Wednesday in September). As it was, we got tea and headed south to Chicago.

We knew from the trip north, that the main highway near downtown Chicago was under major construction. We decided to pop off the highway again and work through the local streets. We got off at Evanston, north of Chicago, because I wanted to show Brian the magnificent building and gardens of the Baha’i Temple there. I’ve been there a few times, it’s a wonderful, peaceful, beautiful place. We did find it but did not stop. I got a pretty good photo considering we were in a moving car!

We found our way through Chicago via Sheridan Road and Lakeshore Drive, down through southern Chicago again. On the way down Sheridan I took a photo of the twin towers of condos where I once nearly purchased a home for myself. Fourth floor, view of Lake Michigan, back yard a public park but with no parking so lightly populated. The kitchen was brushed stainless steel, and the windows had deep marble sills where you could sit and see Lake Michigan (which is more like a small sea, you can not see across it). It was not expensive in 1991 but I am sure I could not afford it now.

If I had found work in Chicago I would have bought the place and never looked back. As it is, I stayed in Lansing, bought a house on the East Side and found Brian. I have no regrets.

Once we got on Lakeshore Drive, I had the opportunity I’ve never had, to take photos of the skyline. I almost always go to Chicago alone and driving Lakeshore is a full-attention experience with no stoplights at which to take photos. I am very pleased with the photos I got this time.

I guess I could have taken more photos between Chicago and Lansing, as we did in fact see a bit of Michigan before the sun went down. However, I guess I’ve traveled that route enough times that I don’t feel a tourist there. Suffice it to say that it’s wine and fruit territory around the southeast corner of Lake Michigan, and if you get there the right time of day you can stop at some magnificent fruit stands this time of year.

We got home past midnight. It was a wonderful time… but I was very happy to be home again.

Photos: 1) Miller Park from highway, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 2) Hyatt Hotel, Milwaukee. 3) Interior of Historical commerce building, downtown Milwaukee. 4) Streetscape, downtown Milwaukee. 5) Baha’i Temple, Evanston, Illinois. 6) Condos at 5700 block of Sheridan Road (at point where Lakeshore drive ends on the north side of Chicago), where I had an opportunity to live once. 7) Chicago Skyline from North, on Lakeshore Drive.

We left Minnesota while the sun was still up, and determined to get as far as we could before turning in for the night. We did not get very far. It had been an exausting trip, never mind that the two weeks before the trip were intense for me while I knit my self-portrait. And the two weeks before that, I spent promoting our CD release party.

That is to say that yours truly had not had much sleep in a good long while. And tired is not the way to drive! My brother and I have a pact, that we will not drive with our eyes closed. It’s a serious pact, though it sounds funny. That means being willing to stop short of the goal in order to stay safe.

It was a beautiful drive, especially as the sun was setting. The part of Minnesota where we were is quite flat, and you can see a long distance over farmland as you drive. Very pretty, and I was able to catch a photo of the moon rising over the fields.

We got to LaCrosse, Wisconsin (on the border between Minnesota and Wisconsin, at the Mississippi River. We had stayed there on our honeymoon ten years ago and so it felt welcoming and familiar to us. We fell asleep early and slept late. Aaah!

The next day (Monday) we had decisions to make. Brian and I like to collect cities. Should we have lunch in Madison? (We love Madison, we stayed there on our Honeymoon as well, and it’s a town with very good international cuisine.) Should we take the time to detour to Milwaukee, a city we both had never seen before? If we did that detour, would we regret it by hitting Chicago at a bad traffic time?

Since I had not found food for breakfast in LaCrosse, I was eager to eat. And since I know there is much food I can eat in Madison even with my allergies, I lobbied for that as our lunch spot.

Wisconsin Dells was even closer, but it’s more of a regular American-Fare sort of town and I was afraid we’d spend a lot of time looking and not find any food I could eat. (Wisconsin Dells has been a vacation spot since my Grandma Illa was young, it’s in a natural beauty area… but it’s more what my dad once called a “Tourist Trap” although it’s nicer now… but they are more likely to have Perkins Pancakes and McDonalds than Indian or Ethiopian food.)

We stopped for gasoline and juice in the Dells and headed on to Madison. You can see in the photo there is a roller coaster in the background… you can also find boat rides and Jellystone Park and water parks, miniature golfing, you name it. On our honeymoon we found the Flamingo Motel (which was closed for the season given that it was October) and had our photos taken under the two-story fiberglass flamingo out front. It’s total Americana. I love it for being true to itself. But it’s not food heaven for Lynn.

So we pressed on to Madison. I just adore Madison. It reminds me of Ann Arbor although smaller. I looked on the Internet for international food there before we left. There is Turkish, Indian, Japanese, Nepalese, all sorts of other nationalities I can’t remember. I was actually interested in finding the Turkish place when we arrived, but we ended up at a Nepalese restaurant where I’d eaten before so I knew it was good. We sure don’t have that cuisine in Lansing!

Madison was welcoming even though of course in the middle of construction season. We got stopped by a long train at one point (Brian took photos of the graffiti, I’ll get back to that someday when I’m not so behind on postiings). But when we got down to State Street, all was well. Yes, they were tearing up many spots but we could walk the sidewalks just fine. We had several good choices for lunch but I’m glad we had food from Nepal. It was just what the doctor ordered.

The restaurant has large storefront glass windows allowing sunshine into the place. They have painted the front wall’s arched detail with several colors to accent the shapes. Very nice indeed. Tables were close enough together that patrons talked to one another even if they had not met before. The waitress was enthusiastic and helpful. It was a good experience.

On the way back we enjoyed looking at the fiberglass dairy cows that had been decorated by various artists. One I got a photo of, was decorated by abstract cheese slices. Very cheerful and very Wisconsin indeed.

1) Moonrise over Southeastern Minnesota. 2) Wisconsin Dells near the highway exit. 3) State Street, Madison Wisconsin. 4) Nepalese Food as Art. 5) Interior of Nepalese restaurant. 6) Cow Sculpture and streetscape in Madison.

Well, good times do end and we had to leave Minneapolis. The gallery opening ended at 9 and we found our way to a good Japanese restaurant just before they closed at 10pm. The food was good and the waitstaff pleasant, even at that late hour. Of course, I took their business card but don’t know where it is now that I’m writing, but it was only a mile or two from the gallery.

We made our way out of town and found a hotel in a more rural area, just outside of “the cities.” We were tired!!!

Sunday we got up a bit early and found our way to Janesville, MN, population 2,100. It was a whirlwind… relatives I had not seen in years and years. It was the 50th anniversary of my father’s brother and his wife, but Mom and Dad grew up in the same town (Hanska, MN, population around 430) and so a handful of my Mom’s cousins and spouses came as well.

There are eight of my cousins on that side of the family, and seven of us made it for at least a short while (my brother could not come). Two live in Florida now, one in Georgia, three in Minnesota and two of us are in Michigan. It was great to see everyone if only for a little chat.

My uncle is a very social man (we both take after his mother, my Gramma Ruthie), so it seemed the whole town of Janesville and half the state of Minnesota was there. There were folks in the house, the garage, front and back yards. There were two bands… first The Fendermen from the Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul), a great danceable band… and then Brian and I as The Fabulous Heftones for more mellow entertainment.

There was much food, as well. Since I was not raised in Minnesota, what I notice is a type of treat they call “bars.” Sometimes it’s like cookies cut into squares, sometimes it’s almost candy bars, and at least for this event it was cakes baked in jelly roll pans, about half the height of a regular cake, with frosting, which you then eat with your fingers. In the church cookbook from the town my mom was raised, there is a whole section of the book devoted only to “bars.” You go to someone’s home and they typically will ask if you want some bars. If you asked that in Lansing, you would get a puzzled look.

It’s funny, because when my Aunt Harriet arrived, she announced “I’m the bar lady.” She was carrying a stack of cake trays full of baked goods and had even more in the car. If you were not from Minnesota, you might interpret that statement differently! I found it amusing, but the Minnesotans didn’t notice at all.

In all fairness, Harriet is the hostess type and always is helping in the kitchen and baking, baking, baking. She really contributed a lot to the spread on the main food table. It was very good for this event that she’s so into baking bars!

A big treat at the party was seeing a lot of family photos. They had collages of photos up on the walls, and photo albums on tables, framed photos on more tables. Brian took charge of my camera for a while and took photos of the photos so we can keep them for posterity, maybe add them to the CD we made for the family which holds Grandpa’s photograph album.

Photos: 1) Beautiful presentation of Japanese food in Minneapolis, 2) My Uncle OT, Aunt Ann and most of their family (I love the grin on my Uncle’s face here), 3) My Uncle and Aunt on their wedding day, 4) My mother (in pink) and her cousins, 5) My cousin Dawn, me, and Mom, 6) The Fendermen in concert on the patio, 7) The Fabulous Heftones in concert in lovely back yard, 8) Photo of me holding my cousin, Kim… see how blonde I was back then? 9) Plate full of bars, no doubt most of them baked by my Aunt Harriet.

(Please forgive the delay in this post, I’m a week behind for the first time since I started this blog in 2002. I’m back-dating it though I’m writing it a week later than the date, to keep my posts in chronological order.

Saturday night. Showtime. The Susan Hensel Gallery opened the Threads in Space show. Susan and I had been anticipating this day for nearly a year. It was very exciting.

It was essentially a show to exhibit fiberart that was not practical, not wearable, was art for art’s sake. There was knitted work, crochet, handspinning, weaving, paper, bookmaking, an assemblage with found objects including a lot of yarn glued on for texture, a piece that reminded me of my days in mail art with what looked like letters and envelopes but with the “writing” sewn on in a cryptic non-language.

There was a video about knitting as art. There was a tent made of ripped fabric pieces out in the garden. There was also a performance art piece that involved sewing.

It was/is a strong show. It made me think. Some pieces beckoned from across the room, some invited intimate examination from inches away. All inspired.

Somehow my piece got finished and hung with time to spare. We changed into art-show-opening clothes (it was extremely hot and sunny so we wore African clothing) and we waited for the crowd. And they came.

At some point during preparations, I told Sue that Brian and I had our instruments in the car and we would be delighted to play background music if she would like. She was delighted. So we played three different sets with talking time allowed between them… first indoors, then in the garden and on the sidewalk outside the gallery (before the performance art piece began) then again inside just before closing time.

I especially enjoyed meeting the other artists. One woman, Karen Searle, knits on large needles with wire, and makes sculptural pieces you can see through. She did a wonderful dress and then shoes that dangled below.

Another woman, Carla Mantel, did a piece including unfinished socks she’d started and stalled for some reason. It also included a sort of spiral that looked like a striped scarf, using remaining yarns from projects she had finished over the years. It hung from the ceiling and the spiral spun around and around. I really enjoyed talking with Carla, we have much in common. It’s too bad she’s in Minnesota and I’m here in Michigan or we’d be friends for sure.

Gail Wagner crochets highly colorful sculptures that hang from the wall in a picture frame, but do not behave themselves in the rectangular space, growing and drooping at times into the room closer to the viewer. I loved these pieces! They sort of act like deep sea creatures. Wonderful.

Rosie Casey did a woven piece where she dyed yarn in an ikat technique, where she had several different shapes of buffalo, with stars on their sides. Some of the buffalo had printed stars on top of the dyed-in stars, and in front of the full floor-to-ceiling weaving on the floor was a pile of what looked like buffalo horns perhaps. She was not at the show so I could not ask her about the piece, but clearly she put in a huge amount of time, thought and work into that piece.

Sue Hensel’s piece was a huge, lumpy-bumpy ball of yarn she spun herself, about waist high. On top of the ball was a book she made with a poem (about hair and how it does not behave at times) she wrote inside.

The piece outside in the garden was intriguing. It was tall enough for adults but reminded me of the forts we would make as children with blankets over a folding table. Much prettier, of course, but that was the idea. It must have been about the size of one of those tents people would change clothes in at the beach during the late 1800s-early 1900s. However, at times I’d see three sets of feet showing from folks inside. For some reason I never went inside. Hmmm, surely that means something deep but I don’t know what!

The performance piece was Laura Lewis’ brainchild. She went out into the garden where we all could see her, having changed from her party dress into a pair of jeans and standard shirt. The jeans had a hole in the knee and she started sewing the knee together but soon started sewing her pant legs together, and then kneeled and sewed the thigh of the jeans to the calf of the jeans on both sides, then worked up to sew her arms as well until she could not move much.

It took a good long time even with loose stitches, and for one my feet hurt just looking at her perched on the balls of her feet for so long. (Later she said that she was not in any discomfort through the process.) In the end she freed herself from the bonds of the sewing thread. It caused a lot of talk afterward… one woman felt compelled to help her sew parts on her back where she could not have reached herself. I felt sad that she was restraining herself, it sort of pushed my buttons from a previous part of my life when I really did tie myself down in many ways. It was quite thought-provoking, as performance art almost always is.

We had such a wonderful time! I know I’m leaving people out… the cool guy who assembled a piece starting with a wood headboard and a ceramic head he found… the woman who did some felt pieces based on a trip she took to Iceland… so much to say but it was all good, really good.

Thanks to Susan Hensel for encouraging me to push myself into true artist territory. You know, for years I was sure I was not an artist because I don’t draw. I sewed as my artful outlet for many, many years. Then I did polymer clay for 10 years and nothing else. I called myself “a one-song canary.” I got into a book doing polymer.

Then I got bored of that and did mailart and soft-block printmaking (sometimes called eraser carving). I got in a book with a self portrait I did in printmaking. I will have to post a photo of that print here sometime… someone remind me in a week, and I’ll do that.

Then I got bored again and started knitting. And I can’t imagine ever getting bored again!!! But Sue has been with me since my polymer clay days. She encouraged me to go to my first feltmaking workshop where I remembered my love of wool, and that lead me quickly to socknitting.

During every step of the way Sue has encouraged me. When I have doubts, I can call her and she understands. When I’m bogged down, she pulls me out. And when I’m too busy she understands and does not feel ignored. She’s really a perfect friend. Thanks a million, Sue!!!

Photos: 1)Exterior of Susan Hensel Gallery with me in African dress talking to Mike Elko and his wife whose business card I’ve lost in the shuffle. 2) Visitors viewing the show just inside the front door to the right. 3) Show inside door on left side. 4) Straight ahead as you opened the front door, with view into second room. Notice my self-portrait is in back on the left. 5) Carla Mantel showing a child visitor how she spins yarn with a drop spindle. She also described to the child how she made the knitting needles used in the scupture.

6) Another view of child in front of Carla’s sculpture which included unfinished socks. 7) Performance Artist Laura Lewis between Karen Searle’s wire knit dress and Susan Hensel’s ball of handspun yarn with book/poem on top. 8) Garden beside gallery, where tent and performance art took place. 9) Folks near tent in back of garden. 10) Performance, early in procedure, starting to sew legs of jeans together.

(OK, I’m not at all done with my travelogue but I haven’t had time to process all the photos and write the text yet… here is a post I wrote earlier, it has been waiting for its own day in the sun. You may need to wait to actually bake these if your weather is as hot as ours right now! Travelogue to be continued soon…)

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Hi, friends. Finally I have experimented enough to bring you two granola bar recipes that I really like. The second version you can make with ingredients in your kitchen even if you do not go to health food stores. The first I can eat, even with a list of allergies longer than a phone book… it’s more adventurous as far as ingredients, but perhaps a bit more tasty.

They both hold together well and they do not feel in any way as if they are compromises. However, what I love is that you can make the first version without wheat, egg, soy, potato, yeast, corn, dairy, or nuts. (It is not a recipe for celiac patients, who do not typically tolerate oats well.)

Granola Bars Sans Allergies: Lynn’s Version for Herself

Egg Substitute:
1 Rounded Tbsp of Flax Seed Meal (or grind flax seeds in food proc.)
scant 1/3 c Boiling Water

Dry Ingredients
2-1/2 c Rolled Oats
1/4 c Packed Dark Brown Sugar
1/4 c Flax Seeds (I like golden if you can get them)
1/4 c Buckwheat Flour
1/4 c Rice Flour (white or brown)
1/2 c Oat Flour (can grind rolled oats in food processor if you can not find in stores)
1 t Ground Cinnamon
1/4 t Ground Allspice (optional)
1/4 t Ground Ginger (optional)
1/4 t Ground Cloves (optional)
1/4 t Salt
Optional: 2 Tbsp Soy Protein Powder if not allergic (adds protein, not flavor or texture)

Wet Ingredients
1/2 c Sorghum (find at farmer’s market, or sub half and half molasses and honey)
1/2 c “Light” Olive Oil (or sub mild-tasting vegetable oil if not allergic)
1 Tbsp Vanilla (use good Mexican Vanilla if you can get it)

Optional: May add 3/4c of dried fruit and/or 1/4-1/2 c nuts if not allergic.

- Preheat oven to 350F/175C.
- Thoroughly grease either 3 bread pans (my preference) or one 9″x13″ large cake pan (I use glass, you may need to adjust temperature up a little if you use metal).
- Prepare Egg Substitute: Boil water. Place flaxseed meal in pyrex measuring cup, and add boiling water until the mixture measures 1/3 c. Whip with fork or small whisk and set aside. (Can sub one egg if not allergic.)
- In a *large* bowl (this stuff can be messy), mix together the dry ingredients.
- Add wet ingredients and egg substitute (or egg). Mix thoroughly with wooden spoon, fork or hands.
- Divide into three bread pans or place in one large cake pan, and press the bar mixture as flat as possible with rubber spatula or oiled hands.
- Bake 25 minutes for bread pans or 35 minutes for large cake pan (should start to look lightly browned on edges). Cool for 5-10 minutes and cut into 12 bars before they are totally cooled to room temperature.
- Enjoy!

Granola Bars for Normal Kitchens

Dry Ingredients
2-1/2 c Rolled Oats
1/2 c Packed Dark Brown Sugar
1/4 c Wheat Flour or Spelt Flour
1 t Ground Cinnamon
1/4 t Ground Allspice (optional)
1/4 t Ground Ginger (optional)
1/4 t Ground Cloves (optional)
1/4 t Salt

Wet Ingredients
1/4 c Molasses
1/4 c Honey
1/2 c Vegetable Oil
1 egg
1 Tbsp Vanilla (use good Mexican Vanilla if you can get it)

Optional: May add 3/4c of dried fruit and/or 1/4-1/2 c nuts.

Follow directions listed for first version, omitting directions for making egg substitute. Enjoy.

This starts part 2 of a travelogue, where Brian and I traveled from Michigan to Minnesota and back over 4 days, for the Threads in Space art show at the Susan Hensel Gallery… followed by a family 50th anniversary gathering.

Brian and I got to Sue Hensel’s gallery early Saturday afternoon, desperately in need of some food. We also needed to find (if at all possible) some bamboo or wooden knitting needles, at least 11 inches long, in size 1 US (2.25mm). One more reason to love big cities, my friends. It was a cinch.

Sue directed us to a block not terribly far from her (same street, even), where there was a lovely yarn shop (Depth of Field) and a good number of possible lunch spots. We proceeded immediately.

Depth of field was not disappointing, I wish I’d had more time to really enjoy it. I got bamboo needles that were exactly what I wanted. Then I took a quick circle through the shop (not wanting to delay Brian much). I was looking for anything I’d not seen before. I guess I live in such a great place for yarn that I didn’t find much in that vein, but I did find 2 balls of Berrocco Foliage to finish a project I’d started with merely a single ball (which turned out to be significantly not enough). Very good.

I started to pay and realized that above me was a sort of mezzanine floor with sale items. Brian suggested I go peek. I ended up with two skeins of Rio de la Plata yarn in pale pink with an overdye of hot fuschia in a few spots. It will make a nice sample for my new shawl pattern.

Two transactions later, we were on the look out for good food. Someone in the shop said the Thai place directly across the street was really good. We went into an african place but it seemed to have fried food which was not promising with my food allergies so we left. We contemplated a few of the middle eastern places but decided in the end to try the Thai. We were not disappointed. Oh, my! Very tasty.

I had my usual Pad Siew (spelled differently sometimes). It’s thick rice noodles with broccoli and a thick brown/soy sauce that is a bit sweet, then usually eggs and some sort of meat or tofu. It was very nice. Brian got a spicy duck dish which was also very tasty. And it was all presented so beautifully! Asian food is often a work of art when it arrives at the table, and this was more so than most.

I loved this neighborhood. It wasn’t just a business district, clearly people lived there. There was a good mixture of cultures and many women passing by were dressed in African clothing. Sue said that there are a lot of Somali people in that area. I love seeing women float down the street wrapped in beautiful fabrics, whether they be African or Indian or some other culture. When I was in Africa I noticed that nobody seemed afraid of color. School uniforms for either girls or boys might be purple, turquoise, mauve-pink, you name it. And the fabrics!

If I had not been on a deadline, I would have gone looking for African clothing to buy and wear. As a matter of fact, I was wearing my Senegalese dress at the time… perfect summer clothing. It doesn’t cling, allows the breezes to cool the body while creating shade. Perfect.

To be continued…

Photos: 1) My little blue New Beetle in front of “Depth of Field” yarn shop on Cedar Ave. 2&3) Women in African dress on the same block. 4) Our lunch, a work of art.

Well, we did a weekend trip, and it was a blast. Here’s a bit of a travelogue for you.

Day 1 was Friday. We left early afternoon from Lansing, despite Brian’s best attempts to get me organized earlier. This put us in Chicago at 5:01pm their time. Yup. Rush hour.

Not only that, but Chicago is tearing up huge parts of the main artery from the skyway (a toll road south from Indiana to Illinois) to downtown (the loop) and perhaps beyond. We decided as soon as we got stuck in traffic, that we would just get off the highway and head toward the waterfront. Lakeshore Drive is a pleasant view and if you must be slow in traffic, Lakeshore Drive would be a lovely place for that to happen.

So we got off the highway just south of the Museum of Science and Industry, made our way through some neighborhoods and got to Lakeshore. It was really easy going until we hit the spot where the crowd could take an exit called “Lakeshore Drive.” Then it slowed down (this is just south of McCormick Place and Soldier Field stadium).

But by then I was in love again, in love with Chicago and its magnificent skyline, its gentle energy, its architecture and friendly spaces for cityfolk. They have beaches and parks up and down the waterfront for miles and miles, the park system there is really fabulous.

So we would stop and go, and when we were at red lights we would take photographs. It made me happy. I don’t mind traffic at all when it’s like this. (I’m sure I’ve mentioned here before how much I love big cities, right?)

My favorite place in the midwest is Devon Avenue, the section where you find Indian and Pakistani groceries, restaurants, and apparel stores. There are multiple sari houses for beautiful clothes and fabrics, and jewelry stores where the gold is that incredible yellow color we don’t typically see in the USA. And the food! Oh, the food.

I’ve written here more than once about eating at Udupi Palace, a few times when Sara (my goddaughter) and I took our trip to Chicago and at least once when visiting my friend Iris who lives in Chicago. We went back there for dinner on Friday. After all, by the time we got there it was still rush hour. Might as well eat some of your favorite food ever, while waiting for the traffic to die down!

We headed out of town toward Minneapolis and settled somewhere in Wisconsin for the night. Unfortunately, we drove in the dark most of the time in Wisconsin so we missed a lot of the beautiful scenery. It’s truly a beautiful place with rolling green hills. (We did get to see them on the way back home.)

The next morning we found our way to a diner near the exit. It was a style that was old fashioned but I’m betting it’s a modern structure in an old style. I’m thinking it was “Moe’s Almost-Famous Diner” if I remember right.

We had our honeymoon in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and Wisconsin, and halfway through we wished we’d photo-documented all the large fiberglass animals that are roadside, mostly to attract business traffic. I remember on that trip there was a huge mouse by a cheese store in Wisconsin, and lots of large deer, sometimes as yard ornaments. Well, this diner had a steer on the sign nearest the highway, and a huge chicken, taller than me, out front. I got a photo of them both in one shot… and while I went by the chicken I noticed a sign on its back: “Please do not sit on the chicken.” I bet there are not too many signs saying that!

We made good time on the road Saturday morning and then again found ourselves with construction traffic. We got off the highway and headed through downtown Saint Paul, Minnesota (twin city to Minneapolis).

I had not been in downtown before, though I have a cousin we visited in a St. Paul neighborhood on our honeymoon almost ten years ago. It was a quite lovely downtown, which reminded me a little bit of the photos I just showed you I took in Indianapolis. They had wonderful flower beds everywhere, and people actually downtown. (Lansing does not have much activity downtown on a Saturday afternoon except at/near the ball park).

More to be continued later… remember, these photos were taken out windows of cars by Brian and I, so they aren’t horizontal but they are just as we took them.

Photos: 1) Me driving my blue bug, with another blue bug next to me… about 5:20pm Chicago rush hour traffic, with the most beautiful skyline I know in the background. 2) Devon Avenue, my favorite spot in Chicago, the Midwest, any city. Just one corner, but there are friends chatting on a bench as you see on almost every corner. It’s a bustling place, very alive. 3) Saturday morning’s diner, inside, with Brian center stage. 4) View of diner with fiberglass chicken in foreground and fiberglass steer up in the sky, top right, with signs. 5) Street scene in downtown St. Paul, noon or not long after that on a Saturday. 6) Flowers and green area with benches underneath and lots of folks gathered there, also downtown St. Paul. 7) Worn doors on street which was our entryway back to the highway, St. Paul. Not shiny but beautiful in their own way.

I did it. Not only did I actually finish the knitting, I embroidered for several hours (duplicate stitch, it looks just like knit stitches but I did it in very fine laceweight yarn on top of the base sockweight yarns to slightly change color in a few areas).

I blocked it in the hotel room on Friday night. Then when I got to Sue’s, we steamed the heck out of it with her Scuncii steamer and I went looking for the closest yarn shop that had size 1 knitting needles. I decided I really wanted to hang the piece with a straight knitting needle at top and another at bottom, sort of as if it were unfinished. Because it is about me, and I am certainly unfinished myself.

We found our way to Depth of Field yarn shop (more on the Minneapolis adventure later) and they had size 1 (2.25mm?) bamboo needles (about 11″ long), perfect! We proceeded back to Sue’s shop, where the piece was mostly dry and after inserting the two needles at top and bottom of the piece, we hung the thing.

It worked, my friends. It really worked. I’m sort of in shock after all that rollercoaster emotional stuff I felt while I was “attempting” a self portrait. Well, I am here to tell you it’s not an attempt. It looks like me.

In 10,374 stitches. Officially using 11 or so yarn colors, but then I blended different yarns together in different ways and so who knows how many “virtual” colors actually ended up in the piece? I’m not sure I want to know how many color changes I made in one 91-stitch row, either. It was a lot of work. But as often is the case, now that it’s over I can tell you the effort was worth it.

Whew. I need a vacation! Oh, yeah. I’m sort of on one. Or that is to say I’m out of state seeing people I really like.

Photos: 1) My self portrait in yarn… wool and alpaca and wool blend yarns, with bamboo needles. Yes, the ends are dangling. The back looks like a rug. I’m smooth on the outside and frayed inside at times, and so this felt like Self Portrait: good day (front) and bad day (back). 2) Me at left, and my beloved artist friend Sue Hensel. Who pushes me harder than anyone else I know but without trying. Some of my biggest projects have been in concert with her creative and networking energies. Sue, you are the best!

I have been beating around the bush about my big project until now. Actually, I’m doing two projects, both in anticipation of a trip to Minnesota. We leave Friday. I guess I might as well talk about it now.

I don’t know how many other artists are like me, but I tend to try to do things that are either a little or a great deal out of reach. I sometimes know they are absurd goals and I figure I’ll try anyway, and sometimes I don’t realize the project really is… until I’m far enough into it that it would be a shame to quit.

A First Too-Big Project
The first project I’ve been working on is not absurdly out of the question, but since I’m sort of a sequential-deadline girl, I didn’t start on it until it was a sprint to the finish. (For some reason I can do this repeatedly without regretting it enough to stop such nonsense.) My beloved, on the other hand, both has the ability to see the full scope of a project and a way of starting things when other things are not yet wrapped up. So of course he gets dizzy watching me.

And this time he actually knew more about the first project than I did, and he ended up doing a good deal of the work because it was just faster for him to do it than to explain it to me.

He has done a lot of genealogy work in his own family, especially with going to folks’ homes and photographing the family picture albums. So our family had a special picture album everyone wanted to see, and we live from Minnesota to Michigan to Georgia, Florida, Alabama. So how could we share? Take digital photos of all the pages (the photos are glued in) and make a “web” page on a CD that people can run on their own computers. Even if they are not connected to the Internet. Cool, huh?

So Brian already knew he had a computer program that takes a folder full of images and makes a website from it. Not a perfect program, but one which did enough of the programming work that we could do something with over 900 images and not go nuts. (He has Linux, not Windows or Mac, so the program is not commonly used.)

Of course we had to take the photos and then either crop or rotate or enhance many of them before they were ready to go. Then we needed to make captions for at least some of the photos we knew information about.

Brian and I both worked on taking photos, he did most of the taking and the editing of the photos. I did captions, he ran the program to make the web page. I made covers and label/stickers for the CDs, printed them, cut them out and assembled the covers. We shared duties of burning the CDs. It was a team effort, which worked pretty darned well in the end.

We tried to put the photos on a photo website, too. With over 900 photos, we really were stretching the possibilities. We had to give up that idea for the moment.

But Brian figured out how to make a CD an auto-starting one (doesn’t require an icon on most Windows computers), and I figured out how to make a picture for an icon so that if someone looks at this CD in “My Computer” they will see a tiny sweet face of my Grandma Ruthie in the 1920s. Trust me, she was a dynamo but she looked sweet while she packed that power. An amazing woman. And lucky me, I take after her personality more than anyone. Her sons also took after her in great part. We’re enthusiastic and loud and socal, always on the go. And at least speaking for myself, I can’t be anything else if I try.

A Second Too-Big Project
But what is my other project? Um… Susan Hensel, my artist friend who moved to Minneapolis, is having an art exhibit entitled “Threads in Space.” It opens Saturday. It’s all about using knitting and