I met Cat Bordhi through Rae Blackledge of Rae’s Yarn Boutique. I took a class from Cat at the TNNA show this past June, about teaching kids to knit.

Cat has a sock pattern (Flow Motion Socks) in the current Vogue Knitting magazine. (A cornucopia of creative sock patterns is in those pages.) She writes that some changes the magazine made created some errors. You can find the corrections on Cat’s News Page.

Cat is also being featured on the Knitty Gritty show. The first shows aired August 7 and will be aired again on August 12. The News Page above has a link to the DIY network where you can get times if you are interested.

Once more, we’ve had a music-full week. Saturday we went to Brian’s family reunion on Lake Michigan. His family is very musical. We had several spontaneous musical performances, and there were more than a few jam sessions that I watched from afar. Here you can see varying arrangements of Brian’s aunts and uncles (and one cousin) playing music and dancing along.

In unrelated news (other than both are musical), Brian and I went to Dagwood’s Tavern in Lansing on Tuesday night. Our friend, Jen Sygit, hosts a low-key open mic there every Tuesday. During the school year, I seem to have a guild or knit in almost every Tuesday, but in the summer I have fewer options. We had a great time.

Now, I’m not fond of alcohol and I don’t like the smoke in a bar much, so we don’t go in bars unless there is some music draw. It’s sort of like going to a foreign country to walk into a bar if you are me. But I love the people at this place (and it’s really cool early-60s funky decor, never been changed since it opened)… we knew many folks so it felt home-like right away.

Pete is behind the bar, and of course we know Jen. Devon, who we met at Great Lakes Folk Fest a year or two ago, was there (she was at the Gone Wired gig also). She’s a ballroom/swing dancer and she did a Charleston to one of our songs. So fun.

We knew several musicians there and met several more. We met a couple who were out on a date while their kids had a special event, and it turned out I knew her aunt. Small world.

And I took photos. It was dark, so most of them blurred but some in an artful way. Here’s a friend playing accordion on the main stage, and then a shot of the altar, um, I mean bar, with all the lit up bottles being so etherial and beautiful. They know how to entice the eye, don’t they? Maybe it only looks like that to an unfamiliar eye like mine…

…I danced, most of the time alone. I have a good time wherever I find music. I think I look drunk to the unknowing observer, though Diet Coke was my chemical(s) of choice that night. Brian and I did dance together once to the accordion, this amazing klezmer music which is just begging for dancers. We don’t know how folks are supposed to dance to it, but we dance anyway. It was a grand time.

Oh, knitting content… finishing the last sample shawl for the Perfect Hug pattern, in a beautiful flamingo-pink Rio de la Plata. It’s more than half done so perhaps will complete yet tonight. I knit at the bar so it smells like smoke, will have to wash thoroughly at blocking time but I’m OK with that. Diana sent a photo of her in the Goddess version of the shawl, knit in Artful Yarns Reality. Photos of the Goddess shawl version perhaps tomorrow.

Some days the news is about art, sometimes about dance, and today it’s music. Brian and I (as The Fabulous Heftones) are on Ukecast Episode 23! They played “In the Moonlight” which is from our first CD, Moon June Spoon.

This news makes me very happy… thanks, to the folks at Ukeland!

Well, my friends keep telling me I’m famous now. Why? My picture is on the Yarn Harlot weblog (dated August 4, my picture of her is here on August 2). Although it’s sad to think I wasn’t famous before, I just looked at my site stats. I’ve been hovering around 1,800 visits a day in past weeks.

So far, 561 people have come to my site from Yarn Harlot’s weblog. Wow!

Here is what my stats say about the last week:
Average successful requests for pages per day: 2,099

Dang. I guess I do feel famous now. Thanks, Stephanie.

For those of you in my local area (Lansing, Michigan, USA) who are interested, my knitted Self-Portrait is “home” in Michigan again from its one-month display in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. If you are interested in seeing it, the piece will be having a whirlwind of display activity for the next month or so.

This Sunday 8/6/2006 began a month-long show of customer works at Threadbear Fiberarts on Waverly Rd/West side of town… and they hung my piece… up, up, up above the windows so you can see it from more of a distance. (This really helps see it as a picture rather than a “pseudo-tapestry” of individual stitches.)

Thanks go to Sabrina for suggesting I bring it for the show, to Rob and Matt for supporting this idea, and Marti and others who helped get it hung properly in the shop. I really appreciate all of you.

The City Pulse sent out a reporter/photographer (Mary C.) to Threadbear for the opening of the show. She spent a lot of time with me, and also talked to Rob and Matt (owners of the shop) and Rhonda, a woman who brought in her knitted wedding dress as her contribution for this exhibit.

Yes. Knitted wedding dress. It’s just as amazing as that sounds. Do watch to see if the article makes it into this week’s edition on Wednesday. I pick up my copy at Altu’s restaurant but you can find it many places around town.

For the record, my piece will not be at Threadbear the whole month as the other pieces will. It hangs there until at least closing time Thursday and maybe closing time Friday, depending on if I can find a guild member who can bring it to me (Friday I’ll be working for Altu in her food booth at the Great Lakes Folk Festival).

On Saturday and Sunday, August 12 & 13, the Mid-Michigan Knitting Guild will have a booth in the guilds tent behind the People’s church in East Lansing. My portrait will be on display there for those two days.

I believe my piece will go back to Threadbear for Monday and part of Tuesday, but I’m not absolutely clear if they expect it back on those two days. On Tuesday night, August 15, I go to Allegan, Michigan to prepare for Michigan Fiber Festival.

I teach polymer clay on Wednesday all day there, I have Thursday off and then I teach “Creating your own Turkish-Style Socks” all day Friday and half of Saturday. I’ll have the portrait in my classroom on Friday and then it will be in the festival booth of Little Red Schoolhouse yarns for Sat/Sun.

When we all return to Lansing, the portrait will be on display at Rae’s Yarn Boutique in Frandor/Lansing for a few weeks. Which is sort of too bad, because it was Rae who first suggested that I send the piece on a tour of the shops where I teach. By all rights, the local tour of this piece should have started at her shop.

It was just clear that since I had this opportunity to put my piece in the Threadbear customer show/First Sunday Gallery Walk (and the associated possibility of press coverage), I needed to do that first. She totally supported me in the choice. If she wants my piece on display longer to make up for being last, I’m ready to do whatever she wishes.

Here is a (recycled) photo of me next to my knitted self-portrait, taken by Brian when we were at the gallery opening in Minneapolis just over a month ago. (Added later… photo of Rhonda’s wedding dress. Exquisite!)

Friday Brian and I (as The Fabulous Heftones) shared the stage at Gone Wired Cybercafe with Waypastfrown/Thomas Boles, and Daniel the Minstrel Cook. It was Waaaaaay Fun! I am not sure if I’ve ever had so much fun playing bass as I did right then.

And when the others were playing? I was dancing. Yup… just stop me. I had a wonderful time.

Here are two photos I was able to take in between dance steps… Thomas on left, and Daniel on right. Great guys, good musicians, good songwriters, fine folks with whom to share time and a stage.

It was Daniel who invited us to join the show, and Thomas (from San Francisco) who created the occasion for the show in the first place. Thanks, guys!

I got a note from Judy McKinney of The McKinney Washtub Two. She wrote a report of the Evart Dulcimer Festival on their website under “News” and included a photo she took of Brian and I at twilight.

Then I went over to Stephanie Pearl-McPhee’s website/blog, Yarn Harlot, and found a photo of myself. Kathy tells me I’m famous now. I’m delighted! That just plain was a wonderful day for many of us.

No surprise I’m trying to blog in 5 minutes or less… I spent Friday during the day in Ann Arbor with my brother, Eric, and his wife, Diana. We had lunch at the Syrian deli (Exotic Bakery, which is much more than a bakery) and chatted a long time, then ran over to Knit a Round to get her some yarn to knit me one more sample shawl.

I am delaying the Perfect Hug Shawl pattern a few days so that I can add some different sizes to the shawl. The size I have been knitting is something like a capelet, which is perfect for me on stage and wonderfully compact, for example also a great size for someone in a wheelchair.

But I decided that it may be too open in front for some people to enjoy wearing it. So I am adding another size that meets closer in front, and that one can be knit longer if folks wish.

I’m also adding a “Goddess Sized” version that will be more like a cloak that can fit at least a size 3X without feeling skimpy. I’m knitting one right now and Diana started one today as well.

I think the delay for these options will be worthwhile. I wish I were done, but I’m OK with this change. Bettter to decide that now than wish I’d decided it after the pattern is published.

Friday night we did have our concert with Thomas and Daniel and it was really fun. “Anonymous” the knitter was there but I was the only one knitting. I took photos with Brian’s camera so I’ll show those off when I get the camera from him and have time to process those.

I will be at Threadbear from noon to 5 on Sunday for the “Customer Trunk Show” during the First Sunday Gallery Walk hours. Maybe I will see some of you there? My self-portrait will be there on display, the first time it will have been seen in Michigan.

Photos today are of Brian’s new “ride.” His ‘90 Acura was going to need enough repair work that he decided to trade for a newer used car. He ended up with a 1993 Oldsmobile 98. It’s a lovely thing, very well thought out and much better on gasoline than you would imagine. And my Heftone bass fits in the trunk with room to spare. Sort of amazing, since it stands as tall as me or a little taller. Very convenient, indeed. We’ve been calling it the “Heftone-Mobile.”

I’m sure that doing road trips for musical performances will be much more comfy now… I love my ‘98 New Beetle, but it was cramped when we did long trips. We had a Heftone, a tuxedo and my gown, all in the back seat trying to co-exist without hurting one another. Every time we would stop I’d go back and try to straighten out my long dress so that it would not perma-wrinkle in transit.

This should be all in the past for a while now. Saturday we will take it for a jaunt on the highway and see how it goes… I anticipate it will be lovely.

I ordered some shoes as a “Buy it Now” on Ebay, knowing that they would definitely fit. I also knew that if anything didn’t work out on the purchase, I would have to “eat” the shipping cost to return them. I figured it was worth the risk to save about $20 off the retail price… I would have to wait longer to get them if I paid full price.

I also know that turquoise is the hardest color to match well on a monitor. I tried to order shoes in a variation on turquoise. So why was I surprised when the shoes came and were different than the photo?

The photo on at least 3 computer monitors was a hot greenish-turquoise and called “Jade.” I know that no jade stone is this color but I’ve purchased clothing this color with that name attached.

The shoes came… and they were the color of jade stone. Yellowish-gray-green. No misnomer here… the name was right, for stone rather than fabric. Drat. I like a lot of greens, but my colors are mostly blue-undertoned and I don’t do well with colors if they have gray in them. So here I was, yellow and gray undertones.

I remembered, though… that I had transformed sandals last summer using permanent colored markers on the leather and nail polish on the buckles. I also remembered dyeing a leather coat once upon a time. So I started thinking of options. I went up in the box full of shoe polish. And found something called “Bright Navy” cream dye-based shoe polish. Tried it on a hidden spot under the end of one strap. It did change the leather color in a subtle way and the stitching in a strong way. I decided to go for it.

So I slathered the blue polish on the light green-gray shoes. It worked. Honestly, it’s subtle but the difference is that now they are a grayish blue-green and I can live with that. I call it “minivan green.” There were a few years when I saw a lot of moms driving minivans this color.

I was prepared to freehand scribble on the leather with turquoise or blue markers and make them into a noticeable art project. It turns out they are now wearable with my summer clothes, sans graffiti. And that is why I bought them… my other pair of shoes that are comfy enough to stand up in for hours, are clunky and black and sort of winter-like. These have a strap on the back of the clog so they are a little more summery, especially in a lighter-than-black color. My feet just have not found a sandal yet which makes them happy for any length of time and the strappy clogs are a good compromise.

I’m relieved. I have worn the shoes now two days in a row… once with an African dress (from Kenya) and once with a beautiful “Punjabi” outfit from India. I’m all set.

Photos: 1) Almost done polishing… with only the left strap still the original color… notice color of polish. 2) Tiny stock photo used by all online vendors selling this shoe in this color. 3) Right shoe before, Left shoe after.

I got a friendly email from Ellen Bloom in Los Angeles, that she’s a knitter/crocheter who also plays Ukulele. I love to have friends that far away… and she’s another city lover. (Never mind I’ve never been into L.A., I drove very near it once when visiting friends in CA. But I digress…)

Ellen found me on Ukulelia! (It’s the July 29 entry.) Oh, wow. Maybe I’m famous now. Whatever that means…

I’m honored that they seem to like my blog. They list Judith Bradbury as the person who referred them here. Judith, are you out there? Thank you! If you send me a private email to Lynn at ColorJoy DOT com, I’d be delighted to pop you a CD in the mail.

Well, that sure made my day. Thanks to Ellen and Judith… and the folks over at Ukulelia (especially Gary) as well.

If you are visiting here because you love ukulele music, just click on the photo of Brian and I playing music up there at the top right corner of this page. Soon you’ll be at the Fabulous Heftones web page where you can download much of the music Brian and I have recorded… whole songs, whole CDs in most cases. Even some music Brian has recorded but never released on CD. Please help yourselves…

We interrupt this mostly-knitting/art blog for a music advertisement: This Friday, August 4, from 8pm-12m, there will be a Trio of Acoustic Acts performing at Gone Wired Cybercafe.

This is on the coolest block in Lansing, at 2021 E. Michigan Avenue, across from Emil’s Italian Restaurant and Magdalena’s Teahouse, the other end of the block from Green Door Lounge, next door to Lamai Thai Kitchen (and that is not all the fun on that block but this is getting long). It’s all good on that block, my friends!

The trio of acts? Well, no surprise that you’ll hear Brian and I as The Fabulous Heftones. But leading the charge is Thomas Boles, otherwise known as Waypastfrown, from the San Francisco Area, here on tour. And the reason we’re involved is “Daniel the Minstrel” Cook who has played at Altu’s and who came to our CD Release Party at Magdalena’s in June. He will be performing as well.

Here are the descriptions of these acts that I sent out to the press:
—
Waypastfrown is Thomas Boles, all the way from California! Thomas has been singing, writing and performing originals throughout the bay area for close to a decade. Waypastfrown is a collection of Thomas’sweeter pop songs rearranged for the acoustic guitar allowing the lyrics to shine through.
http://www.waypastfrown.com/

Daniel “The Minstrel” Cook is a central Michigan act who alternates original, thoughtful acoustic works with selected acoustic works by others. His singing is soulful and true, his lyrics meaningful.
http://danieltheminstrel.com/index.cfm

The Fabulous Heftones are Brian and Lynn Hefferan, a Lansing husband/wife duo on ukulele and bass. They focus on the love songs and novelty tunes from the early part of the 1900’s. Expect to hear old standards such as Paper Moon and April Showers. However, you’ll also be introduced to long-lost gems such as Paddlin’ Madeline Home, I Love Me, and Mother I’m Wild. Download free music from their website, whether or not you can hear them live.
http://heftone.com/fabulous

It would be great to see a few of you there. That is, those who live near Lansing and can actually make it. Or not. Your choice, of course.

Thanks for listening… back to visual arts (in at least a loose sense) tomorrow.

Photos: Thomas Boles/Waypastfrown, “Daniel the Minstrel” Cook, The Fabulous Heftones.

OK, I’m with you again. I promised a story about my Sunday trip to Ann Arbor and here it is.

I connected with several friends in Lansing about maybe going together on Sunday. I think in retrospect maybe I knew I’d like to not worry about where and when I came and went, because I gave up long before I’d tried all options. I used to go to Ann Arbor a lot, I adore being there… it’s the closest place to my home that feels like city energy, and I need to drink up city energy on a regular basis.

So I set out a little later than I’d wanted, mostly because nobody was waiting on me to be there at a certain time. I got to Ann Arbor 20 minutes before the talk, and by then the first large speaking room had filled and they were sending all new listeners to the 4th floor overflow room. I was one of the first up there, and luckily I right away noticed Kathy, one of my students, so I sat with her.

They had the room set up nicely with video and sound. At the very beginning of the talk, there were hiccups with both but they got it fixed (with a third microphone, bless them for having that many spares) and we could both see and hear Stephanie just fine.

In the days before we had blogs, Stephanie and I would write back and forth a bit. Now she’s so popular I do my best to not get in her way much. But I love it when someone can make a living by being their true and honest self. With a sense of humor, of course, for all the warts we all have but many of us try to hide. I’m so happy for her that she can write about what we (knitters) all understand but don’t have a way to put into words.

When we hear Stephanie talk or read her books, we laugh at ourselves, which is a healthy thing. And for some of us who knit relatively alone (luckily I am not one of those) it must mean a lot to find out that these thoughts, actions, habits, are shared with so many others.

So we sat in the mostly-dark room watching a screen, and belly laughing out loud… or at least I did. I have a loud laugh but what a gift it is to have that sort of emotion which could cause it to come out! Someone came over and said hi because she recognized my laugh. Well, that’s the way to be noticed, I’d say. There was a time when I rarely laughed. I’m glad to be past that now.

After the formal talk, we all piled downstairs. A bookstore had a table where we could buy books if we wished, and then there was a line two times around the large room to get it signed. The talk started at 2pm on the dot. The library barely got us out before the 6pm closing time. They said they did expect this many people but they never imagined how each knitter in line getting a signature would also chat with the author. They didn’t expect knitters to be such a chatty bunch.

What they don’t know is that the Internet can make a room full of friends who you have never met. Friends you do know. Stephanie knew many of us as we piled by with our books. We were given sticky notes to put our name on, to speed up the signing process. I put LynnH on mine, and she right away asked “ColorJoy LynnH?” We have never met, but our emails and blogs make us neighbors and friends. She knew Sarah Peasley and Rae Blackledge, too.

The library just did not realize the extent of it all before they saw it play out in front of them. The word “network” is used to describe something like this in business circles, but that word does not encompass the emotional ties in the online knitting community.

While so many waited in line to have a signature and a chat, several of us sat together and talked, waiting to join the line at the last minute and save our feet. Sarah Peasley and Terri M from Lansing, Pat from Charlotte, and Riin from Ann Arbor, all sat and knit and talked. Well, I didn’t knit but they did. I get too over-energized with that many people around so I mostly stood up and talked too fast and too loud.

I saw other folks I knew, too… Vicki from Royal Oak (I hope I got that right) from a Threadbear polymer clay class recently… Trish Bloom, designer of the Bloom Shawl, the B4 Bag and the Panes Bag, was there. It was good to see her.

Oh, and somehow I forgot to mention… not only did I see my student Kathy from Lansing, but she brought a felted purse she’d just finished. Not only did she finish it, she “made it up” herself. Very fine work, Kathy. Others liked it so much she’s in the process of writing out the instructions for test knitters. Go, Kathy!

When finally we’d all received signed books and said hi and got out of the library as expected… Riin and I decided to go to Zingerman’s Deli, walking distance from the Library, and get dinner. Both of us were low on fuel and it was the right move. She got a good sandwich (they have the best sandwiches, I remember from when I could eat that great handcrafted bread) and I got a very fine salad. And tea. Always tea.

On the way back to my car, it was twilight and I tried out the twilight setting on my new camera. I think it did a wonderful job.

Photos: 1) Me with Stephanie, both of us holding socks in progress. 2) Kathy’s new bag design. 3) Twilight view of Detroit Street… Zingermans is the furthest back/left in this photo. 4) Photo of Kerrytown building less than a block from Zingerman’s… I love how someone went by as I took the photo and it looks like her head is transparent. 5) Seva vegetarian sit-down restaurant, Brian’s sister Jennifer used to work there almost 10 years ago. It’s in an old VFW building, can you see the sign top left of the stone part of the building?

My friend Riin, with whom I had a three-hour dinner in Ann Arbor this Sunday, has a new website. She’s a spinner, and is offering her own handspun. She also has handpainted rovings and handpainted yarn.

The site is called “Happy Fuzzy Yarn” and I think that’s pretty enticing.

In personal news, it’s still humid and hot but for some reason I don’t feel as overwhelmed by it today. I’m sitting quietly drinking my water and trying to do a mailing while distracting myself with everything but a mailing. Good thing I have only one item on the to-do list today. After months of too much to do, it’s nice to have a slower pace on a few hot days.

If I get time, I’ll be going into the basement where it’s cool, and I’ll skein up a dozen or so skeins of Tip-Toe Sockyarn to be dyed as I get time. It won’t be much since my supplier is backordering till this week soonest, but I will dye what I have in stock. One cone. I might as well spend time in the basement this week, I say.

Priscilla referred me to this amazing artpiece. It’s a photograph which was translated to a fiber wall hanging constructed of 30,000 clothing labels. Priscilla’s sister knows the artist so she had the honor of contributing some of her own clothing labels to the project.

In a very loose sense, it can be called a quilt. In a very large sense, it is art with no questions attached. (There we go again, the art/craft thing… sorry. You know I say that much of life is art and I leave it at that.) The artist had to translate her photo into fabric by eye… I don’t know how people do it that way. (Debbie New made her grandmother’s portrait into a large afghan by eye, as well.)

I depend on a computer to make my images for me. I think I don’t yet “see” as well as someone who draws or paints. And using a computer is a skill I have on a higher level than many others, so I use that to my advantage. It’s a tool just as a pencil might be… but in a sense it allows my ability to “see” not be as important.

You really must go see this piece: Portrait of a Textile Worker by Terese Agnew of Wisconsin, USA.