Alda of The Iceland Weather Report knit a circular-yoke traditional Icelandic wool sweater for her daughter. It’s beautiful, please go take a look and tell her how nice it is!

Wowie, I did it. If these are not perfect muffins, then I’m unable to attain perfection. They have been tested by folks who can eat all foods and declared delicious. I say when I can bake like this, my food limitations do not matter. As Brian likes to say, “this is gourmet!”

I know you folks like recipes and this one is ready to share. I have made at least a dozen versions of these, more likely three dozen, since early September. The ones I made today are the best of all. They taste a bit like a bran muffin and have a dense texture closer to gingerbread than anything I can think of.

Warning: You surely do not have all these ingredients in your house. My town is not a very fancy food town but I can get the unusual ingredients at my health food store or the grocery near Michigan State University which caters to international students (Goodrich Shoprite). Let’s face it… I can not eat most of what you have in your cupboards, so I am learning about other great foods. You get to learn about the goodies from me. I figure that works out pretty well.

If you live where this sort of grocery is not available, you can get the Teff Flour and Arrowroot Starch from Bob’s Red Mill online. I have ordered from them several times and they are good people. You can not get flours fresher than buying through the mill, you know? The quality is wonderful. They do not always ship next day, but a little waiting is worthwhile. They will indicate right away when they do expect to ship.

(They also have a good recipe database including several Teff recipes. Their Teff muffins are also good but they call for 2 eggs and baking powder, both of which I avoid, so I embarked on the “no egg no gluten” recipe quest… which finally worked after nearly five months of experimentation.)

The muffins are at their best while still warm. They will get stale more quickly than wheat-based baked goods, and will be fairly firm in 24 hours (though a short microwave stint does improve them). Enjoy them while you can (in the first 4 hours is best) and loosely wrap them in a plastic bag as soon as they are fully cool. This is one reason I chopped my recipe in half (to only 6 muffins), so that I would not waste food.

Today I made 6 muffins in the morning, shared with hubby, then made 6 in the afternoon, shared with my helper and later with hubby after dinner. Yum! (They are really filling, heavier than wheat baked goods… and teff is a very high-protein grain so they pack a decent nutritional makeup for something sweet.) They also are so rich I don’t like butter/margarine with them (I normally eat other muffins with margarine).

Note: These muffins happen to be gluten-free. However, some of my friends who eat gluten-free foods also do not eat sugar. You can try to substitute stevia powder, but I have never done it so you are on your own there. I’m guessing they will not have the same outer crust without sugar, but it would be worth a try.

For the record, I include crushed tomato both because it needs acid to make the baking soda fizz, and vegetable matter to keep them moist (teff baked goods tend to stiffen quickly without it). I do not tolerate most fruit well, but if you do not tolerate tomato (or do not have any) you can use applesauce. It is not nearly as tasty that way, though… tomato is a very flavorful ingredient that complements the cloves and cinnamon very well. I have a World War II-era spice cake recipe which calls for tomato juice, and it is also lovely.

Without further ado, here is my recipe (sorry to my non-US readers, it’s in cups only, not metric… I just don’t know how to convert):

LynnH’s Teff Spice Muffins
(makes 6 cupcake-sized muffins, easy to double)
Dry Ingredients:
1/2c PLUS 3Tbsp Teff Flour (not Teff grain)
-OR-
1/2c Teff Flour PLUS 3Tbsp Brown Rice Flour
1/4c Brown Sugar
1/4c Arrowroot Starch or Tapioca Starch (fine flour, not tapioca for pudding)
Rounded 1/4tsp Baking Soda
1/2tsp Ground Cinnamon
Dash Ground Cloves (Optional)
Dash Ground Nutmeg (Optional)
Dash Ground Allspice (Optional)
Dash Salt

Wet Ingredients:
2Tbsp Oil (I used light “pure” Olive Oil)
3/8c (same as 6Tbsp) Water
1/2c Crushed Tomatoes (or thick tomato Sauce without other spices, I used Eden Brand)

Preheat oven to 350F.

Oil muffin pans with spray (or wipe with oil).
Place dry ingredients in mixing bowl. Blend thoroughly with large wire whisk. It is OK to leave small lumps of brown sugar. If this bothers you, try white sugar but I think you lose flavor if you do that.

In smaller bowl, mix wet ingredients with whisk. Add to dry ingredients quickly and blend together just until all ingredients are moistened. Do not over-mix or your muffins will not rise well.

Divide batter evenly into six muffin cups. They should be cupcake-sized, I use my 1/2c measuring cup to scoop and distribute the batter. If your muffin pan is for twelve cupcakes, place your batter along the edges of the pan and fill empty cups with a small amount of water to distribute heat properly.

Bake. In my oven (which sometimes takes longer than recipes specify, even though two oven thermometers say that it is calibrated correctly) these need 21 minutes. As soon as a toothpick poked in the center of the largest muffin pulls out clean but a little moist, they are done.

When they come out of the oven, you can instantly turn the pan over onto a cooling rack and the muffins should drop out without prodding (don’t let them go on the floor, you would be sad to lose one).

For the record, the tomato makes a rich and wonderful spice batter which does not taste at all like tomato. However, only about one tablespoon of the vegetable matter needs to be tomato (sauce or juice or crushed tomatoes). The tomato is the acid which reacts with the baking soda to leaven/raise the muffins. You can replace the rest of the 1/2 cup of tomato with canned pumpkin (or leftover baked sweet potato or winter squash). Make sure if you use leftovers that they are fairly wet, you may need to mix in a little water with them.

It’s official. My friend Kristi/Red Dog Knits has given her blessing on the pattern I first knit for her. I’m naming the pattern after her, with her permission of course.

She had a loss so big I felt I had to do something, and she was on bedrest so I could not go and be with her. For my own comfort, I needed to take action. But what?

A knitter understands the love in a knitted item, so I knit the most soft, comfy, and huggable wrap I could. I used a wool/alpaca yarn as the base yarn, and knit along every scrap of alpaca or silk I could find in my house. I bought only one ball of yarn, the rest came from my stash. The one ball I bought was a silk/wool singles by Louisa Harding in a blue-teal, I just had to have that texture in there. Kristi’s shawl is the yellow-green one shown a few posts back.

Kristi has told me that she wears the wrap often and that it does feel like comfort to her. I was honored that she took it to the hospital with her for the birth of her boys.

Off the record, we all have been calling this the “Kristi Wrap” anyway, since the one I knit for her. I just wanted her full enthusiasm to call it that on paper, in respect for her privacy. Today she said that this is one way for us to always remember her little Elijah, and I’m happy for her that I can do that for her. The pattern is now for sale in my online shop, and it is called Kristi’s Comfort Wrap (or Lap Blanket).

Perhaps there is someone in your life you would like to comfort. Perhaps you are just like I was yesterday, out in the very cold winter weather and needing warmth. This wrap is warm and can be knit in a wrap size or a lap blanket/throw size. The wrap is approximately 15 inches/37cm wide, the lap blanket about 22 inches/56cm wide. Both knit up about 51″/127cm long measured without the additional fringes. The length may vary more than the width, depending on your gauge.

The photos here are of the sample wrap that is at Rae’s Yarn Boutique. (Well, it will be back there again Tuesday, anyway.) Diana is knitting wraps for Threadbear and Little Red Schoolhouse this week. (What a woman, that Diana is!) Soon we’ll have quite the collection of these in Lansing. When people touch these they will understand why I call it “Comfort.”

An added bonus is that it is a very simple pattern to knit, just knit stitches, no increases or decreases. It’s knit “sideways” or the long way which makes it look more woven than knit. I explain everything in such a way that even a newcomer to knitting will be able to follow the instructions (no abbreviations needed). The only challenge might be choosing yarns, but there is a two-page appendix on yarn structures, colors, fibers, care and combining of yarns.

It’s all about using the leftovers in the stash to create interest and color… after all, if you liked them when you bought them, they probably look good together. Right? The cool thing is that the more yarns you combine, the more likely they blend well together. Much fun, much warmth, much comfort. I’m delighted.

I talked to Diana tonight (Monday). Today it went from sort of cold to really, really cold here. They are predicting snow, at least a little bit, every day and night through Friday. We will not be anywhere near freezing even midday. This is two-pairs-of-socks-to-bed weather.

I told Diana how lucky I felt to have Rae’s sample of my new wrap today, when it got so cold so quickly. I had one wrap under my coat around my neck, and the really warm cushy one on the outside of my coat and wrapped close to my face.

She said “Why don’t you let me knit you one?”

Be still, my heart. I have learned that when someone wants to present me a gift, I need to say “yes, thank you” and allow them to love me. Since I’m a knitter (and I have knit one of these myself), I know what she is offering and I’m humbled. And delighted, of course.

I joke often “I wonder who would knit me that sweater/wrap/hat/you name it” but I would never ask that sort of favor. Diana knits for my business because she chooses to work for me. I don’t take that lightly, and I believe I should knit my own frivolous personal items.

I would love a comfort shawl. I have all the yarn required, but not the time. I can not afford to spend time knitting for me. Most of my “pleasure knitting” which ends up my own, is socknitting done in line at the post office, pharmacy or allergist’s office.

I can’t take large projects in my purse, they do not work out well for these little snippets of time which can turn into real wearable socks. So I knit myself socks and almost nothing else. The rest of my knitting is designing new patterns or creating samples for the shops which sell my patterns.

Oh, joy! A comfort wrap just for me? Knit by my sister-in-love, Diana? How lucky can I be?

Trust me, I’ve already assembled the yarns… two balls of hot pink Nashua Creative Focus wool/alpaca, a few smallish balls of handspun from when I was still learning to spin, one ball of green alpaca, and a whole lot of sockyarn in grays/blues/teals/greens. One smallish leftover ball of brushed purple alpaca (yum). I should look to see if I have any bits and pieces of mohair, it really works well with this wrap.

Selfish little, childlike little me. I get a present! I am beside myself with anticipation.

Thank you for loving me with your heart and your hands, Diana.

I started Sunday with sleeping in, past noon. After a short night of sleep the night before, that was just the thing I needed! Unfortunately the first thing I tried to do (make buckwheat pancakes) did not work out, and that was the second day in a row on that disaster. I will start over next week on pancakes, as I’ve made them for years and it is just this week that I’ve had trouble with them.

But after that? It really turned around. I got to see Rae and deliver my patterns to Threadbear, as I said before. I had the energy to run two dishwasher loads in the kitchen so that it almost looks like a regular week rather than a week where I felt too crummy to tend to maintenance. And dinner? We have a microwave again so we just ate some very nice foods I’d frozen previously. No cooking, but good solid homemade food.

And then Brian helped me out with a computer problem that had been nagging me for weeks. I love this man! I know it was his day off and he does computer work all week, but he did the research and fixed it. I had done enough research to know what was going wrong but I could not seem to find the answer to the problem. Go, Brian!

And now I think I really do have a new pattern. I sent the final copy to two friends for a final look-over, even though it has been knit at least 3 times already. Every time I change a sentence trying to get it more clear, I take the chance that I have muddied it instead. I hope a few fresh eyes will help me out and I can release it this week.

I’m calling this the Cozy Comfort Wrap/Lap Blanket. I started it as a wrap/stole and then realized it was so warm and so cozy and so cuddly, that if it were just a bit larger it would make a great lap blanket or throw. You can not believe how soft and lovely it feels.

Here you see me modeling it on the front porch Sunday when the temperature was 18 degrees out. I had a cotton turtleneck and a very thin wool sweater (almost T-shirt thickness) underneath that wrap, and I was pretty comfy out there in the snow. And I get cold at the drop of a hat! It really is a wonderful fabric.

The base yarn for this one is Nashua Creative Focus Wool/Alpaca worsted weight yarn. It is one strand (a “singles” yarn would be the official description, but I think that sounds like a declaration of marriageability). Each row is knit with a second yarn held along with it.

There are two pages of information in the pattern on how to combine yarns, colors and textures, and how to care for special fibers if you choose to knit with them (the softer the yarn, the more special it can be). The first version I knit of this, most of the knit-along yarns were alpaca or silk blends. Super soft and warm!

Diana is preparing to make two more of these Comfort Wraps very soon. The one you see me modeling here is the sample for Rae’s shop (she carries the Nashua Creative Focus yarn I used for the first/green one and also this purple one). Diana is also doing one for Threadbear using Malabrigo merino worsted as the base yarn, and one for Little Red Schoolhouse using Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride worsted as the base. All beautiful in their own way, of course, though I am very fond of alpaca anything.

I’ve been very pleased with how many patterns I am selling on my somewhat-new shopping cart. I am preparing to put up a few more polymer clay buttons this week on the cart, as well as this new pattern (and I have two more in the works, very very close to production). I hope this is a busy week for me on the shopping cart front. I know it all depends on me at this point.

Tomorrow is another day. Well… actually, I’m typing this an hour or two into the tomorrow which is Monday, but I have not retired for the night yet. I am sipping some very-low-caffeine Japanese tea and really relaxing. I may even let myself knit a little for my own pleasure here for 15 minutes or so, and then I need to tuck it in for another day.

But what a great day it has been. I have not had a good day like this since the first week of the year. Whew!

It is ugly winter here (Lansing, Michigan, USA), alternating between very cold one day, sunny and almost warm another, then cold again the third. There is nearly no color unless you choose it in clothing or home surroundings. I’m doing my best to wear my brighter clothes these last few days.

Today when the sun went down I felt a wave of sadness. Our sun stays out longer than Alda’s Iceland (read her Iceland Weather Report blog, it is wonderful… and it reminds me of the sunlight hours we get that she does not).

When I get a bit o’the blues, I try to get back to gratitude. I remember that as I got home today I was so grateful for the community in Lansing, the fibery wonderful folks and shops and students and guilds, who all make it possible for me to actually make a modest but honest living as an artist.

I teach, I write/sell patterns, I occasionally dye yarn and sell it, I more occasionally make buttons (or teach polymer clay). I sometimes sing professionally, and when I’m really lucky I get to dance for pay. Mostly I’m a knitting-related fiberartist and teacher. It’s the best thing I’ve ever done, the most rewarding job ever.

Yesterday I was in all three shops where I usually teach. Today I was in two. I’ve made such good friends at all of them! Yesterday I was in line buying something at Threadbear, and behind me was a student I met at Little Red Schoolhouse. Today I was at Rae’s and I saw a student I also see at Altu’s restaurant where I sing.

Today I got to see my friend Rae after she was gone from her shop for a week on vacation/working retreat… getting away is a rare thing for we self-employed folks. My friend Linda who runs Little Red Schoolhouse also got away for a while and will be back soon. I will enjoy talking to her about her trip, as well.

And today I delivered several dozen patterns to Threadbear. Can I tell you how much I appreciate the folks over there? They like my patterns so much they recommend them to folks who are looking for projects to knit. They know that my instructions/photos are clear enough to help someone who may live out of town and not be able to come back and pop in with a question. And they keep on ordering/selling patterns. In what are wonderful quantities for a little business like mine. I am so grateful!

Tomorrow it will be three weeks since I got sick originally. I am still not my whole self, but I’m much, much better. I feel close to normal when I am sitting still. My mind is now pretty much as quick as it usually is (the slow brain thing was maybe the hardest part of this bug).

I still need a tissue occasionally, but not a box of tissues. And I seem to mostly only cough when I breathe cold air or dusty/dry air. The only really rough part now is that if I try to stand up a long time, or if I need to walk any distance, my legs get wobbly. It is truly frustrating but I’m learning to slow down.

Of course, while I was sick our microwave died in a big way. As a matter of fact, you could turn it off and it was fine sitting still, but if you opened the door, the power would go on and it would be microwaving your hand if you put something inside, but once you closed the door it would shut off again. Whew!

We called one place we know will work on older appliances but they do not service microwaves. Brian did open it up and he found the switches that were connected to the door latch, but we could not figure out what part would control the safety mechanism which had switched gears. We gave up and decided to buy a new one.

But Yours Truly, Ms. Wobbly Legs, had to go with Brian Friday to three stores, two of them absolutely huge home stores, and walk all the way to the back (or at least halfway). We found a Panasonic at Target. I was *so* ready to find something I could stand in my house and go home to sit down!

The new appliance is not white (which I strongly prefer) but it’s shiny metal with just black as the glass on the door. I like LIGHT in my house, I do not want black anything soaking up the few sun’s rays we get. I don’t care how european or sophisticated it looks, I am already set in my ways at age 48.

At least in this house we have a “shiny metal” thing going on, with chrome furniture both in the kitchen and living room. The shiny microwave will look like it mostly fits, although it looks modern and the rest of the metal is older than me.

The good news is that I could figure out how to use the thing the first day. It’s much nicer than any I’ve before, it has a lot of settings but I can actually figure out how to use some of the basic ones without reading the (very fine) manual.

During my years as a travelling computer trainer, I would go to new locations to teach every day. I would bring lunch and be in a brand new break room more often than not. And here I was, perhaps teaching Advanced Microsoft Access 97 Programming, and I could not always figure out how to heat up my lunch. It’s so frustrating to not have an industry standard, though perhaps a standard would bring down the quality of the better models. I’m glad this new gizmo is truly user-friendly.

Now I’m back home and mostly sitting down. And I don’t have to cook stovetop or in the oven this week. That is, unless I prefer to do it that way. Whee!

In knitting news, I taught a class Saturday to one person which was quite wonderful (a relatively new knitter, we had fun). I got yarn at two shops for samples (Diana, bless her heart, has volunteered to knit them for me again). And I did not knit much at all for myself, but I decreased my gussets on one Aran-weight toe up sock for me. Not too fancy, not much knitting, but enough to relax a bit while I was at Altu’s restaurant waiting for my dinner to arrive.

Now send good vibes… last night I was awake in bed until 4:55am or so, I could not sleep for at least an hour after I went to bed (later than usual because I was finishing up a new pattern) and then I woke up at 9am without an alarm. Thank goodness I got an almost-two-hour nap at 5:30pm. I feel fine right now, and tired enough that I think I will actually sleep tonight. But that was a major drag.

Finally it is again time to sleep. And sleep, and sleep. I have no appointment times tomorrow, though I will deliver patterns to Threadbear and pop by Rae’s shop just to say hello (she was gone a whole week and I missed her). Sleeping in is the first order of the day, at any rate.

I was reading “yarnstorm” and found a link in the January 16 post  to Persephone Books in the United Kingdom. It looks good, I bet some of you would like to take a peek.

Rob/Black Dog of Threadbear Fiberarts writes with the scoop on that wonderful chocolate-brown yarn I’m using for Mr. Johnson’s scarf (see January 25 for post). He says:

The yarn is from Needful Yarns (distributor) and the company is Filtes King. It is labeled “Australian Merinos” but is colloquially called (by them and in patterns) “Stampato”. Stampato is more accurately the way the yarn is colored/spun with the tweeded effect.

Thanks for the information, Rob. I’ve already had one person write with dreams of knitting the same yarn! I would encourage it, in any colorway.

I am putting another photo of the same scarf (detail) here, just so you can see more detail on the stitches and how the blips of color show. This version is far too gray, I used flash and lost all the warm color (go to original post for a sense of color but lack of detail, I just can not seem to get this one right without summer sunshine). The real color is dark chocolate with flecks of camel and gray.

For the record, I just ran over to the Threadbear site and found out that Filtes King is also the brand for the Kelly yarn I used for my ribbed tank top which I finished in May 2005. I LOVE this yarn, it washes and dries in the machine beautifully and the tank is wonderful.

The yarn called Kim is the same as Kelly but it is a solid color, where Kelly is a self-striping (very irregularly, I couldn’t match it up if I had wanted to) yarn that stripes something like Noro yarns (although it is a cotton/acrylic yarn that has a knitted-tube structure like an I-cord). I don’t normally like cotton yarns, but this one gets my vote.

Of course all of the above yarns can be found in many colors at Threadbear. If only I had time to knit every colorway!

Last week I made oven-roasted sweet potato fries and took photos but didn’t have the energy to process the photo for you. I am feeling much better, at least when I’m sitting down, and I have a non-work day today so I finally got around to the picture.

Today for breakfast I made muffins from Teff flour. I’ve been working on this recipe since September. I first made the recipe from Bob’s Red Mill, and it was very good but it called for three different flours and two eggs. I wanted to get it down to Teff and arrowroot starch/flour, and eliminate the eggs.

Since Teff has no gluten, it does not stick together well without egg. It also tends to dry out very quickly after baking, so it is much better eaten fresh out of the oven. I reduced the size of the batch so that it makes 6 muffins rather than a dozen. I played with using flaxseed meal to bind the muffins together but that made the muffins too oily the times I tried.

I have recently been using either pumpkin, sweet potato or squash to bind it and that really helps. It not only helps glue things together but it allows more moisture in the muffins without them refusing to cook through.

I also do not tolerate baking powder particularly well (there is constarch in most brands, potato starch in others, and cream of tartar in the make-your-own-powder recipes, all of which do not agree with me in varying ways).

I can have baking soda, but it needs acid to help it rise. I can’t have fruit juice or vinegar and the vitamin C powder I could find was derived from corn (I could buy non-corn online but shipping costs as much as the powder). Cream of Tartar is derived from grapes… I have been using it but that is also not very good both on the mold-allergy and fruit-sensitivity fronts.

I finally figured out that I could use tomato paste. Ta-dah! I only needed half a teaspoon of tomato paste for six muffins… you can not taste it but the muffins rose better than any I ever made using cream of tartar. Cool biz!

These were the prettiest muffins yet, they had domed tops rather than flat ones, and they crackled just right. The color was pretty. I used sweet potato baby food (yes really) and olive oil to keep them moist. They were still a little dry but I think that I just needed to add some water to couteract the dryness of the tomato paste. I’m so close to the perfect Teff Muffin, I’m almost ready to make another batch tonight for dessert!

Teff is SO good, I really love it. The taste is similar to a bran muffin with a similar texture. It also is very high in protein and other nutrients, one of the highest of all the grains.

Teff is almost chocolate brown in color, but if you add brown sugar, sweet potato, cinnamon and cloves as I did, the taste and looks of the muffins go together perfectly. Woohoo! When I get a batch I think is really right I’ll post it. maybe tonight.

I do love eating. And since I’m fairly successful with baking, I’m learning not to mind that much (other than the cleanup). I’m loving roasted vegetables, especially rutabaga and parsnips, though we’ve also roasted butternut squash, sweet potatoes, fennel bulbs and beets. The only one I would not do again is the fennel, I like that much better crunchy and fresh in a salad.

Then there is cooking meat, or fish for that matter… oh, no… there is no way I will ever like meat, either the idea of it, the taste/texture, anything. But I’m eating it (well, birds and fish but not mammals, my choice) because that is what I need to do to be healthy. I do not miss cheese. I only miss eggs when friends meet for breakfast at a diner.

However, I really miss beans. I want to eat beans every night for dinner as I once did. I love edamame (fresh soybeans) at the sushi house, black beans at the Mexican restaurant or home, blackeyed peas (not only for New Years Day), lentils and chickpeas at the Indian restaurant, Altu’s incredible Lima Beans and lentils, fava beans and hummous (chickpeas) at middle-eastern restaurants, refried pinto beans as a quick meal at home. I even miss tofu… and it took me decades to learn to like the stuff.

I can have a few beans, occasionally, these days. Thank goodness split peas are working out so I can at least eat that one meal at Altu’s Restaurant. For now many beans are not working for me and I am learning slowly what else I can eat. Brian steamed some salmon last night with green beans (we usually eat some sort of greens with fish which really is a good combination), and I had smoked salmon sashimi and steamed rice with Altu yesterday for lunch. I’m learning.

Meanwhile, I can at least share the photos of my successes with you. Roasted root veggies and teff muffins!!! They really are wonderful.

In the last week I’ve sold buttons to the United Kingdom (England) and patterns to Slovenia. Isn’t that the coolest thing ever? What did we do without the Internet? We missed out on so many friends!

I’ve been knitting away, the whole almost-three weeks I’ve been less than chipper, on a scarf which will be a gift to the man who taught me to knit. He has not seen me in at least 25 years so he is not expecting this in the least, and there is no deadline other than I really feel a thank you is in order.

The yarn has the oddest name! It is called “Australian Merinos.” It sounds like a herd of sheep rather than a ball of yarn. However, it is a most wonderful, smooth and soft yarn, and is the result of a many-month search for the perfect yarn for this gift.

I would have loved to make him an alpaca scarf but unless you know the laundry habits of the household, washable is the kindest choice. The yarn I picked is shrink resistant and that seems right. (I got this yarn from Threadbear Fiberarts, for those who will ask… the price tag says Stampato and the yarn says King. Beats me.)

The color is perfect (on my monitor the scarf detail is closer to the real color than the ball of yarn image. nearly dark chocolate). He’s a good Norwegian, and I remember sort of reddish-blonde hair with fair skin (mind you, he was my teacher in 1969 although I’ve seen him a few times since that).

The yarn has maybe five strands of two-ply yarn, then plied together into one very smooth almost tube-like yarn. I think two are a dark chocolate brown, one is a charcoal, and two are variegated between darker brown, camel and medium silver-gray. The changing colors make it sort of reflect light in a wonderful way. I really wanted something with at least a speck of camel, I just have a sense that is a good color on him.

I am using the Steam reversible rib scarf pattern (if you click the link, mine is the third scarf), option B which has a three-stitch garter edge on both sides. The only change I made is that I am slipping the first stitch on each row to make a sort of chain stitch on the edge rather than that little bump that happens in garter stitch if you knit every stitch. It’s mostly a K2P2 rib, but every 12th row I have to cross 8 stitches in either one or two places on the row. Then I get to relax and do K2P2 ribbing for another 11 rows. My kind of pattern!

Rae is making a Steam scarf right now in a very fluffy lightweight (probably a laceweight) mohair (hers is the second scarf on the same patterns page) with no edge stitch. It’s very lacy and feminine and the edges have curves like we women do, soft and lovely. The edge I am using makes it more straight and controlled on the edge, which works with the denser fabric I’m producing, and I think it is a great option for at least this particular man.

I think the project looks a lot like bark on a tree. It is really beautiful and very springy/soft. I’m working on size 4 ebony needles that were a gift to me from my Mother-in-Law (who inherited them from a friend if I have the story right). They are luscious to work with. I almost never work on straight single-pointed needles so it is great this time I can use them. Luxury.

Slow is the Way to Go

I feel pretty good when I’m sitting down these days. I don’t cough much except when I go out in the cold air, that seems to trigger trouble, but most times I’m basically just feeling like I have a minor cold. However, Wednesday trying to clean house (going up and down stairs, both 2nd floor and basement) so that a few friends could come over without feeling uncomfortable, was enough exercise for three days. I can not believe how tired I get these days.

I am not instinctively tidy, I have to work hard at keeping order in the house. Since I have been either sick or less-than-100% since Sunday the 7th, the house was suffering and even those of us who live here were not particularly comfy here. It took a lot more effort than I really wanted to expend, but I do feel relief now that it is a bit more under control.

Music Luxury, Tech Heaven

The good part was that the guests were music friends and they and Brian created live music in the living room… the ultimate luxury! Right now I’m totally enjoying the new laptop battery I bought in December, lounging on the couch with a zillion pillows and typing away.

I can’t help but think of my dad. Here I sit on my couch sending a print job to a full-color laser printer, through the air! It’s like Dick Tracy cartoons from the 60’s, in my mind. Dad died in June 1973. He was a statistician and did all his calculations with a slide rule. He said when calculators got small enough to fit in a pocket and the price went under $500 he would buy one. He never had that opportunity. Now I sit here printing through the AIR! How cool is that?

What would I do without this easy access to the Internet? I would not have met a lot of the wonderful people in my life. Even in Lansing there are people I met first through this blog. This week I shipped polymer clay buttons to England. I have sold yarn to Wales and Australia, Canada and all over the USA. It’s the coolest thing, and it allows me to make a stab at making a living from Lansing, Michigan, as an artist. Too cool.

Nothing like Friendship

I had lunch with Sharon P of Knitknacks today, she’s so wonderful. She was wearing an entrelac sweater she knit out of purples/pinks/greens, Silk Garden by Noro. She looked gorgeous, it was so flattering to her! She does wear purple a lot but more often with turquoise I think. I gushed but I think she didn’t mind…

Rae’s gone on a writing retreat for a week and I miss her already. I’m sure she’s enjoying both the company and the surroundings.

Personally, I’m just a tad overwhelmed with my schedule here, myself, though everything I’m doing is good. There are three challenging deadlines this week on top of my “appearances” and sometimes I just have to give in and sleep even though work is not done. This, too, shall pass.

OK, a kick start is a motorcycle thing (I used to be able to kick start a 650 Yamaha and could ride it fine… although I couldn’t stop properly without dropping the bike so I gave that up in short order). But today I’m envisioning a kick in the tush!

Yesterday’s two classes were divine. I even got a phone call today from one of my new students, to thank me for how much she learned in two hours. That really keeps me going, you know?

Now today I start an after-school kids knitting program at Dwight Rich Middle School, not very far from my house. If I had a child that age, they might attend this school, it’s in the neighborhood past mine.

This will be great fun because I will get a lot of time with the same kids, it’s several months of work with them. That will be very satisfying, because middle schoolers are a good age to control needles well and to be creative… but in my walk-in program at Foster Center I tend to lose them at that age, just when their potential is really obvious.

My helper for my yarn business is coming tonight, too… I have not worked with her since before Christmas and I’m looking forward to her help and her company.

I am trying to be gentle with myself as I recover from this bug I had. Last night was the first night I slept all the night through with no coughing jags, so it truly is getting better. I just wish I felt a little more energetic. This is just how it is, and I’m working on going slowly. So far so good!

By the way, I really want to thank everyone who leaves comments. I like to reply to everyone individually but lately I just haven’t had the emotional or physical energy to write personal notes. If you did not hear from me yet, it’s not because I didn’t see or appreciate your note… Thank you so much.

Monday/today was the first day of my term, teaching computer classes to adults (mostly retirees) at Haslett Community Education. I had a wonderful time. I always do.

Teaching is SUCH a high. No chemicals required, beyond the adrenaline my own body creates as I explain things. There is such magic in showing people things they can use, that they did not know yet.

Even in the first class, the basic class where I expect folks to maybe never have touched a computer before… they left thanking me for the class. I can not tell you what that feels like.

I can never teach them all I know, even all they would like to know. I *can* take away the fear and replace it with curiosity and permission to explore. I let them know that if the machine freezes up, it is almost certainly not anything they did. I give them permission to turn off the machine if it freezes (they are very afraid to do that, even when there is no other choice).

And the second class, some of those folks have been with me a year or more now. It’s a wonderful group, they are a little bit of a social club. And I repeat the same things every term that must be repeated for the new people. And they all agree they learn every time (I try to present the same subjects from different angles but it’s repeat and it’s good).

I did get tired about a half an hour before I could go home. It was fine. My voice is doing much better than expected, and though I did have some coughing fits in the car on the way home I think it was from breathing cold air rather than the four hours of talking.

This is what I was born to do. I explain well. I sometimes say I’m a “professional explainer.” This is about computers, about teaching knitting, teaching polymer clay, even writing knitting patterns. It’s just my thing.

Mom and Dad both taught, both my Mom’s parents taught, my aunt (Mom’s sister) also taught. It’s in my cells, and I would not have it any other way.

Timbo (of Timboland and the Swampy Award Alda won) and I have written back and forth a little this week. He was sort of wishing someone else would have awards like he did so he could check out new blogs.

I am not inclined to do awards, I’m not a thorough enough surfer to be fair, but I did send him a list of some non-knitting sites which have made me smile at least once or twice. I figure maybe you folks would enjoy a list, as well. For the most part, they are listed in the order in which I found them.

Of course, Alda’s Iceland Weather Report is first on the list. I read every post, though I don’t get over there every day. I don’t get anywhere every day!

http://icelandweatherreport.com

Patrice Douge, a photojournalist in Florida:

http://www.patricedouge.com/

The cooking adventures of Chef Paz, complete with New York Monday photos:

http://thecookingadventuresofchefpaz.blogspot.com/

Aaron in Africa: my time in Togo (peace corps volunteer):

http://aaroninafrica.blogspot.com/

Bookseller Chick (used to work a bookstore and it just closed):

http://booksellerchick.blogspot.com/

Des chapeaux, just photos of vintage hats, they are unbelievable, extreme, artful, extreme again (this one posts rather infrequently:

http://chapeauxbibitop.blogspot.com/index.html

Ukulele and All that Jazz (Howlin Hobbit, a ukulele/jazz/smoky bar musician in Seattle):

http://www.howlinhobbit.com/sblog/

Plastic Girl (artist in Australia who works in plastics):

http://lianakabel.blogspot.com/

Leigh Witchel (Ballet Dancer/Choreographer, Knit Designer, Cat Lover, Travel Fanatic, expert on saving travel bucks and using frequent flyer miles/points (whatever they call them):

http://www.leighwitchel.com/blog/

Something in Season: cook-local recipes from gluten-free chef, and wonderful stories at times of family:

http://somethinginseason.blogspot.com/index.html

One Small Corner of the World (photography and accompanying poetry):

http://onesmallcorneroftheworld.blogspot.com/index.html

Gluten-Free Girl (from the same author as the above photo/poetry blog… not just recipes and cooking but storytelling including a love story, just a wonderful read):

http://glutenfreegirl.blogspot.com/

Not a blog, but LibriVox is recording many thousands of books in the public domain, into audiobooks. They take volunteers to read/record the books, or you can just go and get something and listen. (Thanks to Brenda Dayne of the Cast-On Podcast for this one.):

http://librivox.org/

Well, that should keep you entertained for a little while!!!

I just can’t get jump started. I got sick two weeks ago tonight and although I do not feel very bad anymore, I have low energy. I tried to work on patterns and I just do not have the focus to make it mistake-free. (I will bet this post proves the focus issue for me, I’m sorry if it is a little jumpy in the presentation.)

I cooked breakfast, Brian cooked dinner, and after dinner I made a teff and carob cake (it was nearly black it was so dark, and the flavor was OK but it was very dry… I should have followed my instinct to put applesauce or some other vegetable matter in it for moisture and hold-together power). I will try that one again.

Teff is a grain grown in Ethiopia and other places in Africa. It is used pretty much exclusively in that part of the world for their distinctive sourdough-like flatbread.

Teff is gluten free and flavorful (and extremely nutritious) on the good side, and it is a lot like rice flour in its crumbly nature on the down side. I would say baked goods made of teff remind me of bran muffins, a bit rough and a bit rich. I love that sort of thing! I can eat gluten but it is good for me to rotate different foods and so teff is one of many grains I eat during the week. I look forward to Teff day!

Bob’s Red Mill Brand offers both teff grain (tiny tiny grains but not flour) and the teff flour, both of which I can purchase in my smallish city. They offer a good muffin recipe on the back of the package but it calls for egg. I eat very few eggs, at most one per week. So I wanted to make the muffins without that. Baked goods, particularly those which are gluten free, are hard to make without eggs as a binder.

It has taken me since early September to work it out but the last two muffin batches were wonderful. Typically teff muffins dry out and become stiff hockey pucks after just a few hours. The ones I have made the last two times held out much better… today’s batch lasted 4 hours and although they did dry out a little on the outside, that just seemed like a nice crust. I will plan to use all the little tricks I use on the muffins, while working on the basic teff cake recipe, and see what I end up with there. I bet I can do it.

I did talk to Diana today (she got the same bug I did on the same day I did). She took a little longer to feel better, but was able to make dinner tonight and is knitting again.

As for me, I’m knitting a mostly-simple mostly-ribbed scarf as a gift right now. I just can not count or measure or check instructions or knit on gauge. That means work knitting is out. All the work knitting I’ve done in the last 2 weeks was torn out anyway, why go there?

The rib scarf is really forgiving for some reason, and since I needed straight needles for this project I’m using some size 4 (3.5mm) ebony needles which were a gift a few years back. They feel really nice and work well with the smooth merino sportweight I’m using for the project. My wrists do not like long straight needles, though… I needed to stop tonight and rest.

Monday is my first day of teaching computer classes at Haslett this term. I know the material backwards, but I am a little concerned that my voice will be able to handle 4 hours of talking to a dozen people in a computer lab. Cross fingers for me. I may take my lapel microphone. Normally I do not need it for this short timeframe. However, with all the coughing I’ve been doing my voice is tired.

I really do feel pretty decent, I’m just very slow still. I can stand up and walk a bit but I can not sprint. And although I am used to having a very quick mind, I am being humbled in that department this last few weeks. It is good for me.

Once I spent 31 days without any voice at all, doctor’s orders. That was a serious loss though it truly was temporary. The bug I have had this month? Not as bad. Definitely not as bad as total silence for a month.

One must keep all things in perspective. I am trying to not feel guilty about not doing the work I had planned for this month. I’m a bit of a workaholic when I feel well and watching myself knit a non-work scarf on a work day, well, it’s really hard to do. I need to give myself sick days but this is really getting old.

OK, back to the good stuff: So far, Teff muffins rule. Teff cake? Needs a lot of work, but I have done enough experimenting with the muffins that I bet the cake comes around in short order. I’ll report back.

You know, after 10 days flat on the couch with a foggy brain, I am sort of “waking up” to my life by seeing people who inspire me. I was delighted to spend several hours with my friend Deb today. What a treat!

Tomorrow my class cancelled so I will work at home. I have SO many patterns in various stages of production, and I need to work on at least one. I’m not well enough to go in the unheated basement and dye yarn but I can sit at the computer and make patterns go forward. I hope the sun shines, that would make it a great day for sitting next to the window in my office.

I am nearly well. I did get tired enough around dinnertime to actually take a nap, but I was out and about longer than I have been yet and I did feel pretty good while I was out. I cough a bit still but I feel about 98% most of the time.

After Deb went home I ran to two different grocery stores (it is amazing what you can run out of when you can not leave the house for over a week). In the course of the day I hit all three of the yarn shops where I teach. When I got home I was down for the count but that was OK.

I also got a call from a friend in Tucson. It was great to chat with her a little while. It just seems to be a weekend of relationship, and that is a wonderful thing.

OK, time to get some serious sleep. I’m happily wiped out.

I’m just ready to leave for Threadbear to see my friend Deb. The sun is shining, there are no clouds at all.

The trees are still coated in ice from the storm on Sunday night, I wonder if the sun will be hot enough to melt some of it away. Ice on tree branches is always a dangerous thing, branches break and hurt whatever is below them when they fall. I’ll hope the sun fixes a little of that… it is supposed to get to 26F (below freezing for my non-US readers) so it may not work, but I can hope.

I’m off to play with yarn and drink tea and talk and talk and talk. It will be a good day.

I spent several hours on Friday with an artist friend. You know, I have relatively few peers in my life, at least in the Lansing area. I make a living as a creative person, between teaching and dyeing and designing patterns and singing and a little dancing.

It is my full-time work, my creative business. I don’t do it to dabble or make a few bucks on the side, I do it to pay my bills. I don’t know many people who can say that in my local life. I need to take my work seriously and keep very focused to make that work out for me. I am absolutely clear that I do not want to go back to a 40hr/week desk job, and therefore I work a lot of hours making this venture work for me.

This woman is also a fulltime artist. She happens to be a painter for the most part. She is incredibly talented and very passionate about her work. She also pays her bills with her creative business, she doesn’t intend to dabble. (Dabbling is fine, I did it for years building up to my current situation, but it’s great to have someone who understands my life right now.)

It was a wonderful day. I just drank in the companionship. We drank tea and ate pumpkin bread I made for us to eat, and talked until it was dark. I think I was there for 4 hours. It was wonderful.

After that I went home and my beloved Brian had cooked dinner. I ate turkey and carrots and parsnips from the crockpot, and steamed bok choi, and it was really good and it was ready to eat pretty much when I walked in. Can I tell you how loved I feel when that happens? It was wonderful.

Then I ran over to Threadbear briefly before they closed. My designer friend Trish Bloom had written to tell me she would be there. It was good to see her. It was also great to just be around other creative people instead of being on the couch for 10 days straight.

My fever is staying away, this is 3 days in a row so I think it’s really gone. I still tire very easily and I have a cough sometimes, though others notice it before I do (it is not uncomfortable, just distracting). I still need to carry a handful of my almost-vintage handkerchiefs with me wherever I go right now, but I feel much better.

Tomorrow is more socializing. Deb/Scarlet Zebra will be in Lansing and we intend to talk and drink tea until we can not have any more caffeine. It will be wonderful fun. We used to take four-hour woman-business-owner lunches a couple of times a year but we have both been crazy-busy in 2006 and barely seen one another. We have much catching up to do.

I was supposed to go to Fort Wayne (Indiana, several hours away) and dance with the Habibi Dancers all day Saturday. There is no way I can dance for ten minutes right now, much less on stage and looking chipper. Much less getting up in the wee hours to carpool to Ft. Wayne. I think it is wonderful I’ll be with Deb instead. I won’t have time to bum out about missing the companionship of the other dancers, I will be busy with my friend. Very very good.

Whew. I’m coming around, I almost feel like myself again. My temp is back to what they call normal and I just feel like I have a bit of a cold. I get so tired, though, and when I woke up this morning it was nearly amusing because I could not stay balanced. I had to catch myself on the wall so I would not topple over. I slept so hard that I just could not rouse myself enough to walk straight. It was a chuckle.

Food is still the most interesting topic of all in my life, though I am knitting a little bit. I made the Sweet Potato oven-roasted fries last night. They were very homely but tasty. I think I still like the rutabagas better, but any root veggie roasted in the oven is becoming a fond favorite these days. Tomorrow we will eat parsnips and carrots, they are good together.

I’m becoming very fond of my root veggies… they are flavorful and they fill me well. They also offer the benefit of being full of good minerals and nutrients. Of course, we eat nothing that is *only* good for us, so it’s great those characteristics underly the good taste. I’m becoming grateful to my food allergies for forcing me to learn about new foods. I am really enjoying the veggie adventures.

I tried to cook fish tonight. Usually Brian steams fish with greens when we want a fast meal. I’m pretty good at ruining fish (I don’t like it much anyway so I can not really tell if it is done until it’s overdone and rubbery).

Tonight I bought two pieces of fresh salmon (I think it’s a luxury I can get this in Lansing any day I want, really). Brian made one and I made the other, they both were fine.

We put both in the oven at 400F. His was in a glass pie pan with olive oil and just a touch of tomato sauce. Mine was in a covered casserole, totally covered in tomato sauce and then I added 3/4 of a can of small black california olives, crushed between my fingers (I like that texture in tomato-based foods). His finished cooking first, maybe 25 minutes. Mine cooked just over 30 minutes, I think.

We ate Brian’s fish because it was done first, and then I divided up the one I made into pyrex freezing dishes. With all that tomato sauce I expect it will taste even better thawed and cooked as leftovers.

We also had brown rice and steamed broccoli. There was a lot of rice left over so I decided to make an off-the-cuff rice pudding. I learned how to do this from my mother, who learned it from her mother.

I took the leftover brown rice, put it in our smaller crockpot, and added some leftover soy milk (half a box, about 2 cups, of unsweetened/unflavored) to it. I never drink the stuff, I only use it in recipes, so I have to really plan in order to not waste any.

I added a little water, some frozen white rice that had been leftover almost too long, and some sweet potato (yes really). I put almost a half cup of light brown sugar in, plus a lot of cinnamon, a touch of nutmeg, and about a tablespoon of good Mexican vanilla. It was sort of swimming in the liquid like a soup when I was done adding everything.

I put the sweet potato and white rice in because I’ve had trouble with 100% brown rice for rice pudding. It just isn’t starchy enough to really set up properly. Adding the (maybe 1/3-1/2 cup) of sweet potato and the appx. 1 cup of white rice to the maybe 2-3 cups of brown rice, added some more fine starch to the mix and made it more likely to actually act like pudding given some cooking time.

I let it cook until it was pretty thick, the soy milk was more like the texture of cream or slightly thicker. The pudding is now cooling in the refrigerator for breakfast tomorrow morning (yum).

I was only out of the house yesterday for 3 hours. Today I was out for 8. Most of that time I was sitting down, but it’s just exhausting to be “on” that much after over a week of being nearly inert. I was grumpy, hungry and exhausted when I got home. The food did really help me turn it around.

Tomorrow is another day, and it’s my official day off. I plan to visit an artist acquaintance who has some clothing she wants to give me… not from this side of the globe. I’m delighted both for the gift and the time I will get to spend with her. She’s an extra-special person and I don’t know her very well, it will be wonderful to chat a while and sip tea.

I worked one hour today. Of course that meant I had to get up and get presentable and drive there and back. It also meant that I had to get up before Brian went to work, because we determined last night that my battery had gone numb from sitting still so long in the cold.

So I couldn’t fall asleep till my usual very wee hours. I got up five hours later, started the car, took it on a spin long enough to be sure it would restart later. Home, long wonderful bath, figure out how to dress presentably after about a week in jammies. I dressed, went out to get meds that were going to run out tonight if I didn’t get ‘em. Worked at Foster Center 1hr, picked up a paycheck while there, made deposit at bank (a most delightful errand indeed, I always love that one).

My bank is literally next door to Rae’s shop so I went in, it had been too long since I’d been in any yarn shop and I was going through withdrawal. Didn’t buy, just sat on the couch for a short while (the shop was closed already, she was doing inventory), and then went home. Too long out, not enough sleep.

I got home in time to chop up sweet potatoes. We decided to try to oven roast them today, because the rutabagas are so good that way. I put those in the oven, Brian steamed perch and spinach, and we had a good though simple meal. I will do the potatoes that way again. They take much less time than rutabagas.

Now I’m going to crash on that couch. I bet I’m asleep in 15 minutes. I do feel as though I’m recovering but I need some more sleep and I am going to be sure to do that for myself.

You know, it’s rough when you get just well enough to remember all the stuff you can’t do right now but should have done a week ago. It’s crazy-making to say the least.

I feel MUCH better today but I’m as dazed as a toddler awakened during a deep sleep. The body moves but in slow motion, my temp is approximately normal (finally) yet the brain is still quite foggy.

I had a heck of a time just casting on 54 stitches for a simple scarf. I cast on once, counted twice, knit and it was wrong, counted again, thought it was right, was wrong again… tried to fix on the needles, finally ripped it out, cast on again, knit one row. That’s the whole story of my knitting thus far today.

I’m still so out of it that I did not realize I had missed the Mid-Michigan Knitters Guild meeting, until it was over. I LOVE this group, they are home. And I always contribute a door prize every month (usually a kit: yarn and a pattern). Well, every month I’m there, I guess. Sigh… if I had thought of it I would have asked someone near my home to pick up a kit on the way there. Pooh. It’s too late now.

Photo: view out my side door (April’s House again), with the full sun shining through the ice-coated branches. Light bulbs almost! So pretty. It was so bright today you could have imagined it was August if you did not look out the window (or hear the furnace running). Diana posted photos today… and if you click on hers, you get a full screen of sunny beauty. I say take the time and revel in this unique and fleeting beauty. 

Alda of the Iceland Weather Report has won an award. Timbo of Timboland has awarded her with his 2006 Swampy Award for Best Non-British Blog. You go, Grrrl!

I figure if I really like Alda’s work, and so does Timbo, we must have more in common than that. How convenient that I find a list of his favorite blogs just when I’m stuck on the couch.

Nothing like some good new blogs to distract my mind a bit. Yippee! Remember, it’s good to savor the small things, because big things are few and far between…

I am meeting fascinating musicians from all over the world, via MySpace.com, of all places. Brian and I have a Myspace page for The Fabulous Heftones in addition to our normal (much larger/more informative) Fabulous Heftones website.

We, of course, are getting “friend requests” (what an odd concept), mostly from people we already know in the local music community and/or the ukulele circuit. Sometimes it’s family (particularly neices and nephews) and sometimes it’s someone who knows our work from afar. Very occasionally it is someone wanting romance or other excitement that does not interest us, and we do not accept those requests.

It’s pretty cool, really, depite all the fun The Media has been having bashing its weak spots. As we know, anything can be used for good or trouble… I’m finding myspace to be quite fine in my personal situation.

This week, I got a friend request from James, and I did not know who he was. Clearly he is a ukulele player, it’s easy to discern that from his myspace page. He is in London, UK. Wow. How cool is that? So I wrote back with an acceptance. He had also sent a very flattering note along with his request, saying we really were Fabulous, yadda yadda. He made me feel really good that he would know our work all the way from England, and take the time to write. So I wrote him back and chatted a bit.

I said that I love the Internet for making the world such a small place. He wrote back:

“Yes it is a tiny world 20” corner to corner, its all on my PC.”

Wow. Can’t put it better than that, really.

Thank you, James, for sharing your take on it all… and for consenting to let me quote you here. I can sit and dream about visiting London someday, instruments in hand. Unfortunately, they do not yet have international flights that travel via PC screens!

I’m only a tiny bit behind the world… there is a January 11 post with photos of knitted graffiti (looks like it happened in a French-speaking country). I love it! Colorful, and it does not injure the item it is embellishing.

Check out Knitted Graffiti photos!

Those who read here often have heard me wax poetic before about Seth Bernard and Daisy May. What a team they are. I love them both… and together, of course they strengthen each other in all the right ways.

But I can go on forever about Daisy May’s voice. It is a wonderful instrument. It’s strong, resonant, convincing, but never contrived. I could listen to her sing forever.

The other night when I could not sleep because I just plain hurt (being sick does that to you), I put their album on my portable player and listened on my headphones as I finally fell asleep. Thank goodness for adult lullabies.

Well, today I sat still at the computer and visited youtube.com. I found a few videos taken of this duo (and two friends backing them up) at the Creole Gallery in Lansing.

Often Daisy May will play guitar or fiddle, and she does an absolute bang-up job on either one. But for Shine On, she puts them down. She stands in front of that microphone with a voice as her only instrument. For much of the song, she closes her eyes. And she gives it everything she’s got. Which is to say a whole lot.

As a performer whose first instrument is voice, I am a bit jealous. I have done some acapella (no instruments) solo work before I met Brian, but only on lucky occasions. When we perform on stage, we’re a duo and we really do need both stringed instruments to make the sound filled out well (we don’t have backup musicians, we never have done that, even on recordings).

When I am really really lucky, I get to sing an introduction to a song without playing the bass at the same time. Brian really prefers the sound when I play the bass, and he does listen with a more detached ear than I do. I am self-centered and I want to siiiiiinnnnggg! I can sing so fully when I can close my eyes, as May does, and give it all I’ve got. It’s a luxury and our act generally does better when I don’t give in to that craving.

Yet, if all the stars align just right, we be playing at Altu’s and someone will request “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” This is a personal favorite. I remember singing it to my Gramma Illa in about 1980, when she was too sick to have a conversation with me anymore. I had to work hard not to cry at the end, but it was sort of the perfect goodbye song and I am very happy I chose it.

(You can always sing to someone, even if they can’t respond… and it does get through most of the time… and you later know you did the one thing you could do. Gramma would ask my mom later in more clear moments if I had been there to see her.)

When I sang it to Gramma Illa, of course I sang “Rainbow” solo and acapella. At Altu’s, Brian will play uke and I can close my eyes and go for it.

Some day we probably will work up the song for our official act. We will sing it more often, but I will be playing bass. At least I got the enjoyment while I could!

Now, do yourself a favor and go hear Daisy May sing Shine On, a video on Youtube.com. It’s really wonderful. I can never play it only once. It’s very hard to let this one end. Once upon a time, I could find the entire song on the Earthwork Music site but I do not see it there right now. I do see it on May’s myspace page, though! Go with the video if you have the connection for it. Wonderful.

Photo: I took this shot at Magdalena’s Teahouse on December 10, at a Seth and Daisy May concert that was totally packed. A good time was had by all!

I needed to know the ingredients of a food. I searched. I found gourmet sleuth. There is an alphabetical list of foods/ingredients and substitutions (just click on the B for bulgur wheat, for example, then scroll down alphabetically through the list at left, for the information to show up on the right). Really helpful stuff.

They are a commercial site, and I can not even find the link to the substitution list from the main page. However, I’m tempted to dive in. I have been looking to buy a tortilla press but the ones I could find did not have good photos or descriptions, and I could not tell what I was buying. This site has 73 items tagged as Mexican Cooking Tools. They have Mexican spices, too, but that is in another category. In fact they have all sorts of ethnic foods, broken down by region. It looks good to me, I eat a lot of food not from my own ethnic background(s).

I’ve not done business with them before but have had much luck buying online in general. I may give this a try. Meantime, check out the food list, it’s really great.

More from Robert Genn, this time quotations from Pierre-Auguste Renoir:

If a painting is not a pleasure to me I will certainly not do it…

It must be difficult with the violin, just as it is in painting, to find the right tone straight off.

Why shouldn’t art be pretty? There are enough unpleasant things in the world.

I particularly resonate with this last phrase… with our singing, we intentionally choose songs with sweet, uplifting or silly lyrics. It’s a conscious choice we make.

There are sad and moody songs… there are bawdy/naughty songs, there are many moods in music. We have friends who specialize in their own favorite niches within the larger picture.

For us, we are in love, we know that everyone can relate at least on some level to that (even if not currently in the experience), and celebrating our happiness where we can share the good feelings is just a good thing.

Sunday, when I should have been home in bed, I went out briefly to the Elderly Instruments holiday party (they hold it after the holidays, it makes things more enjoyable for retail-related employees to hold off that one thing until things slow down). A woman came up to me and said she had just been listening to our music that day. It makes her feel good, and she wanted to thank me.

Well, that is why we (The Fabulous Heftones) do what we do. There are SO many songs in history to choose from. We do not write our own material, we sort of harvest goodies from the past.

We are sort of in a niche of a niche of a niche. We do music originally written for Ukulele. We choose a genre which is generally from the 1920’s in the USA, which is called Tin Pan Alley. And inside the Tin Pan Alley category, we play songs which are either romantic, uplifting, or silly.

And why not? Music is one artform. And as Renoir said: “Why shouldn’t art be pretty? There are enough unpleasant things in the world.“

I get the Robert Genn newsletter for artists in my email twice a week. I typically do not read them right away. When I have leisure (not often enough) such as my current recuperation, I work my way through them one by one.

Right now I’m reading the post of December 15. It talks about Claude Monet, who was a true artist in all ways, having only ever wanted to be an artist since childhood. His works are often reproduced but until you see them in person you just can not imagine the depth and use of color.

I did not like his work very deeply until I saw a collection of his works in Chicago about 1989-90 or so. Since then I have really paid attention. He understood light and color (although typically much more pale colors than I prefer, which is maybe why I never paid him much attention). Very deeply, it was a life’s journey for him.

Anyway, Mr. Genn gives some quotes from Monet and I’ve pulled out two bits for you. They were not presented to me this close together, they are two separate quotes.

I would love to paint the way a bird sings.

What can be said about a man who is interested in nothing but his painting? But I can’t do anything else. I have only one interest.

That second one reminds me of something Martha Graham said. Something to the effect of if you had to ask her if you should become a dancer then the answer would be no. For her, being a dancer was the only choice, it was impossible to be anything else. It chose her.

Ms. Graham was sometimes impossible to get along with, but she changed dance history in a huge way, in one (very long) lifetime. There are body positions called something like Graham First Position, etc. What a fascinating woman. Maybe in another post I’ll pull out some of the quotes I have from her.

Well, it’s up and down and up and down, just like a ride on the Merry-Go-Round ponies.. I did start a long post for you, on Sunday, then felt too crummy to finish it. I felt absolutely human on Saturday morning, pretty good a lot of Saturday, and now in the wee hours of Sunday night not so great but good enough to write. I’m feeling good a while, then crummy, then good.

My boss at Foster Center had a bug like this for 10 days over the holidays, and I’m only on day 7. (She gets paid sick days so she could really stay home fully and heal.) Rae had something like it, and she took two weeks to heal because she could not leave athe store. (It was complicated by the fact that she was sick during their inventory week.) Self-employed people approach things one day at a time when sickness arrives.

Hang tight, seat belt on for the landing… (what an odd mixed metaphor… reminds me of that scene in Mary Poppins where the Merry-Go-Round horses start flying away, and as I recall Mary’s horse won some sort of Kentucky Derby-type race… all before computer animation).

This, too, shall pass. It’s a bug. I can’t take ibuprofen or anything like that so it’s “slow is the way to go” these days. I figure that’s OK. So don’t worry ’bout me but if I’m not writing here, I’m flat out on the couch sleeping again. A very good thing.

I’m not unhappy. Brian’s wonderful, I have good music, if I feel good enough I can knit or read or listen to podcasts.

My secret elixr is always a bath. I’ve had two today and they really turn things around. I never feel sick in the bathtub. No matter *how* I felt before the bath.

Now back to the couch for another long nap.

Mom, don’t worry… I’ll be just fine. These things take time but they do go away.