Our beloved Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (Yarn Harlot) is asking her readers a question. What is the best thing you made this year? My answer actually is the answer to two questions, one she did not ask but it’s related.

The best thing I did in 2007 was teach for Dallas-Fort Worth Fiber Fest, back in April. The best, bar none.

So the best thing I knit? I had to make a project for the fashion show, for that festival. And I made thigh-high legwarmers in 13 colors of DK-weight yarn. Four turquoise, four magenta/hot pink, three hot green, one yellow, one purple. They were inspired by the colorwork of Turkish Socknitting, though they are modern in design.

Maybe you will want to go over to Stephanie’s blog and share yours, as well?

Brian reminds me often (when I’m going on about how impossible it is to get control over my environment) that the house contains a finite number of objects. If we really wanted to, we could inventory and/or count every item in the house.

Today that information helped me get started. I had a real mess in the yarn storage area, which happens to be half of our living room. I did not want that sort of mess in a space I look at every day. Finally tonight I got enough energy together to start tackling it.

He is right, there are only so many items in the house. And since this is merely one room, and actually only about half of that room, no matter how many things live in all the boxes and on all of the shelves, I could eventually deal with things.

What started the decline was overstuffing of shelves with balls of yarn. They would overstuff and then a group of balls would dive off the shelf at the same time. Those balls would leave streamers of yarn ends going up tot the shelf. On the way down, of course, they would exercise the perfect swan dive and braid themselves.

I’d come into the room having missed the diving performance, and I’d have a pile of yarn balls on the floor in a crazed mess of a tangle, with strands five feet long. You would swear they had been doing a little woolly mating dance while you were looking the other way. Nightmare!

Then if I didn’t notice, and other balls did their dive from a different shelf? The weaving going on by sheer gravity was truly astonishing. And the more this happened, the more impossible it seemed that I would ever get them untangled.

Thank goodness I’m very good at un-tangling yarn when I’m not in a hurry. I started in on the shelves about a month ago. I gave in and purchased clear plastic bins to contain the yarn and keep them from diving. One cubbyhole at a time, I would untangle and rectify that particular mess.

I prefer the look of yarn on a shelf over the look of a clear bin with yarn in it on the same shelf. However, I prefer nearly anything to a woven mess rivaling the work of Arachne, where I can’t get one ball of yarn without a long untangling process.

So tonight I got through most of the boxes and got the last bit of yarn off the floor. I re-evaluated my works in progress (WIPs) and unfinished objects (UFOs). Some of those UFOs will become yarn again, because they were not working out properly. Some are back in the pending process and have gone back to WIPs.

And now I have a small box of socks that I have never photographed and therefore never worn. I found three pair of Afterthought Heel socks that just need heels, including one pair for Brian. Cool! Maybe I can finish a pair for him before the end of the year. Heels do not take that long.

My office remains a mess. My kitchen, which has two areas, has been much more manageable in the last month and I have been enjoying that. My living area of the Living Room does not have much in it, so unless I have a pile of magazines and knitting projects next to the couch (my favorite lounging spot) it’s pretty easy to keep on the tidy side.

But the office? Ugh. Here, too, there is a finite number of objects. However, paper and receipts take up a lot less space than yarn. That means more things in a smaller area. But if I could transform the yarn area from inaccessible to useable (not pretty yet but much closer) in about 4 hours? Then I can also transform the office area. Probably not in 4 hours, but I could make a lovely dent with an hour or two.

The photo today does not have anything to do with the post… it is a photo I took on Christmas day when we took a walk a few blocks from our home. This beautiful old tree has a blue dot on it, which probably means that the city is going to cut it down (there are a lot of dead-looking branches on it, though it’s hard to see what is up in the wintertime). I felt compelled to take a photo. The tree is so beautiful!

I’ve heard other phrases that help follks get unstuck. One is “Done is better than perfect… thanks to Rita from Yarn Hollow/Grand Rapids for that input. Do any of you have sayings that help you keep going when things need attention and nothing seems “perfect” to help the task get done?

I have been thinking about how at this time of year I tend to get very focused on finishing things that have been sitting and waiting for a long time. I think it is because my work slows down and I have brain-space to approach things that had a little hiccup or place where I needed to make a decision.

So for some reason this year, I’m casting on new projects rather than fixing the old ones. I am not feeling bad about it at all.

I cast on for the sweater Altu and I will knit together. She wants to learn new things, which I so respect in anyone. I think right now it’s her way of reclaiming her former passion (for knitting) at a time when her kids mostly do not need her anymore. At life transition times, we have more opportunity for change and growth.

But for me… casting on, or diving in to old projects, both represent a moment where I got un-stuck. I tend to have trouble with transitions… whatever I’m doing, I keep focusing on that even when I need to change gears. This can make me late to meet a friend, and it can mean that projects for my work do not happen as fast as I might like. It’s about focus, in a sense. Focus that doesn’t change gears when necessary. Stuck-ness.

In the past, the one thing that would get me unstuck if I was really without direction, was to clean off my desk. It’s often a de-cluttering process that gets me moving, whether finishing projects, doing dishes or cleaning the desk. I have been doing a lot of house-cleaning in the last few weeks.

What do you do for yourself to get un-stuck? (I will be asking this question on my Ravelry ColorJoy Group as well, sorry if it’s redundant for some of you.) I think we can really learn from one another by sharing our own experience on this question.

Photo? It’s a sweater, can’t you tell? It’s all faith here for a while, I think…

It snowed today, and snowed and snowed. At 11am there was just a dusting, but by 4:00 we had over 2 inches (5cm) on this car. It was not cold, in fact most of the time it was just above freezing. It was that perfect sort of snow that they try to re-create in movies and on TV. I was glad I only had to drive about 2.5 miles.

The tomatoes I pictured here on the Solstice (mostly green at the time), were joined by 2 more fruits I found on the bush almost a week after I took that photo. The new ones are the two at far left. One just was not ready for even a gentle nudge, apparently, but the other is doing great. When I put the first batch out, only two had any sense of color besides green. I am eager to make some sort of sauce for pasta perhaps. Either that or I’ll make some greens with tomatoes, another favorite of ours.

In other news, Altu asked me to walk her through a sweater pattern. She learned to knit in Ethiopia as a young person, and made a lot of sweaters. However, they had only one thickness of yarn and you could change the gauge by doubling it. So she learned how many stitches to cast on for herself, and she learned to make up the sweater as she went, shaping by instinct and experience. She has never followed a pattern.

So Rae helped me find a sweater that would work for both Altu and me. It’s the split-neck T Shirt from Knitting Pure and Simple. I will interpret the pattern for Altu and we will knit together on our regular Thursday afternoon lunch date each week until we have finished sweaters. This could be fun!

My size needs less than 850 yards and I happen to have four skeins of Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece that add up to just a bit more than that. Funny, this yarn is supposed to be a worsted weight (5st/inch) but on size 8 needles after blocking I’m getting 4.5 stitches an inch which is the gauge the pattern wants.

I did not imagine this yarn could get that gauge, so I swatched like crazy. I held it together with sockyarn, and thicker alpaca lace yarn, and added yet another laceweight to the first. In the end, when I wet blocked, I got gauge with a single yarn strand of Cotton Fleece. This is very good, that makes the project more portable.

I looked on Ravelry for other folks’ versions of this sweater. One woman used a contrasting yarn for 2 garter ridges (four rows) on both the arm edges (instead of ribbing) and the neck. It looks wonderful, so I may do that. I have lots of yarns that might be just right with this cherry red, for an edge or two.

I’m going crazy with ideas for projects. I finished another pair of really-tiny-socklets for earrings. I keep looking at tiny toy projects like the heart I made recently. I still want to embroider. I did darn some socks and need to do some more. I love that I finished those 2 pairs of socks last week.

And my singing voice is so strong right now! We don’t have a concert scheduled until a few weeks into January and I wish I were singing tomorrow. In the wintertime I often have struggles with allergies and the inevitable bugs that go around. Right now we rehearse and I sing my heart out to the two of us. It’s really fun, but I love the stage. Soon enough, I guess.

I do this every December. I have a burning need to FINISH. Of course this year has had a few more distractions than usual and there are always many, but I finished my 158th pair of socks.

I used Nashua Snowbird, a 50% wool, 50% alpaca, shrink-resistant yarn (wash in machine, dry flat). It’s a thicker yarn and very warm for winter. I would LOVE a sweater in this yarn and it’s not horribly expensive. I was very tempted to buy it on Rae’s 20% moving sale. However, right now I need to mostly knit for my business and that does not fit in the master plan as long as I am not designing sweaters.

This is not a real problem, because knitting socks took merely 2 skeins and two days of knitting. Instant happiness (doesn’t that sound like the name of some exotic Chinese food? Instant Happiness). I Love These!!!

Rae made a pair from the same yarn, same colorway. She says it’s the only pair that she’s ever had to take off because they were too warm. I wish my feet would listen, as they were cold yesterday (not wearing shoes) at home wearing these, but not as cold as they might have been in lesser socks. My feet are cold most of the year, that has nothing to do with socks. (I still love my hot water bottle, that’s the only answer I’ve found for the cold feet, though it’s not portable at all.)

I also went into the yarn area and found a pair I thought needed some work. Well, they were done other than having the ends worked in, which did not take long. Nashua Vignette, a wool tube (Icord) yarn that self-stripes and is machine washable. Footies a little loose to wear over other socks in the house. This was pair 157, which I finished knitting on September 2.

That is pathetic, my friends. I went nearly 4 months without finishing a pair. I have been focused on other things… mostly work for patterns and a good handful of gifts. It’s all good, but this year I did not knit many socks. The first year I knit socks, I knit an average of a pair every 10 days. Whew! Those were the good old days. Although, really, being a professional in the knitting business means, as Carly Simon sang, “These are the good old days” right now. Different than a few years ago, but good.

In any case, I have two new fat-yarn sock pairs to wear just as the weather turns mean. I’m delighted.

Is anyone else feeling the “I must finish everything right now” bug? It’s really big for me every holiday season.

Now we pause for a commercial announcement. I’m pleased to announce that I am offering kits for Sassy Summer Handbags on my shopping cart.

The kits include one skein of my new Funky Felty yarn, clear purse handles, pattern and craft foam. All you add are knitting needles, sewing needles (to fasten the handles) and a pleasant time knitting it up.

No hassles looking for handles or the foam (which reinforces the bottom of the purse very nicely). Everything is ready to go, and pre-tested for your satisfaction.

Not only that, but you save $8 by buying the four items together at one time. It’s a quick knit, Diana can knit one in two days, so if you need a quick gift or an instant-gratification project, this will fit the bill. And once you are done with the kit yarn, the pattern specifies other yarns and even a knit handle so that you can make it again.

Click here or on the photos, and check out the three current colorways. More yarn is on order, expected in a few weeks, and I can get more colorways going. Right now supplies are very limited, this was my prototype batch.

Thank you for your attention to my excitement… I have wanted to offer purse kits for a long time. Let me know if there are other kits you might wish for me to offer, I’m listening.

Oh, my. I was mentioning to Rae the other day, on a mostly intellectual level, that knitting toys would be a great way to do a crash-course knitting class in shaping.

So I was in this knit/crochet community called Ravelry, and I was checking out the discussion group I sponsor, named (no surprise) ColorJoy. I have been delighted to see a steady increase in members, and I make a point to go and peek at projects created by folks who join my group.

Well, you know how that goes… you follow a link and then another link, and somehow you are in Japan or Australia or somewhere, and you don’t know how you got there. I found myself, in this case, reading about a knitting designer who specializes in toys, Anna Hrachovek, whose design business is called mochimochiland. (Mochi is a special sticky rice used in Japan… yum, but that is a whole different post.)

So I found Anna’s site and I found a few free patterns, and there I was face to face with a free pattern for felted hearts. With eyes. Adorable. Now, mind you, I’m not much into cute but these are like baby animals rather than fluff. I was sold.

I knit with some leftover handspun from the remake of the “Turkish Sock Sweater” where I cut off the sleeves on the red section to make them a reasonable (but still long) length.

I finished one heart and got to the place where the top splits and ran out of red. So I found the leftover Manos del Uruguay from the remake of the sweater-turned-skirt and legwarmers… and finished that heart with the multicolored red/purple yarn.

I felted it, I added eyes (thank goodness I did all that embroidery in the 70s because I make a good french knot and the bulky yarn worked great for that). I sewed it and stuffed it. Then I looked at that Manos.

The yarn was in sweater form for at least 2 years before I ripped it out (partially). The yarn still has the characteristic kinkiness of yarn which has been through that process. I decided the heart needed to have dreadlocks. And so it does.

It now lives on the Christmas tree. I gave my heart to Brian on Christmas morning (isn’t that sappy?) and he used it as a decoration. I love it.

I tell you, start to finish even with dreadlocks this took just about an hour. The most fun I’ve had knitting in a while. (Lots easier than a mini-sock on 000 needles, though I think I love the result of tiny socknitting even better than the hearts.)

Photos: Finished heart up close. Christmas tree with heart on it. If you want photos of the before-sewing part and you have a Ravelry account, you can see my project page here, if you don’t do Ravelry (yet) you can go to my Flickr page instead.

It seems I often post on holidays, of food. It seems appropriate even for those who do not share the same holidays I practice.

One of the few non-knitting blogs I read is The Cooking Adventures of Chef Paz. Paz not only lives in New York City, but did not grow up there. This means a view of the city from something of an outsider perspective.

Luckily that means that even though it is a food blog, we get “New York Mondays,” a repeating feature with at least one photograph from the city. Paz is a good photographer and i love that feature.

This is a normal food blog (as opposed to allergy-focused), written by someone who apparently grew up in Africa. Now, Africa is a huge place and I don’t know details other than Paz loves rice… and that is apparently tied to whatever foods were commonly served in the area of Africa where she (? I think I’ve determined that Paz is female after a year of reading) lived.

Anyway, this food blog is very interesting to me even when I can not eat the food featured. There has been bread baking, and lots of soupmaking, and talk of cilantro (Paz loves it) and plantains and beans and all sorts of other goodies from New York markets.

Then recently, a recipe for Green Pea Soup. Not split pea, but frozen/fresh peas. I love peas, they are a very good food for me right now, they are fresh and a bit sweet and filling. I figured I’d try the recipe (with lots of substitutes because of my allergies or what was in the house when I started).

Paz’ version includes bacon, potato and broth. Mine includes sliced deli turkey, white yam and water with a bit of Braggs Aminos (a not too appetizing name for unfermented soy sauce).

I got white yam at the asian market. It has a strong purple skin but the flesh is very white, and it’s a little nicer than potato, with a better texture cooked. It is not sweet though it looks a lot like the sweet potatoes that Americans call yams but which are not in the same family.

I had not tried white yam before, I did not know how quickly they would cook. Therefore, I cut mine into matchsticks and they sort of disintegrated while cooking, which worked fine but was time consuming. Next time I won’t cut them quite so small.

You can click the link to the original in the paragraph above. Or try my version, or mix them up and do what seems right. It’s very forgiving.

For the record, some people told Paz that this soup needed to be pureed in a blender. I am not at all big on blenders, and in this case I’m wondering if they were confusing this with split pea soup.

So mine, like the version Paz made, contains yummy whole veggies. Yum. It was incredibly satisfying, even for a person like me who is not fond of broth-based soups. I hope some of you will try this, it’s really easy and very filling, really sticks with you.

Green Pea Soup

1 bag (appx 500gm) frozen green peas

1 large white yam (or sub white potato), equals 3 cups of chopped matchstick pieces

2 Tbsp yellow onion, chopped very small

2 large fresh carrots (called for more but I was short)

2 liters/8 cups water (or use broth)

2 tbsp Braggs Aminos (or soy sauce, or skip if you used broth)

1/2 lb sliced deli turkey or other meat

2 Tbsp ghee (clarified butter, or use your favorite sauteeing oil)

black pepper to taste

1 Tbsp marjoram (or sub parsley)

Melt ghee/oil in pot, sautee onion until clear and soft. Add meat and cook until it looks browned in some places (for flavor). Add peas, water and Braggs/soy sauce if using, turn heat on slow simmer.

Chop carrots and yam/potato into small pieces suitable for soup (can double number of carrots, I was at the end of my supply). Add to pot as you complete chopping each one.

Add pepper to taste, and add marjoram. Cook about 90 minutes on low. (In photo, I garnished with fresh parsley.)

What a good day Christmas Eve has been. I woke up early for me and got my tush on the road earlier than I normally might. I was at the grocery store at noon, and the line was not bad and it seemed most were in a good mood. I chatted with a boy in line in front of me about his new toy. Fascinating.

Planning just a little ahead

I determined to get whatever I needed to get through a day and a half of cooking, without going to the health food store. The one on my side of town is notorious for cash register slowdowns and long lines so I skipped that (the people are nice but sometimes that is not enough).

Kroger suits me fine, it’s an older store on the East side. It’s very culturally mixed and “just folks.” My favorite cashier is from Africa and I try to get in his line whenever I can. They had a Santa greeting children today which kids seemed to enjoy.

Pure entertainment

At that point I was done with obligations for the day. I went to Rae’s shop because it was literally a block from Kroger (same shopping complex) and I just enjoyed being there for a while. I knit a little and did show and tell a little, and hugged a bunch of friends. Met the sister of a knitter I know socially, and that sister is from over the pond as they say, so I was very interested in chatting for a while.

The “white tornado” returns

Starting then, and until past midnight, I seemed to have an energy I have been missing since before Thanksgiving when my sinuses started acting up. I must finally be well, because I could even sing without strain today. What a nice change! I was a “perpetual motion machine” as one friend puts it, or a “white tornado” as Brian says. I was grateful for the energy.

Good food

I came home and made a wonderful soup (food post probably tomorrow, including a recipe). I felted two bags that Diana had knit as samples (had felted a bowl the day before, big fun).

Catching up on small tasks and starting large ones

I made a bunch of sewing progress… wove/darned to repair a huge hole in a favorite pair of bulky socks, which I was really missing in this cold weather. I sewed handles on a Sassy Summer Handbag that has been waiting for those handles for maybe 6 months.

I also knit a small gift for Brian. We don’t really worry much about gifts but we sort of like to have something the other can open on Christmas day… not required but nice.

I even made some progress on the goal of a clean house. I did some in the office and some up in the bedroom, and I ran a few loads of clothes. Some of you have commented on this goal of mine, and I’m checking in with you on that. Progress, but not perfection, as they say.

Fun earring transformation

Actually, the item shown in today’s photo I completed yesterday. A dance friend got me sheep earrings for Christmas. They were shiny and fun but a little small for me and were missing the element of color.

I decided to add a few beads between the earwires and the sheep charm. It worked great! I think I’ll be wearing these a lot. They have a lot of different turquoises and greens in them, so they will “go” with lots of things (no need to match when there are that many colors). In the photo you see “before” at left and “after” at right.

Food for the holiday

Tomorrow Brian will put cornish hens and sweet potatoes in the crockpot when he gets up, and that will be our ultra-simple meal for dinner. I have been eating poultry/fish more because of my doctor’s insistance, and though I’m not fond of meat I really think I am feeling much better.

To reward myself for being a good girl, I am considering making a pumpkin pie or two. The down side would be that I would have to make the crust for the first time since the 1980s. I don’t enjoy that part much, I make too much of a mess and it’s the cleanup that makes cooking a chore to me.

Holiday thoughts and gratitude

So today was mostly relationship, with some food and knitting rolled in. I’d say that made an excellent day. I think it helps to have few expectations. I think it also helps to finally feel well.

I am really counting blessings today, friends. I’m thinking of all the folks in my life who really have made things nicer for me. There are so many I really love and who are a real part of my support system. I remember the years when I had precious little in the way of support, and I am filled with gratitude and contentment for the life I live now.

I swore I did not have anything to finish. I was wrong.

I crocheted a colorful edging on the “hug” wrap that I made for one toddler I love. She loves color maybe more than me. It did not have to be a Christmas gift but it will be, just because of when I finished.

We went to Grand Rapids for a family function on Brian’s side. He drove and I knit. I finished an aran-weight sock today that I mostly knit yesterday.

I could knit these without looking, in the dark, in the car. There were other things I wanted to knit but they just would not work in a social setting and in the car later.

It will be no hassle to finish the other relatively soon. It’s washable alpaca/wool, and they will be much loved winter socks, very soon. I buy shoes to handle fat socks so I will be able to wear them any day I like.

I also made a handful of those mini-socks I said I’d make as ornament gifts, over the last week or two. I need to mail some off which I have not done yet, but these friends do not keep score over dates. I got in a focus on the socklets and kept going. I knit two turquoise ones and made them into earrings. They are wild, and they spin and rotate and kick my neck a bit, but I love them just the way they are.

And then I got going even smaller. I knit with darning/reinforcement thread, on size 000 US/ 1.5mm needles, a sock with a circumference of 12 stitches. These ended up being knit at 12 stitches per inch, my personal best (I’ve done 10 st/in before, but the difference between 10 and 12 is significant).

The hassle with the tiny socks is the needles. My needles are about 8 inches/ 20cm long. The sock measures half an inch across. The needles are metal so that they will not break. That means they are relatively heavy. And then at times I had three stitches on one long needle. If you breathe wrong, this means the needles fall on the floor and you have live stitches hanging out in the air for a breeze, stitches that are merely 1.5mm in size. I wear bifocals, and without a lot of light I can not see these stitches well enough to pick them back up.

I even had to do a different heel for the tiniest socklet. Normally I make a heel flap which requires picking up stitches on the sides, or I make an afterthought heel sock which requires picking up lots of stitches and which does not flatten out well when not on a foot, anyway.

I went to Rae’s shop and put myself at her mercy… she sometimes does what are called “short row” heels which look like the heels on commercially manufactured socks. I begged her to tell me how to turn a heel based on six stitches, in a short row fashion. She wrote little instructions on a tiny paper and this is my heel-turning bible for the tiniest socks.

And I listened to Rae, knit the way i was told, made a cute heel without having to pick up stitches, and finished my tiny sockie. So fun!

Oh… while I was knitting these, I was wearing a sweater with long fat wooly cuffs that were a bit too long. So what happened is that the ends of the too-long needles would accidentally stick themselves in my cuffs. And I’d move, and the cuff would grab on (after all the wool is more stretchy than the nylon I was knitting with, and more fibers were grabbing it on the sweater cuff than the sock). And, you guessed it, the stitches would be live again.

Next time I knit a tiniest sock I will wear a turtleneck only, with tightly-fitting cuffs, and if I’m cold I’ll sit on the heat vent or wear a good shawl that doesn’t reach down to my hands.

But aren’t they just as cute as a button??? I’m thrilled.

I will close with a photo that makes me smile. This is a doll scarf knit by an elementary-aged girl in my CityKidz Knit program. This girl just loves to knit. Unfortunately, sometimes my room is full of distractions. The scarf was full of very lovely short rows and seven dropped stitches (some of which are being held with safety pins and split stitch markers in this shot).

I repaired the drops for her, and will do my best to get to her house tomorrow and deliver it. I had planned to send it in the mail but misplaced the lovely piece long enough to make that not an option. Fortunately they do not live too far from me so I may venture out and make a kid smile.

I have no excuses and many reasons, that the prizes for my Blogiversary contest went out in three batches and some got out only a few days ago (actually I’m still waiting on one address, but the others are out). With holidays, priority mail can take longer… but I am starting to get emails that folks who won got their prizes.

I had a few requests to hear how far and wide the winners might live. I do not want to give out too much personal information, but I did find it interesting that I had three international (non-US) winners out of twelve. Super cool!!!

Here is a list of the places folks live, who won:

Haddenham, Ely, Cambridgeshire, UK

Reykjavik, Iceland

Enderby, British Columbia, Canada

Reading, Pennsylvania

Sanger, Texas

Fenton, Missouri

Berwyn, Illinois

Ft. Collins, Colorado

Grove City, Pennsylvania

Enid, Oklahoma

Ypsilanti, Michigan

Greater Lansing, Michigan

I think I’m allowed to be pleased as punch with this result. I love being part of the entire world, which is getting smaller every day because of our beloved Internet. I guess at least part of my world-citizen view shows! Or maybe this is just proof that people are people and we connect when we have interests in common… I am grateful we are able to connect this easily these days.

Thank you for making my Blogiversary really special this year.

I just love Kristin Nicholas (though we have not yet met in person). I’ve loved her knitting design work and her color sense for years, before I read her blog. Now that I know the blog, I have learned of her other artful endeavors (paintings and illustrations, as an example). And she is a good writer. Her books are on this page if you are interested… order direct from her and get an autograph on your book.

She lives on a farm with her husband, young daughter Julia, a herd of sheep and a menagerie of other animals including artful chickens and a guard llama. Often on the blog she talks about the animals and the nitty-gritty of farm experience.

The sheep are a big part of this… she shows baby lambs when they are born, she talks about the challenges of keeping the animals safe from coyotes, and talks about how they rotate the sheep between several pastures during the course of the year.

I’m really clear I am not cut out for farming, it’s such a complete lifestyle (requiring going outdoors to work for the animals every day, no matter what the weather… not my thing). I really respect those who make the life committment to care for animals, any animals. Hundreds of sheep on a farm is beyond my comprehension.

In October they moved about 150 sheep down the road about 3 miles, and this week they moved them back. She took excellent photos of the experience, and told of the process getting the sheep home again.

The story is so interesting, I did not want it to end. Perhaps you’d like a short digression from the holiday crazies, and you can go read the December 20 post of Getting Stitched on the Farm. Or just look at the pictures…

Brother Eric and Sis in Love Diana got “sun comeback tour” shirts to celebrate that Friday is the Solstice, the day our sun starts getting closer every day for six months. Yesterday I was positively blue after holding it off all season… I am ready for the sun to come back and kiss me again.

I am not a sun worshipper but I am definitely a warmth lover. These days I dress in so many layers I do not move easily. I always have a lot of wool and many under-layers. Today I saw that if I’d chosen the purple hat I knit, I would have been wearing at least 8 items I’d knit at least partially, myself. It would have been, from top down, hat, mini-sock earrings (photos tomorrow), “Turkish sock sweater” which I altered heavily, wristwarmers, legwarmers, socks, purse/bag and stole. I chose a commercial beret instead so I was merely wearing 7 things I knit upon.

I look like a commercial for handknitted items (many of which are cool in mainstream culture at least this week). I think I’m hopelessly uncool for wearing so many at once. I’ve been uncool all my life, it’s no problem to me now… but I’m really happy to have that warmth.

Warm is so much better than hip and edgy, in my 49-year-old opinion. I’m so happy to not be young anymore, it was so hard to try and fit what I could not fit. Now is better, I’m just myself and most times it’s exactly what I’d choose if I had a choice. Very nice when life works that way!

So to celebrate the sunshine which we did have today at any rate… I present you a photo I took less than a week ago. We have tomatoes we grew ourselves, ripening on the south windowsill. You see, I had one bush in a pot on our steps. When it got chilly around Halloween, I brought the pot in to the mud room to avoid frost. However, it got so cold in there that a few weeks later Brian took it into the basement.

I watered the plant dutifully but it was so cold even in the basement that it did not drink. I let the fruits stay on the plant until the leaves started drying up. Then not a whole week ago I plucked these fruits and put them on the sill.

Yesterday I realized that there were two more tomatoes still on the plant. I brought them up and put them with their buddies but they have not caught up yet.

When they get red enough, I’ll cook them with greens, or pasta and a little protein of some sort. It will be a celebration. And that will happen on a day when the sun stays up longer than it did today. I’m delighted about that part. I’m ready to give up the wool sweaters and start wearing my African and Indian clothing, and embrace 80F and above. Not today, but I’m already heading there in my mind.

Meanwhile, I still am in love with my hot water bottle. That old fashioned idea keeps my feet warm every night when I’m home after work. I take it around the house with me and rest my feet on it all night long. The best.

Happy sunshine comeback, my friends. We have passed the shortest nights of this year. I wish to toast the coming sun and warmth… and the optimism which accompanies them.

Does anyone else have a way of celebrating the passing of the darkness and moving into light? I wish I had a fireplace. Alda in Iceland writes of huge municipal bonfires on New Year’s Eve there. Norwegians(?) banged on pots and pans to wake up the sun and bring it back.

Me? A cup of tea and the hope of a nice long walk with my beloved if the sun comes out and says hello, would be the best choice. And a few kind words to the tomatoes on the ledge.

My beloved friend Susan D. Luks, who I’ve known now for longer than any but two of my non-family friends (probably 1966-67), sometimes reads this blog. She is an excellent writer and artist (and ColorWoman), and I’m honored to have her along for the journey.

I’m right now struggling with owning up to my responsibilities for the parts of my life which I reasonably should buck up and handle… and letting go of things that I maybe once thought fit in that category but really need to be let go of.

In one area of my life I’ve learned to do this using what is called the Serenity prayer. There are many versions of it, but it comes down to… I need to take action where I can, stop trying to control what I can’t, and do my best to tell the difference between the two.

Since I went to Africa four years ago, my own version has come down to “I’m not in charge.” It is particularly easy for me to do when I am dealing with other people. I’m clear I can’t change others and in most cases I truly am *not* in charge. I’m not in charge of weather, either, or fashion, or whether people sign up for classes I offer and would love to teach.

It’s harder when it involves my own self… attitude, action, what I eat or do not eat (given food allergies which seem to change by the day), getting enough sleep, scheduling classes, etc. Sometimes I over-fuss and over-focus. Sometimes I don’t focus when a little now would save much hassle later. It’s a lifelong learning process here, I expect.

In the path between taking full personal responsibility when warranted, and essential letting go when appropriate, there has been far too much struggle. That has manifest itself as worry.

Never mind that my favorite thing to say about worry is that “Worry is not action.” Worry feels like doing something but it has no effect at all. It seems to me if I am to spend effort, I might best spend it on things that reasonably might respond to that effort.

So on this blog I write about my life from day to day. Sometimes I write far too many words and do not have/take time to trim them to a better size.

Susan read a very long post recently, and distilled out the bits where I talked about my worrying. Susan has much serenity and it’s not because she started out life as serene. She has learned it… and I expect it was not simple for her to do. I aspire to half of what she has learned in this area, over the years.

Susan wrote in my comments about a translation of a poem by “Hafiz, who was writing in the 13th century over there in Persia, before you and I were even eggs…”

Find A Better Job

Now
That
All your worry
Has proved such an
Unlucrative
Business,
Why
Not
Find a better
Job.

Dang. For someone I rarely see in person… she sure hits it perfectly where I am living.

Thank you, Susan.

Photos: Susan wearing her own creations… she builds the fabric from which these beauties are created. Yes, she gave me permission to show you her images…

I’m catching up on photos today, as I still fight some bit of this bug which makes me want to sleep all day and all night.

First here is a grouping of jars made as holiday gifts in the Polymer Clay Gift class last Sunday. We also made pens and talked about crochet hooks with polymer handles. I’m very happy with how these came out. Mine are now filled with candies as a quick gift for holidays. I am thinking of maybe putting a ribbon around the jar as well, but it’s not necessary.

You can see that there are a good number of styles available to embellish jars in this way. I love how the lid becomes a small canvas. It can be hippy-dippy or it can be elegant, or somewhere in between.

I have been working with polymer clay since 1991. My student started Sunday. I think it is hard to tell which of the jars I made and which she did. Good job, don’t you think?

The second photo is evidence of how creative a child can be. I had some kids who were quite young joining my CityKidz Knit! program in the last several weeks. When a kid is almost ready to knit, they need some small motor skills development before we get them going on knitting needles.

Sometimes I teach them how to crochet a simple chain using their fingers, just to get used to how yarn responds. And since one of my Kidz taught me how to do finger-knitting (it’s like an I-cord, a tube made of interlocking loops) I teach them that as well, before getting them going on needles.

Well, then the kids who do fine on needles also want to finger knit. And why not?

So this child, who last week knit a sweater for her stuffed animal, decided this week to finger-knit a tube. Since I only allow toys/dolls in the room if they are creating for that toy that day, she then had to figure out what to do with the tube she made, for that doll, to justify having the doll in the room.

She wrapped the tube around the doll’s head once and its neck twice, like a muffler or a headband. It looks so stylish!

A Digression from the Usual Blog

Here it is, that cold-weather hard-living time again. Despite the lyrics to most of the holiday songs… about warm fires, and all that… many of us do not have ideal holiday seasons. Every person has challenges at times, and for those who are facing them during this time of year, the contrast can be difficult.

Holidays are tough stuff for folks who don’t have “the most wonderful time of the year” sort of life. I recall that my first marriage broke up in December, requiring me to change my holiday routine after 16 years. I got word tonight that a family friend, lost her husband recently with very little warning. I tell you, having had quite a few losses in my life, this stuff is even harder at holiday times.

I like to keep this blog mostly cheerful, but it seems to me that admitting the challenge allows us the freedom to re-adjust our expectations of ourselves. This is the perfect time to re-evaluate and set ourselves up to succeed in the upcoming several weeks of holiday mayhem.

Even if it’s not the loss of a loved one, a big change in life (planned or not), a health issue or two, any stress seems bigger when the media is screaming at us that things are (or should be) perfect for the month of December, anyway. We can choose to disagree with the messages.

Focus on Friends & Family

The good part of this time of year is the reconnecting with folks I don’t see much. Those gatherings which bring us together right when we don’t want to leave our warm homes, are probably good in many ways. But even vacation can bring stress.

I know that when I worked a desk job, I would have to work extra hours before we had days off, in order to make sure that the required work got done on the required schedule. Often those hours were unpaid. Often I got sick after the holiday was over, from pushing too hard before.

Stephanie/Yarn Harlot posted yesterday about giving up on expectations when the winter weather, a family loss, and a minor injury sort of made “Plan A” impossible. Instead they opened their home to a gathering. They made cookies and enjoyed friends and family.

Focus/Purpose

You know, I think that through all the losses and sadnesses I’ve had, some of which were at holidays, I have had to learn what mattered most to me. What I have figured out is that in the end, only the people we love, the people in our circle, the folks who make our lives special… those folks are the essence of living on this earth. Or that is what it seems to me. Blood relatives or “family of choice,” it’s all essential.

With love-relationship losses, friendships take on a much larger meaning. Sometimes there are few friends left when things have been rough a long time. I’m doing what I can to be a support to a friend in this sort of situation right now.

Whenever I have a loss, particularly when someone dies and leaves my life permanently, I need to sit quietly and re-connect with my own truth. That those I love are *IT* for me. That all the worries I seem to embrace every day, the things I try to do, the expectations I put on myself, the running in circles… none of those matter as much as telling someone I love them. If I can re-learn this focus each time I feel loss, then the loss is not a total loss.

Yes, I need to work so that I pay my way in this world. I am not in danger of ignoring my basic obligations. However, relationship is the cement which pulls my world together.

Saying Love Out Loud

I understand that there are many cultures where people do not speak out loud the words “I love you.” I understand that acting loving is truly more important than speaking love and not acting it. Personally, I hope I do both. I know I surprise friends at times by saying goodbye with an “I love you, seeya later.”

I hope that when I’m gone, people remember how much I loved, how much I embraced living. Neither how many pairs of socks I knit nor how I used the floor in my house as a “horizontal storage unit” are important. My true success is in the relationships.

Staying Connected

I recently had lunch with a friend from first grade. That time together was delicious, more so than the food. I still keep in touch with two folks from elementary school, plus a church school friend from approximately middle school.

These relationships are important to me, though I do not see them often enough nor correspond enough. The connection and history are something not everyone has, and I know it. It’s interesting to me that all three of these people read my blog, at least occasionally. What an honor!

At Schuler Books Sunday, my Goddaughter Sara came to hear us play for a good portion of the concert. She is in her 3rd year of college… an age when so many young folks get too busy for the older folks in their lives. I am deeply honored that she chooses to stay connected with me, and we have dinner together when she has breaks between terms and comes back home.

Letting Go of Impossible Dreams

Today I spent a bunch of time knitting on a gift I’d wanted to present to a friend this week. I was trying to “make it up on the needles” and the fabric looks gorgeous… but I just did not cast on enough stitches for it to work as I wanted. I will need to rip it all out and start over.

I could get all flipped out about this delay. I think if I had not spent a whole day indoors relaxing and trying to regain ground on this sinus bug I’ve been fighting, I might have started freaking out.

Instead, I looked at the piece many times over several hours to figure out where I stood. I decided that it just was not going to work that way, decided that later is the only time I can do that… and decided that the special coffee and tea and hot chocolate I got this friend is gift enough. That I can make the large knitted item any time at all.

A Small Solution if I Choose

So just because I want to make her something, I’m going to see how long it takes me to knit a felted bowl from the One Skein book by Leigh Radford. I love these bowls. I’ll be doing a special book promotion event for Schuler Books at East Towne mall on February 28, and I want to have tried a few of the projects in the book before that day arrives.

I’m relatively sure I can do a bowl in a day or two with other distractions. So I will hope to add the bowl to the comfort package I’m making for this friend, ***if I have time.***

Because worrying is not what life is about (although I seem to practice it daily). I’m really good at worrying but that is not what I want to spend effort perfecting. I want to perfect my friendships and acquaintances. Or at least shine them up as well as they deserve.

Input?

How are you doing with keeping whatever balance you choose (or not) this time of year? How do you keep relationship important in the middle of too many appointments, parties, events, concerts, gifts to buy, overtime to keep work flowing, and the inevitable germs that take residence just at the wrong time?

What advice would you give to others? What advice do you need from others? In my case, getting this bug/cold/sinus thing made me slow down. I hate to admit that I’m grateful, but just maybe I am.

Photo? Speaking of relationships… in Michigan this year everyone who had the “old” style license plates was forced to get new ones. Brian decided that I really needed to have personalized plates, bless his heart. I always thought that they were extra-appropriate on a bug, but I’m relatively frugal with repeating expenses and never took the plunge.

He had me check for LynnH first, but it was taken. My car’s name is Joy (it was named that in 1999, before I had a business named ColorJoy). I always wanted plates saying Joy Bug. So Brian made it happen. How sweet he is!!! He loves my colorful nature, he likes my artfulness. He is the biggest gift I could ask for. And then he gifts me with Joy Bug plates. Awwww.

Tonight, Brian and I had our first performance for Schuler Books. It looks as though it will not be the last and we are delighted about that. This performance was at the Meridian Mall in Okemos, in what Brian would call my “Old Stomping Grounds.” I was raised in this area, before there was a mall there.

The weather was pretty miserable. Brian spent far too long shoveling snow today, and the wind kept blowing it around. I heard it was over a foot in some places near Detroit (they often get it worse than we do) but here it appeared more like four inches/10cm at a non-scientific glance.

Fortunately, this location is in a well-plowed area and my computer students live in that general neck o’the woods. I did some publicity including letting my class know we would be there. I think I brought in 8 or so die-hard fans, including my Goddaughter, Sara, who is home from College on break. It was so good to see everyone come by.

I have been fighting this sinus bug for way too long, but my voice came through for me. We sang for 2 hours and although I had to pay attention to my voice, I was able to do my part with surprisingly little trouble. I was delighted.

However, I guess my stamina is still not up to par, because we came home, ate dinner, and I promptly fell asleep on the couch for hours. I woke up when the snowplows went by about quarter to 2am. I zonked out like a toddler after a long play date!!!

Monday I have no appointments outside the home. I intend to work from the couch in my pajamas if at all possible. We may have a visitor after dinner in which case I guess I’ll have to dress by then… but I am looking forward to not having to go out at all. Less is more when there is snow on the ground.

I hope all of you are warm and safe, and have very little to shovel if you are in a cold area. I hope to make a big vat of soup tomorrow (maybe cabbage and tomato, and chick peas… sort of a vegetarian Italian idea). I wish you comfort and low stress as we head into the thick of the over-scheduled part of the year.

Weather Report

Today the sky stayed the same color from “sunup” to “sundown” though we never saw any hint of actual sunlight… just a half a glow through the clouds. This is normal winter weather in Lansing, and much better than the ice storms others are dealing with. We could drive around. This is all very good.

Class Fun

I taught a Polymer Clay Gifts class at Rae’s and it was great fun. I got photos which you will definitely see in the next week. Not today, however…

A Needed Rest

When I got home I felt so draggy (I was expected at a holiday gathering and then possibly two other spots) that I called my brother. He told me in no uncertain terms that I needed to stay home the rest of the day. This cold/sinus thing is not bad enough for me to notice I should slow down, apparently, but it’s clear to those around me.

So I called and made my regrets known. And within 20 minutes I was out cold, napping on the couch, for a full two and a half hours. That brother of mine knows me better than I do.

For the record, this whole time I’ve been dragging with this bug, Brian has been bringing me breakfast and dinner pretty much every day. Asks me what kind of tea I want, even. I feel so spoiled! I wish I didn’t look pathetic enough to warrant this special care but I do appreciate it.

Oh, Yeah… Holiday Knitting

I am still mildly in denial about gifts. I have three more and all need some sort of handmade effort. One is a wrap/hug which needs only a crochet edging. One is a wrap/hug that is merely 1/4 done but luckily is on large needles. I have about 300 yards of yarn left to knit on size 15 needles. One stitch at a time. Fortunately I can do the knitting while listening to podcasts or reading blogs.

Except it seems that lots of bloggers aren’t blogging right now. This is totally understandable but a disappointment for me, who wants to read while she knits. I’m doing very easy things that do not require looking (mind you, I learned to knit in 5th grade… it makes a 5th grader very cool if she can knit without looking). But for now I’ll just listen to podcasts instead… at least when Brian’s not in the same room and forced to listen at the same time.

Oh… and then I need to do one more special thing for one more beloved. Will deal with that late next week after the two “hugs” are complete.

Tomorrow

I’m too boring to post a photo today. We have only two obligations tomorrow… a friend who does construction work is coming to look at maybe putting in a vent fan (big excitement) in our kitchen (the stove is half in front of a window, ugh, so there is no way to do a regular vent hood). Then at 6:30-8:30 we will be performing at Schuler Books at Meridian Mall. And after that performance, I’m essentially “on vacation” from teaching and singing for 3 weeks. I have much to do at home, however…

Historically I have fallen ill the week after Thanksgiving. For the last 5 or 6 years I lucked out somehow, but not this year.

I had a little hint of it before the holiday and I thought I could baby it through… but after more than a week of “sort of” feeling it, I now have been a bit overtaken. Last night I had to sleep propped on the couch so that I would not cough. It’s a cold, it will go away, I’ll be fine. But I’m bummed.

I learned from Diana/Otterwise that parsley can improve a stuffy sinus situation rather quickly. I can put dry parsley in my soup. Or, if I’m lucky (as I was today) and Brian brings home fresh parsley for some reason, I can just put some in the greens I cook for dinner. Very nice. Worst case, Diana says you can just plain make tea from the dry stuff. I’m telling you, we are talking food as medicine here. Almost everyone knows that chicken soup can heal, but why is it that nobody talks about parsley?

I’m making comfort foods here this week, within the restrictions of my food allergies. One of the good things from getting a new allergist is that he’s retesting me… some of the old foods and lots of ones I was never tested for before. He confirmed that I can have soy… so I made some tapioca pudding yesterday with soy milk and brown sugar, and very much enjoyed that. It looks rather caramel-colored but tastes comforting. I had the last bit for breakfast today. What a treat!

The down side of extra tests, is a longer list of things I should avoid. I have literally been to the new office five different times for scratch tests. Yesterday was the kicker… no garlic, ginger, cinnamon. The garlic in particular is going to be very difficult for me. At least I can have some onion, and vanilla and nutmeg will work. But this even more limits my ability to get food at restaurants. Although maybe these three will add up to the missing piece. I keep getting reactions when I think I’ve been really strict in following Doctor’s orders. One day at a time, we will see.

OK, what is pleasant in my life today?

The sun did not hide. It was not too cold. I made a wonderful dinner of swiss chard and a few other veggies.

I spent time talking with a bunch of people I love. I checked my minutes on my phone and I did not go over my monthly allottment after being way over on minutes the first 2 weeks.

And I talked to my brother on the phone a little. I adore Eric, he’s the best. Any day I talk to him is a good day.

Hmmm, other things to be grateful for? Brian, Brian, Brian. This city where I have such a fine community. The places where I work… friends as well as economic partners. Lots and lots of wool, great foods in the refrigerator, a car I really enjoy driving, a laptop which surfs the internet without wires, on my lap while I’m on the couch. Great sweaters and ethnic clothing to wear. Family members totally on my team.

And Color!

What are you grateful for today? One thing is all we need, one item of gratitude can turn a day (or a post) around. Join me in the gratitude list, if you so choose. Or not (always your choice, of course).

Photos? Fast Florida Footies in size 0, two colors… and mini Sassy Summer Handbags, both knit by Diana using Cascade 220 yarn. She knit them last year… and for the record, these versions are included in the for-sale versions of both patterns. The footies are one color only in the pattern but Diana changed colors where the pattern sections changed, it’s simple to do on your own.

Someone had a Christmas/holiday meme on their site with 26 questions. I’m not into a list of either/or questions, but I did pause for one of the 26. It asked for a favorite memory.

My family had no other relatives in Lansing… one relative in Michigan, which was Great-Great Aunt Ingeborg. Ingeborg had been born in Norway but lived here all her adult life. She was widowed young without children. She lived in Flint, an hour away, and did not drive.

We would go to her house for Easter dinner (she was a great cook and baker) but she did not always come for Christmas or Thanksgiving. Actually, somewhere around 1970 she moved to North Dakota to retire there with her brother.

For several years we had four of us in the state. My dad was a professor of Communications, back when there were only a few places in the world where you could study that field. He was a Doctoral Advisor to many students from all over the world.

Those students could not go home at holiday time, just because of the cost of travel. And none had seen a Thanksgiving dinner in person, just what they had seen on TV or in the newspaper. All had nowhere to go when the world stopped, the stores closed, and everything focused on the insides of American homes.

So Dad, who was a very compassionate guy, would invite his students to come for dinner. Every Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner had at least one person, maybe a good handful, who was not related to us, but who we enjoyed and who would otherwise have a too-quiet evening. Sometimes we would even invite retired folks in the neighborhood.

There were always people whose first language was not English. We had guests from Spain, Australia, Israel, Sweden, Costa Rica, Mexico and more. They would tell stories. I learned more about the world at that dinner table than I could ever have learned from any book.

I also adored these people. They treated me well, adults were always more fun than kids. Kids could be mean. Dad’s adult guests always asked me questions and listened to my answers.

And the fun! We would sing, for hours. My parents were endlessly amused by Eric and I singing silly songs we had learned at summer camp… forever. We got to stay up a lot later on those nights, and we had such fun singing and singing and laughing.

Sometimes they had us stand in front of the fireplace as if it were a stage. Sometimes we just sat around the table until we were told it was bedtime. These are my favorite memories of my childhood, from any time of year.

Do you have any special memories of any end-of-year holiday in the past? It need not be from childhood, it need not be Christmas.

I think the smiling Thanksgiving pie Brian baked just a few weeks back, is definitely on my short list of favorite memories…

I guess I have turned into a little bit of the grinch. There are not a lot of kids in my life, other than the 8-10 knitters I see once a week and little Isabel, my friend April’s toddler. I used to really enjoy the gift-giving, dressing-up, special-food-eating parts of the holiday season. These days I look most forward to the days when I get to stay home all day rather than going out.

I used to spend my life shopping. I knew when every store closed at night, and I read catalogs at home and on break at work, planning my shopping for when I was free. I loved good design/fashion (I still do) and spent much of my time looking/reading/scheming to buy things that were beautiful to me. I still notice beauty but I do not do it by shopping, at least not at the places I once did.

I gave up credit cards almost 16 years ago, and it was a huge change in my life. I am so grateful for that change… now I live in the present, and if I don’t have cash for something I figure out what I might do about it.

As a self-employed person, I do not know what my income will be next month, so I do not promise I’ll use the income I can’t count on, to pay a debt. It feels really sane, though it took a long time to get used to it. (I’ll never forget when I realized I could still buy things at Hudsons, using cash rather than using the card.)

Well, since I made these changes, I have approached the holiday season differently. Going into stores where they are offering me beautiful things I would like, might even be able to afford, but don’t need and didn’t know I wanted before getting to the store… well, that does not work as well any more.

I still bring too much home, far too often (resale shops and Target are my main downfall places). But even when I splurge I do not do it on as large of a scale as I once did. I remember an impulse credit purchase of a dress that was nearly $200 (gorgeous, I still have it… double-knit wool).

So when we get ready for holiday season, I tend to avoid the shopping thing. After all, if I go in a store, I will want something I didn’t know I wanted before I got there.

My family no longer does gifts unless inspired to do so. Brian’s family also passes this by.

However, I do need to get a gift for my Habibi Dancers’ secret Santa exchange. And we have musical friends who deserve a small love token, and there is my friend I’ve known forever and her daughter, my goddaughter, who stays in touch even though she’s in her 20’s now.

Why I find it hard to go ahead and shop for these beloved folks, I do not know. I guess just avoiding temptation is the issue. For example, I tried to crochet a hip wrap for my Habibi swap person. In the end I went to World Market where I knew I could find something, and I got her a totally perfect gift. But I also bought myself a pair of earrings while I was there. Ugh.

I will be knitting small socks to hang on the tree, for my fellow Abbott Brothers’ band members. Not sure what I’ll do for my Goddaughter. Found really good stuff for her mom earlier this year, just the right thing and so I pre-purchased for her. Loved that.

But I went to the Habibi party tonight. And the other girls were soooo into the gift giving (and receiving). My recipient loved her gift (gold beaded wrist cuffs… she said she had a pair and wore them so much that they broke… so she got another pair today, very cool).

And the woman who pulled my name TOTALLY nailed my gift. I first got a very cushy bathrobe and then I got the most amazing red sequin dress… sequins on stretchy knit fabric, and it fits me absolutely perfectly. I look for dresses at resale shops often, from 1-4 times a month, and I have never found anything like this, which fits so perfectly without any alterations.

I did start knitting my tiny little socks which I have most years chosen to give to the Abbott Brothers band members. Those are great fun. I see those folks on Saturday, this is absolutely do-able.

But I do wonder why it is I avoid this whole thing. I can really enjoy it, as a way to celebrate the relationships I have in my life. This is the time of year to experience full gratitude for friendship and family.

On one hand, it’s wonderful to contemplate what might be the perfect gift within my resources, for a beloved person in my life. On another hand, I think i would rather spend an hour at lunch with anyone I love, than get or give gifts. I’m preparing to take Goddaughter Sara out for sushi, for example… which she and I both very much enjoy doing together. And I had lunch with her mom on Monday. That, to me, is the real gift. Time with someone I love.

But do I need to let go a little bit? Give in to the joy of finding an appropriate gift? (That is, within my current resources?) Where is the balance?

Photo: Downtown Lansing, standing at the corner where the streets number zero and zero, where east/west and north/south streets change, at Michigan and Washington. This is the Capitol Building of Michigan. I live not all of ten blocks east and 25 blocks south of this point, and yet I’m considered not downtown at all. Foster Center is about 25 blocks east and 1 block north, and Rae’s shop is another 3 blocks, Altu’s restaurant another mile or so east of that.

This is all my neighborhood, really. It’s a good city if you ask me, very friendly, very compact, but not so small that people get into your business. I swore forever that I would not retire here, but I may be changing my mind.

I’ve been fighting a thing in the sinuses since last week. I didn’t feel sick but there was something just a little stuffy. No sneezing, nothing else. Just stuffy. It did not effect my voice for our performances Friday and Saturday, for which I was grateful.

I even felt pretty good Sunday and Monday. Tuesday, however told me it was time to slow down.
I made dinner with Brian’s assistance, ran a single load of clothes (necessity)… and hunkered down on the couch.

I often “hit the feathers” as they say, several hours after midnight. Usually it’s between 2am and 4am.

It is not even 1 and I’m off to bed…I don’t want to cancel the last CityKidz Knit! Program of the year, and some kids may not plan to return next term.

As bad as that could be, it would be worse to pass around germs to kids the week before serious vacation. I couldn’t do that either, could I? I need to heal overnight!

The weather outside today was gray… misty, rainy and 32F (0C), no sun got through. I do not intend to shed my ColorJoyfulness and match that weather. Goodnight!

The photo today? It’s give a kid a camera time! I handed my camera to Altu’s niece at the anniversary celebration a few weekends ago and gave her permission to take as many photos as she wanted. She was very creative (I think she’s in 2nd grade). This shot is the kid reflected in the chrome cover of the trash receptacle. I wish I’d thought of that!!!

My life is so integrated at times… we went to a party on Sunday, one we attend every year in December. It’s at the home of friends we know from the music community. The guy host is a fiddler in a contra dance band and the lady hostess dances.

Yet she also knits. And so do other folks who come to that party. So this year it turned out sort of like 2 parties… the basement was where all the people went who wanted to play music. The living room was mostly knitters.

In this photo you have two people holding hanks of Cascade 220 worsted yarn, and the person standing center winding two strands of the yarn, at one time, together into a ball. The double-strand then would be knit into felted clogs (pattern by Fiber Trends). The clogs call for bulky yarn so two strands held together work just fine.

The woman front right with crossed legs, was knitting a pair of mittens though it’s hard to see at the very right side of the photo. I was of course knitting from my vantage point. (Brian was playing music with the group downstairs.)

In moments like these, it seems like I’m definitely in the right life. It is so comfortable to be with the folks who are in my life. It is so comfortable to just be me. I am grateful for these moments.

I remember less than a week ago, you folks got me really understanding how I need to sometimes clean house or otherwise tidy my physical surroundings, while I’m preparing for a large creative push or a big task of any sort.

It is very interesting to me that since we discussed that, I’ve been obsessing in the kitchen. I’ve given things away that I’d not used in years, tossed old spices from my first apartment in 1978 (guess I probably won’t be using those if I haven’t already) and made choices about the layout of items in the kitchen, particularly on the precious countertops.

Nervous Energy

So now, I have my last computer class of the year Monday and need to prepare a few handouts for them. And I have my biggest Christmas Party of the season coming up on Wednesday, for which I must bring one special gift. The gift, of course, I’ve planned in my mind for a long while. I even bought the supplies long ago.

And what do I do instead of preparing for Monday night and Wednesday night? Clean the kitchen, cook, and plan to do other things entirely. Finish a pair of legwarmers for myself. Start a wrap as a gift, which has no deadline. You know, all that normal avoidance creativity.

It’s like in college when I had a big exam, I’d have to go grocery shopping or meet a friend for tea, rather than sit down with the books. Only in that case I was not clear if I could really accomplish a good grade anyway. (I do not miss my teen college years… college these days is much more by choice and being an adult really helps me succeed.)

In this case, it’s pretty clear that I can do this class I’m teaching (I have taught it many times before, the handout is written) and I certainly can bring a gift on Wednesday. But I really would like to make that gift by Tuesday night so that I won’t have to go to World Market (an instant-gift place for bellydancers, thank goodness… would definitely find more than one possible thing with only one stop).

Swatching “in the Dark”

I, of course, made the gift-making harder, by deciding that I would crochet. I don’t crochet much. That is an understatement. I am capable of a pretty good chain stitch and a very good single crochet. I am absolutely inexperienced in triple crochet, double crochet or half-double, and must look them up in a book every time I need to use them. I also am relatively unclear about following crochet patterns though I’ve taken a few classes and get better each time… slightly.

I have “made up” crochet items in the past. However, in this case I really want a triangle. As in, one that is recognizable by someone else, as a triangle. On top of that, I want it pretty airy, more like a net than a fabric. The yarn I picked is really a good non-stretch shiny/fuzzy yarn called Feza Mesmerize, which is 65% acetate and 35% polyamid (nylon). It is easier to touch than the 100% nylon yarns I’ve tried before.

Practical Considerations, Even for Glitz

And since this is for a dance item, it really needs to be firm rather than stretchy. Stretch is not good in a costume. You need things to stay put and that means they need to be smaller than the body and cinched on carefully. If you have ever worn a skirt that is well-tailored but a size too big, and noticed how the skirt works its way around in a bit of a spiral dance around your body… well, then you understand how important it is that a costume fit with what is called “negative ease.” It can not slip or slide on stage.

Well, I tried to make up a “pattern.” I asked a friend who crochets more than I do, for dancing items. She gave advice and it still made much too small of a stitch. If you look at the photo, it’s the bottom dense part. I used a size I hook, about 5.25mm if I remember right. This is the swatch, small hook experiment at bottom. Homely!

I did not like this, and it would have required more yarn than I had. So I went looking for a crochet hook just as stores were closing for the day. I ended up with a size P hook (just plain huge, sort of comical, at 11.5mm in diameter). And I think we’re on to something now! It is the sort of honeycomb look I had wanted it for. And now I just have to figure out how to increase on either side in a rate that creates me a triangle of the angles I desire… That’s all!

I hope I can find the pailettes I bought a year ago, which I hope to use on the edges of this piece. Pailettes are like huge flat sequins and they are great on stage… lighter in weight and more colorful than coins but otherwise with a similar look, reflecting light.

More Pleasant Distractions

I am having lunch at noon tomorrow with a friend from elementary school. We just do not see one another enough. There are only two people still really in my life from that period… Susan Luks and this woman. And occasionally I run into a guy from 3rd grade or earlier, who is now an artist in northern Michigan. That’s pretty much it for the 60’s in my life (I started middle school in ‘69).

It will be just incredible to see this friend again after all this time just emailing occasionally. It seems that Christmas is the one time we work at seeing one another.

Oh, and Work…

But of course, that means that sometime I have to print handouts. Right? I leave for work at 3pm. And all I really feel like doing is experimenting with the crochet a bit more. That must wait until Tuesday, after I mail out all the packages to those of you who won prizes for last week’s contest. (I still feel bad that everyone could not win… but that is the nature of life, I just can’t prize everyone who came by, though I’d love to do just that.)

… and didn’t those legwarmers turn out toasty-looking? They are even warmer when I turn up that cuff. They are almost the entire height of my leg. Really-really warm!!!

No wonder I don’t want to do my boring stuff. New legwarmers and shiny purple yarn in a new technique? Much more fun than routine.

So what *is* it about deadlines? Do you get crazy-busy with distractions when you have a big deadline, or several? How do you respond to that yearning for distraction, if you also get it?

Diane Newman, Lansing dance innovator… founder of Happendance professional modern dance troupe and school (and wonderful person) has been awarded a huge honor by her peers. She has been awarded the Michigan Dance Council’s Educator of the Year Award. Well done, Diane.

I have studied with Diane several times since 1991… when my life started again at age 32 (spurred by a divorce, as often happens). I had not danced in about 15 years. She was patient, loving and kind, yet focused on quality.

In my experience, there are a good number of dance instructors who get good results with their students. However, it is no doubt easier to see what someone does wrong than what they do right. Too often instructors are not kind in the process of molding the talent of their students. Our Diane has heart, she nurtures as she molds those in her classes. I am honored to know her.

I remember when I was taking adult ballet with her (in her studio in DeWitt back around 1991-92), I found that a bad emotional day meant much falling over in class. One time I found myself falling over again, at a point where poise was called for. I laughed out loud (this is not common in a ballet class).

Diane’s comment? “Your foot was perfect, Lynn.” She always noticed what I did right and worked with that. I really needed that sort of acceptance at the time. I have never forgotten how that helped me in such a vulnerable period of my life.

When I had my very first solo art show (polymer clay sculpture), I remember that Diane came to see the show (and she brought her father). I was not there when she arrived, so she made a point to leave me a phone message. She said “the work is so YOU.” I was so new at this art thing, that her comment was precious and dear. I never forgot that she took the time to appreciate my work out loud. It was a gift to me.

Congratulations to Diane! It could not have happened to a finer human being.

(Or: The winners are… freshly pulled names out of the bowl, 101 entries in total…)

Diana Troldahl, Wristwarmer kit with Cherry Tree Hill DK (it’s sparkly):

Deborah Robson, First-Time Toe-Up Sock kit with sockyarn handpainted by my friend Rae in greens and soft winter-white:

Rachael, Sassy Summer Handbag Kit with (too much yarn, I couldn’t pick) Montera llama/wool in 2 colors: