I guess I had the right sick day. It was so cold here, only 3 school districts within the radio station’s reach were open. Not a snow day, a cold day, which just almost never happens here in mid-Michigan.

I didn’t leave the house all day, and now today it’s warmer. Still too cold but better. My car will want a long warm up today.

OK, I don’t have as much time for a long blog, so you get a list today. I have been sleeping off the cold which takes a lot of time! Now I’m up late and I will have to work for 3 hours teaching at Rae’s tonight, and believe me there are things to do before leaving home (even though I am moving slower than usual).

I’m much, much better than I was, although I still need a pack of trusty Kleenex everywhere I go. I will sit to teach tonight instead of stand, I bet, but I will teach.

Here are some bits of information you might like to know:

• I teach Sock Darning tonight (Thurs.) at Rae’s Yarn Boutique, 6-8pm. Merely $15 for one session. Bring your own wounded socks or I’ll have some you can practice with.
• I will have a design in the MagKnits issue which comes available tomorrow. Woohoo! (See photo tease above.)
• I put up six used knitting books on my shopping cart for sale, good pricing and $1 shipping.
• I am dancing at New Aladdin’s Restaurant on Friday night, half-hour shows 6:30 and 8:00 (Outer Frandor in Lansing, near video store and Sparty’s) No cover, tips welcome.
• Brian and I sing next Friday 2/8 at Foods for Living, 4-6pm, no cover
• Paz of “The Cooking Adventures of Chef Paz” also has a photo blog, pics of New York City, called “Paz’s New York Minute“

When you have to slow down, the natural world becomes apparent. Even sitting on an artificial chrome couch with Naugahyde cover, in a wood box built to protect me from the elements, I can see a lot of the outdoors. One of the advantages of a small house is that this living room has windows on three sides, it is a lot like the proverbial goldfish bowl.

The Natural World on My Block

Yesterday it rained. This is January in Michigan, and rain is not unheard of (my friend Mike Ross wrote a song called January Rain, about a particularly bad day he had).

However, this is usually the season of snow and cold. Lansing tends toward piling up snow for several weeks, than a short melt, then more snow. This last few weeks has had more melt and less snow than feels normal.

I worked on the computer (thank goodness for wireless internet and laptops) sitting on the couch. I kept being distracted by movement outside the window. It was that dratted squirrel again. He’s so cute to watch and I do like him much better when he is outside of my house.

Clearly that one nook in the front tree is his favorite spot, because I’ve showed you two photos of him there and again yesterday he’d go there, then run up and down the diagonal tree branch, then sit for a moment longer. He didn’t stay up the branch long enough to do anything. I assume he was out looking for food while it was warm enough to do so.

Of course, I also saw him in the rain gutter, his avenue to the hole he chewed under the shingles to get into our attic. Ick. That’s where he ceases to be cute.

A Short Breath of Fresh Air and a Dose of Reality

At 7:30pm I realized it was 45F degrees outside and rainy. Since I’m fighting a bug, I’m even more aware of air quality issues and the lack of open windows in the winter. So I turned down the thermostat, wrapped up in some blankets, and opened the door for a few hours. I am a huge fan of open windows and doors, and it felt so good to not be locked up so tight.

It rained peacefullly and there was no wind at all, so it took a long time for the house to feel colder inside. The humidity was a nice change, too.

But something threw a switch and it got mean out there. It sounded like Dorothy from Kansas was going to land her house in the street at any moment. The National Weather Service says it was 45 degrees F (7.2C) at 10pm, and 19 degrees F (-7.2C) at midnight. Whew!

More Small Potatoes

I remind myself that I’m human on earth and that means I’m not in charge, and that many things don’t fit in easy boxes. Getting this nasty cold is reminding me of this idea more intensely these few days. Sitting still and watching the weather (and the squirrel) go by, reminds me how little I am in charge of my life.

But I’m doing better at remembering my Gramma Illa’s theory that many things are small potatoes. Really, everyone gets a cold sometimes and they do go away. They slow us down, they make us uncomfortable, we don’t enjoy it. In the big scheme of things, though… it’s small potatoes and it will be over soon enough.

I observe little Isabel, the 3-1/2 yr old toddler in my life, and I see how she really still believes that the world revolves around her, which is normal for her age. When things go wrong we have to explain to her that it isn’t her fault, because as the center of the universe she would believe it was. Really, we all are the center of our own universe… which explains a lot of confusing behaviors in others at times. Yet, as adults we know our power is not all-encompassing.

I Don’t Think We are in Kansas Anymore, Toto

The wind is so strong outside that it is blowing through the cracks between windows in this old house. It is not extreme most of the time, and I’m not asking for advice since a little fresh air is excellent.

A little airflow does not upset me at all, and the house is small enough (and the furnace efficient enough) that it is just fine the way it is. Our windows are varnished hardwood, very beautiful, and I value them as an artform… just the way they are.

We have 8 small windows and a door in the small L-shaped area that is our living room and my office. I did take some of that thick not-too-sticky plastic weather tape a year or two ago, and taped the larger crack that is between the upper and lower moving window parts.

Yesterday, when we would get a huge gust of wind, we would both jump from a very loud noise. A whoopie cushion, but louder!

It was one of the windows in my office. I’d opened it for Brian when we were dealing with telephone-line issues near that window. The tape is still sealed on one side but it broke its bond on the other.

Then the wind blew so hard that it pushed quickly through the crack, and the loose side vibrated. Instant whoopie cushion! Quite amusing when you are fully awake.

So, How is Your World?

Nothing new in this corner of the world, really. The world turns, the sun sets, we sleep, we wake up, we have a cup of tea, we work for a while. How about you?

(The photo? Beats me. I downloaded a bunch of photos and this one was in the middle for no apparent reason. I thought it was beautiful so I didn’t delete it. I call it “Wild Abandon.” It is so sunny I hought it appropriate to a winter day.)

Dang. It’s not even done with January yet and I have a cold. Trust me, I’m counting my blessings… I didn’t feel crummy until just after our Friday concert was over with. First I had a doozy of a headache, then the cold set in but luckily without the headache… I’m all for a cold rather than a headache, personally.

We don’t perform again until February 8 (Foods For Living, 4pm-6pm). So I’ll surely be feeling fine in time for that performance. It’s a cold. They don’t last forever.

Meanwhile, I toughed it out through my classes Monday at Haslett Community Ed. What I do there is unusual enough that I know nobody who could substitute for me. My students were wonderful and understanding, and it went fine.

But when I got home I was so wiped out I just plopped down on the couch. Brian thawed us some dinner from the freezer. (I can not tell you how wonderful my crockpots are, we cook two full ones at a time and freeze, and then we need not cook some nights. Just like tonight.) A couple of Excedrin and dinner, and I already feel better.

Planning a Mostly-Lazy Day

Tuesday I don’t work at all, though I have 2 short appointments scheduled. I think I can cancel one but not the other.

I will work Tuesday with my feet up on the couch. Thank goodness for laptops, I can do email from there now.

I will also finish knitting a few straps on bags that are nearly ready to be shrunk/felted for my new ZigBagZ patterns. And I will go back to learning InDesign (computer program for laying out patterns and other documents).

The Dreaded Learning Curve

I spent Saturday diving in deep, with this new program. I do not enjoy learning curves for computer programs, but I have a list of projects all waiting for me to master this one. I played with a simple pattern first, so in case I really messed it up I wouldn’t have wrecked something big. I have a mitten pattern almost ready to roll.

In the end I will use this program for many purposes. Most of the documents will be my patterns, and probably some promo materials for The Fabulous Heftones. I’ll also use it on menus for Altu’s Ethiopian Cuisine… and my mother’s incredible very-beginning-reader books.

I will talk about Mom’s books here more when they become available. Mom is totally brilliant at teaching reading, and these books are her life’s work… her Opus. So that will be the very coolest thing I’ll do with the program, and very soon at that.

Nearly-Ready Pattern… Finally(?)

The ZigBagZ are really five separate bags. I have been discussing the possibilities for them with friends (yarn shop owners, test knitter/proofreader/collaborator Diana, knitting buddies).

It looks like I may decide to split the bags into two patterns, one for the three smaller ones and one for the two larger carry-all bags. They are all zigzag with the same number of stitches in a repeat, but there are different charts, different handles, different button flaps. The big bagz are significantly different in many ways, from the smaller bagz.

With five designs, I had to say “start with section A then go to Section C then D & E” or the like, for each of the smaller bags, which made it a bit hard to navigate. And at 15 pages, I would have to price the pattern higher than my other patterns which could be a hassle as I (and shops) sold them.

The pattern idea started out as a plan for a large carry-all. I made the smaller bags basically as gauge swatches, and they were so fun and useful that I kept going with them. They are all tested and mostly ready to go (it’s the two big bagz that have taken so much work and time).

The photo above is of the first two large bagz knit… the front one I knit, the back one Karen knit. Mine was from prototype numbers. Diana just finished another from actual pattern specs and it should arrive here tomorrow for me to shrink. Cross fingers. (Photo at left is small bottle bag, this one I kept for myself and use frequently.)

February 7

I have announced on Ravelry that this pattern will be available February 7, and I bought an advertisement on Ravelry to run from Feb. 14-29, so everything that is looking good needs to proceed as planned at this point.

But I’m thinking that Linda and Diana and Rae are right, that things would work better for me and my shops and my customers, if things in this project were more streamlined than they seem to be right now. Fifteen pages is TOO LONG for a pattern. At that point we are in booklet territory.

I wish for folks to make these bags without wondering what I was thinking when I set up the pattern I have a reputation for easy-to-follow patterns. I want to keep that reputation.

Cooking Sweet Green Pea Soup

Anyway… that was a digression but maybe it was interesting to my knitting readers. The point is that I can still work, at least when the Excedrin is doing its job. And I will be as horizontal as I can. I will even limit my cooking time to as little as possible. In the end, it’s just a cold, right? Irritating but temporary.

Green pea soup works well in a crockpot. And it’s SO good. Check out this recipe at Paz’ website for a recipe which was my inspiration. Yum!

I met Sriyana (internet name) on my Ravelry ColorJoy group. She makes amazing Tapestry-Crocheted mandalas.

Tapestry Crochet is a way of doing colorwork in very firm single-crochet, where you carry the strands of the yarns you are not using inside the stitches of the yarn you are working. It makes great baskets and purses, doesn’t stretch much, is sort of all the things knitting is not (which makes me very interested in it for bags, backpacks, purses… things that are not easy to do well in knit fabric).

Mandalas are often done as drawings. They were discussed by Carl Jung as a sort of connection between the inner self and the outer self (this is a very rough one-phrase explanation, please forgive its inadequacy). I spent a year or so drawing at least one mandala a day as a self-awareness exercise and it was a wonderful practice.

Sriyana’s mandalas are spectactular. She has won awards, and now she is featured on Carol Ventura’s Tapestry Crochet blog. The article is very nice, and goes into a nice level of depth with a little personal history for perspective.

Please consider taking the time read this wonderful article and meet my new friend, Sriyana.

I have put up a Flickr photo set which you can view as a slideshow… of the Stage 1210 concert last Friday.

For those who were there (or wish they had been), this does not take a very long time to view and will give a very nice feel for the event.

Hanno M. took many of the photos and he’s a very artful photo-reporter. Thanks again, Hanno!

On Friday, Brian and I (The Fabulous Heftones) played a shared show with The Motor City Sidestrokers. We did not know about this band before Ben Hassenger of Stage 1210 paired us. Wow, what a perfect combination it was!

I was quite complimented by hearing that the members of this band had heard of us… we have only once played in the metro Detroit area, and that was for a Banjo festival. Yet musicians move around the state relatively freely and these folks had heard of us from musicians I regard highly… and have not yet met personally. Cool.

Why is it that folks thought we should meet? Why should it feel like a great match? Well, we really do music that is of the same era, the same country, but with different focus. Our music is the pop music from mostly the mid-to-late 1920’s, which came mostly from New York City. It was the music on the radio during that timeframe.

They play a lot of music that our other band (now mostly defunct), Abbott Brothers, played. It’s mostly jug band, speakeasy, back room sort of music. Also the late 1920s and also into the 30’s a bit. Of course, I’m generalizing here in a big way but this gives the general idea of how our two bands fit on stage.

It was fun to be in the audience during their set… the crowd really loved every minute. At one point toward the end of the set they sang “Minnie the Moocher” and the crowd stood up and did their “hidey-hidey-hidey-ho” response in total enthusiasm. It was a spectacular example of total entertainment.

They are great musicians… one particular thing I noticed was that Doc/Bob the fiddle player has the sweetest tone quality out of that violin… yet he was totally into the swing, losing no soul underneath that beautiful sound. There are 5 musicians total, all dressed in garb reminiscent of the 30’s. They interact with the audience, they engage fully rather than being distant from the crowd. They sing with expression and excellent harmonies. Several play multiple instruments. And the songs they chose were just right for them.

We have determined that we would like to play some more shows together. At this point we are not sure where that will be… if anyone reading this has good ideas in that realm, somewhere approximately in the lower half of lower Michigan, we are all ears. Fun this big must be repeated.

Oh, and if you folks within driving distance of Lansing have not tried Stage 1210 yet, do check it out. By day it is Banyan Gallery at 1210 Turner Street, not far from the corner of Grand River Ave. in Old Town Lansing.

Ben Hassenger is the guy who makes this concert series happen. He is a member of the band Mystic Shake, and the duo Blue Jell-O which will have a CD release party there I think next month. He is a great guy to do a bit of business with (we have played for him before at his “Music in the Pines” outdoor house concert series, and his duo plays for Altu’s restaurant. If Ben is involved, it will go well and it’s worth checking out.

Photos: I took the shots of the Sidestrokers, Hanno M. took the photo of us as The Fab Heftones. Aaaah, the fun comes back when I view these shots.

Hanno took this photo of Brian playing uke Friday night:

It sounded like that at times, too. Thanks, Hanno.

I have not had this much trouble posting a column every day, in years. I am busy and distracted, mostly in working my business in a more committed/focused way but also in doing my best to change my routine and habits.

The blog has been a pleasant routine for years (I tend to write columns after midnight, when Brian goes to bed) but I’ve been pushing so hard during the day that I’ve been crashing early and not posting.

I hope to get going on a new routine here yet this month, not just for the blog but for my business/ professional life. (My goal is 28 posts a month and I almost always make it, this month I’m so short I won’t be able to make it up any possible way.) And with that, I’ve said enough in the navel-pondering realm…

My Kidz

I have taken many photos of my CityKidz Knit! program this year and some I took just Wednesday but haven’t developed yet. This one is from two weeks ago, I think. Sometimes working with this many kids is a LOT of work, sometimes it is pure joy. In either case, I’m “in love” with teaching these children and it’s good for them and for me both.

I have much deskwork today, I am working on getting some of my delayed pattern projects actually laid out and sellable. We played a concert last night and I haven’t even looked at the photos but it was a wonderful time. Will talk about that when I can write more.

A Question

I appreciate each and every one of you out there. You like questions from me sometimes. So I’ll ask this:

I find that teaching children is one of the most powerful experiences I’ve had interacting with other people. I am clear that the time I spend with the kids goes with them into their future without me. (In particular, one child moved out of state. I know that she had never felt like an expert before she got to knitting class, and she really was an expert far beyond her peers in school when it came to knitting. It really helped her feel confident about herself and I am sure that will not diminish as she moves into her new life.)

Is there any experience in your own life, now or in the past, which prompts you to feel the same… that your effort will grow after you leave the environment where your experience happened?

I posted a PhotoSet on Flickr of photos from the Scene Metrospace Folk Festival. There are photos from both Friday and Saturday, and they are not in the order they happened, but you can see the variety of people, the crowd, the spirit of the thing… and one photo of an almost-full moon we found on the way to the show from the alley, on Saturday.

Enjoy!

Leeanne/Wool & Chocolate put me on her short list of “10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel happy about blogland.” I am honored. I do my best to keep this cyber-place as upbeat as I can, at least 95% of the time, hopefully more.

It is interesting that Leeanne notes “The experience of reading her blog is really enhanced by the fact that she responds to blog comments with personal emails…” I do try to do just that, as much as my time will allow. It seems really important to me at this point in my life.

Thank goodness I don’t get hundreds of comments like Stephanie/Yarn Harlot does, though it clearly shows her popularity (and the comments there have somehow become a community of a unique type). I think sometimes I long for that many comments. Then I remember reading a book by Eleanor Roosevelt, about her life, and a huge portion of her time was spent tending to correspondence. She had no choice, really… she couldn’t say that she was just tired of people admiring her and seeking her advice or assistance.

But me? I value every single one of you who read this. I get excited every time I get a comment. And whenever I possibly can, I write with at least a thank you when you take the time to write to me. Thank you, Leeanne, for saying right there in print how much it means to you. I guess we have a mutual-admiration society going here and I’m delighted!

For the knitters who loyally tune in here, you have not seen many photos lately. I knit this hat off the cuff, starting on Saturday at Scene Metrospace Folk Festival. I finished it Monday, and I love it. Altu’s daughter who is a Junior in High School, also loves it. This feels good to me.

(No, there is no pattern. Maybe I will write it up, I hope I do, but the ZigBagz are top priority and I can not focus on a new thing until some of my old things are tucked safely into bed… Nevertheless, I do love this hat. Yarns are DiVe’ Autunno in teal-to-green with black and Cascade… can’t find the ball but it’s worsted-weight 50% Merino wool, 50% Angora… in a bright green. Very soft, I’m calling this my Soft Stripe Hat for now.)

Well, Monday was one of my favorite holidays, right up there with Thanksgiving. We celebrated the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I did work, but I work teaching others and I think teaching/learning are reasonable pursuits on that sort of holiday. I have written long essays on this day in previous years. I am not writing about it today, but that is not to say that the holiday escaped me. It definitely did not.

However, I was reading the comments on Stephanie’s Yarn Harlot blog the other day, and someone mentioned a Squirrel Appreciation Day. And it’s on the same day as Dr. King’s day? Amazing. I admit that the date of Dr. King’s celebration changes because of Monday holidays, but I found it impossible to understand the idea of a Squirrel Appreciation Day at all, and to have it compete with MLK Day was surreal.

I remember a friend from New Zeeland who moved here for several years. She says the first few weeks they were here, they used up much photographic film trying to get good shots of those adorable squirrel creatures. They seemed so exotic!

But for me? If Dr. King is about peace, then squirrels are not. We have one spectacular tree, and from it a squirrel can get on our roof. From there, he/she can get into enough mischief to cause my house damage and me a bit of jangled nerves.

We had a squirrel when I moved here, who was fat and fearless. I think someone was feeding him and I was not amused. He would come up on the step and when you yelled at him to go away, he just looked at you. As in, are you bringing me food now? Quite spooky. They live near humans but they do not usually get along with us quite that well. They should rightfully be a bit afraid.

One day we found squished squirrel in the road and that one stopped coming around so we think it was him. As Kenny says, Curiosity Killed the Cat, and Indecision Killed the Squirrel. They are always trying to figure out which tree is closest to run up if they are startled, and sometimes they head to the closest but not safest tree (or phone pole). Maybe I’m a squirrel, I suffer from indecision myself, though it has never threatened my life at this point.

When I moved here there was a protected spot on the roof where a lot of angles came together, where the squirrels had gnawed a hole and were trying to get through to the attic on the other side. Our neighbor at the time, Marvin, put a metal plate there with a plywood board over it, and that ceased to be an issue.

Then this year I kept hearing “someone” up in the attic, at all hours of day or night. We have had birds before but this one seemed to be scurrying in a way a bird would not. I figured it was a squirrel. We found that one was going in and out the vents on the roof. We got new animal-proof vents. And the sounds did not stop.

So about a week ago I talked to friend/musician/woodsman Paul Bennett and mentioned the squirrels. He didn’t miss a beat. He said, they are traveling in the gutters of your roof, look for a low spot on the very edge, and they get in the attic by chewing a hole through the roof boards, underneath the very last bottom shingle.

So a few days ago, I heard it again. And I went outside. It was the perfect weather for the discovery… and sure enough, it was a piece of cake to find it once Paul had described the situation. On the front of the house where we added on the new porch several years ago, there is a side gutter. And there was clearly a little entry hole, and even squirrel tracks going from the gutter a foot or so from that hole up to the top of the roof. Wow.

Well, then I read about squirrel appreciation day. I personally am afraid for my house, that the rodent will gnaw through electrical wires or something. I’m a little less worried about the things stored in the attic, though no doubt it could become bedding for the furry little pest.

But I read the whole page written by the Founder of Squirrel Appreciation Day. And I read that the animals do not like the scent of mint, and if you put peppermint oil on a cottonball in the attic space, they will vacate. This sounded too good/simple to be true.

I had a cottonball, and I had some very strong Eucalyptus oil, which is to me even more obnoxious than peppermint. So I put some oil on the ball and put it in the one attic door I could reach easily. I can get Brian to help me go into the one other door near the squirrel area when he gets home.

I’m crossing my fingers. I am not one to put out bait, and closing up the hole could trap the dude inside which could be very bad. I really want this furry tenant to go his merry way without a formal eviction of any sort.

As I type this I can hear someone up there walking around. It’s really spooky. Let’s face it, we are humans on earth and we make little climate-controlled boxes to keep ourselves warm and protected. But we are not in charge of nature, and animals are much more resourceful than humans are in cases like this.

While researching this column, I found a web page that says in Council Bluffs, Iowa it may be illegal to do what I am doing.

City Attorney Richard Wade said roughly in the 1930s, the City Council adopted an ordinance barring people from bothering black squirrels.

According to the ordinance, it is illegal to annoy, worry, maim, injure or kill the squirrel.

My squirrel is red. Go, cottonball!

If you read here often, you know that I eat healthy (mostly because of a long list of food allergies and sensitivities). I buy fresh ingredients, very few canned or frozen items, and I make things myself so that I am very clear what I am eating. I feel well when I do this, and often if I give in and buy at a restaurant I regret the choice.

However, I learned to read labels on food when I was just a child, before my food sensitivities took over my life. I am discovering that many otherwise well-informed people in my life never really look at what is in their food, even though it is right there for the reading.

I am always on the lookout for foods with one or two ingredients in the package. I have written about this search before, if you want to read an archived column. The ones which come to mind are pumpkin (for pie, but not the pie filling version), and tomato paste.

Even tomato sauce usually has citric acid added, which is funny because tomatoes have some citric acid in them naturally. I am guessing they use it to regulate the exact level of acidity in each batch. At least one brand doesn’t use it so the theory it might be needed as preservative would not be valid.

Citric acid is not lemon juice (though it sometimes can come from citrus fruit, it can also come from fermented corn and I can’t have mold or corn). Bet you didn’t know that!

Just to illustrate how little most of us know (until health requires us to be informed), here’s one source supporting what I just said… according to a supplement-information web page by Ray Sahelian, MD:

How is Citric Acid made?
Citric and lactic acids are produced by fermentation which utilized a carbohydrate source such as corn based starch and sugar beet molasses… Fermentation yields a crude purity product which requires further refining. One refining technique utilities a precipitation process, this process first uses lime to produce calcium citrate solids, this is then contacted with sulfuric acid which produces a partially purified soluble citric acid and calcium sulfate by product. Another technique used is solvent extraction…

Citric acid can be extracted from the juice of citrus fruits by adding calcium oxide (lime) to form calcium citrate, an insoluble precipitate that can be collected by filtration; the citric acid can be recovered from its calcium salt by adding sulfuric acid… and can be obtained synthetically from acetone or glycerol.

Yum. Yum? Now, the point is that for most people this is not an issue, but if you make your own food you don’t get the synthetic citric acid made from acetone (fingernail polish remover). I don’t like making my own food, I do it kicking and screaming sometimes, but I am clear my system is happier when I do it.

(For the record, Eden Organic Foods has canned “crushed tomatoes” that contain tomatoes and nothing else. It is essentially thick, beautiful tomato sauce. They also have Buckwheat “Soba” noodles that are 100% buckwheat… which I order by the case through their website. I love Eden Foods!)

SO… I just was checking out the Schuler Books website (because I’m doing an in-house promotion on Designer One-Skein Wonders at Eastwood, on February 28 at 7:30pm). And what did I find? This Thursday, local author Kimberly Lord Stewart is doing a presentation on how to read food labels. It’s at 7:30pm. Here is what the Schuler books website says:

Learn to read food labels with Eating Between the Lines
Award winning journalist, natural foods expert, and Lansing native Kimberly Lord Stewart is returning to give us a lesson in reading food labels, a topic that is rapidly gaining importance through the rise of food allergies and genetically modified products.

Her new book, Eating Between the Lines: The Supermarket Shopper’s Guide to the Truth Behind Food Labels, tells readers how to be discerning shoppers by breaking down the mystery and the marketing behind the countless food labels touting the health benefits of every food from potatoes to potato chips. Learn the tricks of healthy grocery shopping and have your own questions about food labels answered by an expert!

Thursday. January 24. 7:30 p.m., Schuler Books, Eastwood Towne Center, Lansing

The photos are of foods I have made and shared with you readers over the last several years. All healthy and with as few ingredients as possible, yet still tasty. And beautiful, no?

Tech Woes

I think my computer and I need to break up our relationship. However, it’s sort of like that Supertramp song “not much of a girlfriend (computer); she’s the only one I’ve got.”

I lost my Palm desktop (my calendar program that runs on the computer when I’m home… which synchronizes to my palm device which I use when I’m not home). It doesn’t know about any real appointments after November 2.

This happened as I was preparing for Rev’s visit and I did not have time to deal with it, including the required backups and careful proceedings in the right order to get the program back without losing what is on the palm device.

So last night I typed in at least the appointment name and date/time for everything on my calendar from now through the future. I will need to uninstall the desktop program and reinstall.

Cross fingers for me. I need to do it when I have time and a focused mind, which means not first thing and not just before bed… and some days all the rest of the time I’m out of the house. One day at a time. I’m probably ready to do that Monday.

But then on Sunday my Eudora email program decided to flip out when I sent press releases, and now I don’t know if anyone but me got the release (for Altu’s Restaurant’s music series). It only goes to a small handful of addresses (reporters and DJs) so it should not have looked like spam but I don’t know what happened.

So I spent time today checking out the status of the rest of my folders in Eudora and it looks like really I have one uncertain message. It should look like a message that went out, and should have the content of the message I sent. It looks like a message intended to go out (but it’s not in the outbasket) and when I open it, I see the text of a message almost a year old. The table of contents is toast, but even this former tech doesn’t know how to figure it out, other than to just move forward.

I used to do computer tech work for a living. Right now, though, I am out of practice. My tolerance for imperfection in this area is getting thin. I will do the calendar reinstall tomorrow, and I did spend a lot of time cleaning up my malboxes/folders in Eudora so that none of them have over 3000 messages in them any more. We will hope that cleans up the issue for now.

Belonging, Lansing, Music

I did not get any photos downloaded from my camera from this weekend’s Scene Metrospace Folk Festival. We went both Friday and Saturday, and then the second night we went down to Rendezvous by the Grand in Old Town to hear friends from Steppin’ in It, which was also wonderful.

I hope to bring you enough photos for a slideshow but for now I need to do business-related things. I am woefully behind on getting all my classes scheduled for this term we are already in. I have classes scheduled at two of the 5 shops where I teach… because they were the ones who basically cornered me and said “Schedule. Today. Now.”

But I do want to just say that the Folk Festival was one of the most wonderful belonging experiences I have ever had. I have spent a lot of my life not fitting in. Just notice what colors I wear, and what city I live in, and that will give you a small idea of how I don’t really fit… I am often loved and appreciated but I am usually still a bit of “that colorful girl over there.” Not quite part of the crowd, though accepted at this point in the game.

But at the Fox on a Hill shows at Scene Metrospace Folk Festival? These amazing other musicians played and they really feel like peers though we all are different in style (as it should be).

We played Friday and one of the other musicians who played was Jen Sygit, who I totally admire in every way. I am deeply honored by sharing her stage, though she pooh-poohs this idea when I say this out loud.

When we played our set, Laura Bates (who has, arguably, the most beautiful voice on the circuit) spent the entire half hour dancing to our music. That may be the biggest compliment we have ever received, really.

It just felt like home. It was a place where we belonged, where the comfort level backstage was really high. Even the listeners/audience? The best.

As an adult, I find lately that I quite often hang out with a lot of creative folks who are younger than me. I expect to not fit in. I expect that I’ll again be accepted but outside the group. Again this weekend I was proven wrong.

Lansing is really a great town for artful folks. I really appreciate this town in that way.

And with that I will go sleep and anticipate a new day, with a new calendar install. I start teaching my new term (computer classes for beginners) at Haslett Community Ed tomorrow. Yes, even though it is a very fine holiday, we will honor Dr. King’s spirit by learning.

Goodnight.

The Lil’ Rev concert was really fun at Altu’s. We had a good crowd, and were very happy with a big photo of Rev and a nice writeup in Anne Erickson’s column in the Lansing State Journal’s What’s On section on Thursday. We love Anne! I hope sometime soon I can meet her in person.

I’m showing one photo of Rev in Concert (musicians are moving targets, and the lighting at Altu’s is great for mood lighting but not so for photos). I am also showing a photo of Rev and Brian jamming at our house.

This morning before Lil’ Rev went to Saginaw for his Friday concert, we jammed a bit on camera (digital video) in our living room. Brian posted them to YouTube so interested folks could enjoy it.

Brian and Rev did the How Long Blues and then I got to join them on Shake That Thing. Perhaps you would enjoy viewing these videos… I tried to embed them so you could click here and watch, but apparently my blogging software does not want to cooperate. You will need to click on the links earlier in this paragraph to go hear them.

I know that I have a few loyal readers from the music community, though most are from the knitting/art community. My friends, today’s post is for you!

I am here and happy and occupied. Our guest is here, and he is none other than Lil Rev, musician from Wisconsin.

We met Rev on the Ukulele Circuit, but he does not only play Ukulele. He plays guitar, banjo, mandolin, and a very fine (award-winning) harmonica.

He will be performing Today, Thursday January 17, at Altu’s restaurant. Show 6:30-8:30.

This is an unusual Thursday night show (he leaves town Friday morning and we did not want to miss out on this opportunity). He offered ukuele workshops at Elderly Instruments on Tuesday and Wednesday. We jammed and laughed and had a great time tonight here at casa de Heftone. Tomorrow is showtime and we are excited.

Anne Erickson of the Lansing State Journal, writes a column in the What’s On section each Thursday. A few weeks ago she wrote a bit about Temesgen Hussein, the Ethiopian musician who is Altus’ house musician. This week she writes that she will have an article about Lil’ Rev and his show at Altu’s, in the What’s On. Today, show day! I am excited about this.

Here is the information about the show which we sent to Altu’s customers:

We are excited to announce that musician Lil’ Rev of Wisconsin will return to our restaurant this month. For those of you who joined us for his show last September, you know what a warm and entertaining show Rev presents. For those of you who missed it, now is your chance!

We would love to have you join us.

*******************************
THURSDAY January 17, special event:

Lil’ Rev

Rev is an engaging entertainer; warm, enlightening, talented.
Rev celebrates the roots of his music, yet keeps a modern flair.
Rev has won numerous awards for his work including:

- Best Folk Singer in Wisconsin — WAMI 2004
- Inducted into The Traditional Old-Time Country Music Hall of Fame - 2003
- Best Instrumentalist Harmonica — WAMI 2000
- Voted Best Acoustic Act in Milwaukee 1996-1997 Shepherd Express Reader’s Choice
- Hohner’s 1996 National Blues Harmonica Champion

Please join us, and bring the family!
No Cover, though CD’s will be available for sale, and tips are always appreciated.
Show 6:30-8:30pm

You can listen to some of Rev’s music on his website:
http://lilrev.com
********************************
As always, we will *not* accept reservations for the evening.

Friday night will be our turn. Brian and I as The Fabulous Heftones will perform at the Scene Metrospace Folk Festival in East Lansing, sometime after 7pm.

There is a wonderful lineup that night, we will be second in a long list of performers. I will make a separate post about that and our Stage 1210 show the following Friday, Jan 25. For now I’m going to sleep, but tune in again and I’ll get those shows up here Thursday.

At least a few of you do ask for this information when I run into you in person. So sorry to the out of town folks who read this but can not attend.

You all (in or out of town) are invited to visit the Fabulous Heftones website and listen and/or download a whole lot of songs for free. Does that make you far-away folks feel better?

I guess we are getting back into the swing of a busy life. I taught my “Toe Up Mittens” at Rae’s Sunday and then went directly to the Elderly Instruments holiday party. They always have it after the holiday crazy time is over, and I appreciate that.

(Now our holidays are officially done. Except for National Pie Day on January 23, but that is a new season, I’d say!)

We performed for the party (a music store has many musicians and we take turns entertaining). It is always fun.

Then back home to do more preparation for our guest. Mind you, I run a small yarn-dyeing, pattern-writing, knitting-instruction business out of this house… tucked into corners of the living room, the office, the eating area of the kitchen, the basement.

There is much good in right-sizing the business and getting papers where papers go, yarn where yarn goes, musical instruments where they go, and not mixing it all up and confusing things. And getting rid of items we do not use anymore, sending them on to where someone else can make use of them.

I am so grateful that I’ve had so much time to really work on re-organizing, tossing, giving away, letting go. With months of lead time I have been able to really look at how we use the house, not only when we have a guest but every day. (He is staying 3 days, and we have no guest room, so it takes a bit of preparation to make a living room into a guest room in a house this size.)

So this is all the time I have to type you a note for a while. I hope to unload the camera of its photos soon but for now it’s all about making our home comfy for a guest, for several days. It’s really worthwhile, and we will reap the benefits of this work for a long time after he leaves.

Don’t worry if I bow out for a few days, I’m fine and happy here (where the snow has returned and it looks like January again). Seeya!

Tonight the Habibi Dancers were part of a fundraiser for Nancy Brandon who had a stem cell transplant to fight her Parkinsons Disease. (Nancy is about my age and has been fighting this since before I knew her; she’s very involved in the creative community of Lansing.) We had a good number of dancers for the event, and we had a wonderful time.

I always say that Lansing is big enough that not everybody knows all your business, but it’s small enough that it seems all the creative folks in any realm, will know the others. I saw musicians, dancers, photographers, actors, community activists and more in that crowd. What a show of support for Nancy, who really is at the center of the community in more than a few ways.

We did quite a full concert, with group numbers and solo performers. Brian works on Saturday but he took photos as soon as he got there, and he is sharing these photos with us all here tonight. Thanks, Brian!

(The lighting was problematic so most of the shots are grainy and/or blurry, but I think they give a sense of the event anyway. I hope those who have Apple computers can see these, I know they display photos darker than my Windows machines and these are pretty dark already.)

Notice how there are two shots of the crowd at the end of our show. We danced out into the audience and invited those seated to stand and dance with us. A good handful did just that, and we had a great time indeed!

In the first photo, we were doing a cane dance, balancing canes on our heads as we move. I love cane dances. They are a bit hard to photograph but Brian did just fine!

The first solo photo is me as Eudora. This may be the only time you see me wearing black and gold, and no other colors! The other photos I will not identify, some of the dancers I do not know their dance names and in the crowd scenes of course I do not have all the names. Please enjoy the images, at any rate.

(For the record… in the preceding post, I am not advocating denial or encouraging folks to ignore feelings. I am trying to put things into their proper perspective. I’m talking about getting all frustrated about having to cook dinner, clean the kitchen after dinner, do laundry… normal, ordinary things.

I personally seem to think at times that the world should revolve around what I like to do and not “make me” do ordinary maintenance, never mind that all humans have maintenance tasks. In my case, my life is very good and I really have nothing to complain about, but I do it anyway. That’s why I want to put “small potatoes” in perspective. When they are truly small issues, that is. End of digression.)

Saturday was a work day. I am not ordinarily a tidy housekeeper. I would much rather focus on cool new creative projects all day, all week, all month, all year… than notice that things have gotten enough out of hand that I can’t find things anymore.

Well, we are delighted that a friend is coming in from out of town. He will stay with us for 3 nights. We do not have a guest room, just an air mattress on the living room floor. I want any guest to feel really comfortable and right at home. In order to do that, i want my mess to be enough contained to make things not feel like they will fall over when we breathe too much in the wrong direction, you know?

So Friday I spent a lot of time finishing up the clean-up of my yarn area, which occupies half of the living room. It was really worthwhile, taking that time. I did not just make it tidy, I went into boxes and sorted and tossed and gave away. Some things will leave the house never to be dealt with again, which is a relief.

Our kitchen mostly stays relatively tidy (although packed to the gills) all the time, and the bath is no big deal, but I still will need another day to work on my office. It is in the area that was once the dining room, when the house did not have eating space in the kitchen. It is the next room over from the living room and fully visible from any seat in that room.

Again, I tend to be relatively messy. This year, though, has been more extreme in that regard. The desk is piled with so many papers that I think I could lose a ball of yarn in the mess. So I’ll start working on that room tomorrow and finish it up on Monday (when I have no appointments on the calendar.

Meanwhile, tomorrow I will be dancing with the Habibi Dancers at the Cadillac Club in REOTown at 7pm. I think 9 of us are going to be dancing. I will be doing three numbers, as my alter-ego, Eudora.

The event is a fundraiser for Nancy, who is one of the partners in Magdalena’s Teahouse (where we had our CD Release party a year and a half ago). She’s been fighting Parkinsons since I have known her. She had a stem cell transplant earlier this year, and had to take out loans to do it, so this is to help handle those costs.

The performance is a multicultural dance event (we are not the only dance group involved), and I think it will be a really fine show. Nancy knows SO many performers in town.

Sunday I teach “Toe Up Mittens” at Rae’s Yarn shop, the first of two sessions 2 weeks apart. It’s an afterthought-thumb (like Norwegian mittens) with a knit-to-fit start similar to my First-Time Toe Up Socks pattern. Much fun.

After that class, Brian and I will go to the Elderly Instruments holiday gathering and we will perform for Brian’s co-workers (there are many musicians working there, so we will be one of many acts… and they are a very good audience! We got named The Fabulous Heftones when we performed at one of these parties, back when we were not yet married if I remember right.

It should be a good weekend. (I’m cheating right now and using old photos.)

Chelle writes about choosing a word as the theme for each new year. Every year for many in a row I’ve considered “Balance” to be my choice. I think for me that balance will be a life-long learning session, and one well worth the learning curve.

I sometimes tend to “bounce off walls,” which is perhaps OK when it’s about passion for a new creative idea or project. It’s clear to me that it’s not so good when I get distracted by something negative.

Recognizing Small Potatoes

I keep thinking about my Gramma Illa, who might be said to have had a hard life, at least during parts of her 82 years. Surely if you looked at the statistics, it would appear so.

She lost her mother and a younger sister when she was 6, which is pretty big all by itself. She and Grandpa moved to the farm as adults when the depression made it clear Grandpa’s job as principal of a school would not last much longer. They farmed with horses at first, at a time when there was no public electricity in their corner of Minnesota, no flush toilets, no central heating, things I absolutely take for granted every day of my own routine life.

But no matter what the list of these and other facts might be (between happy facts, I’m sure), I do not remember hearing her complain about anything. Someone else might focus on the down side. Illa was not that sort of person.

If you wanted to go on about what this or that person said that you disagreed with, she might reflect to you (in her own gentle and loving way) that your complaint/concern might be “small potatoes.” When her kids came home from school with he said/she said kid concerns (which might disappear on their own tomorrow), that was her common reply.

And isn’t that really true? The things we get stirred up about today, we often do not remember next week. And people who try to take us down are no doubt not worthy of our energy. If we go forward and make our own lives right for us, standing tall about our own behaviors, then another person’s petty maneuverings are indeed small potatoes in the garden of life.

Being Right/ Being Heard/ Being Happy

I believe that in great part, happiness is a choice. We all have disappointments and losses but we can choose how to approach those. We can certainly grieve when that is appropriate, but focusing on being right all the time will just make a person tired. And it seems to me most of the time when I spend excess emotional energy on things that are truly small potatoes, it’s because I need to feel that I am right.

But I was thinking about this the other day. Maybe what I really need to feel is that I have been heard? Maybe I need to know that my input has been weighed and factored in to what is going on, if in fact the situation calls for input at all. After all, there often might be more than one correct view in a situation. What is “right” depends on more than just my own opinion.

I am not the Boss of Life

I have been practicing for the three years since my Africa trip, the concept that “I’m not in charge.” This is in no way intended to shirk my responsibility… I tend to be too responsible if anything. But sometimes we spend much energy trying to change things that do not have anything to do with us. Figuring out when we are *not* in charge, leaves us room to spend energy on those things which we truly *can* influence.

I can not change the weather. I might unwisely spend a lot of time focusing on how the weather “should” be, how the city should plow my street (which is one block long and clearly should not be first priority to the city, no matter how much I want it plowed) or how I don’t want flights cancelled or whatever. Actually, the first sign that something is out of balance is the word “should” in the first place. I tend to hold that word suspect.

If I am an employee, I can use the channels of communication to express my input or opinion, but in the end, I am not in charge of the resulting decision. If I get sick, I am not the boss of when my body will get better, though I *am* in charge of doing whatever my system needs to get stronger, if I know what those things are.

Letting Go When Useful

I can not make the winter be 84F, as much as I would like that. I need to give in to nature and the seasons, which others experience differently than I do, anyway. I *can* wear longjohns and warm sweaters and warm socks, wristwarmers, shawls, whatever will help me. I can get out my wonderful hot water bottle and put my feet on it when my toes are cold. I can even turn up the thermostat (this was neither an option when we were cold in Africa, nor for Illa on the farm).

So: being clear about what I have control over versus what is not my job, my responsibility, within my control, is important to my happiness. Getting angry about how businesses do their work is not within my reach to change, but choosing which bank, telephone company, restaurant or clothing store I choose to do business with *is* in my power.

Watching Kids’ Learn these Lessons

And I can remember, like Gramma Illa, that when someone feels like picking on me, their pushes and pulls are truly “small potatoes.” I remember working with kids at a community center years ago. They would get into a fight because “He said my Momma…”

I would ask “Does he know your Momma? No? Do you think he was trying to get to you? Did it work?” Kids do not know that they can just walk away saying “You don’t know what you are talking about, goodbye.”

My mother used to teach first grade. Kids would come to her with “he said/she said” stories. She would ask them “Does he have a problem?” The reply would be “Yes.” The next question was “Aren’t you glad that you don’t have a problem?” Another affirmative. And that would be the end of that. Maybe advice to stay away from someone who has a problem, but generally it was about boundaries. And how good is that?

Learning from a Toddler

I have spent some quality time lately with little Isabel, who is one of the most enthusiastic and positive people I know. She happens to be 3-1/2 years old, with all the enthusiasm for learning that comes with that age.

I take her on dates to the coffee house when I am lucky. She plays with my polymer clay buttons, sorting by size or color. She counts them, she makes me put them in her outstretched cupped hands until she can hold no more. She stacks them until they fall down. She also has an ongoing commentary as she works, often about colors.

The other day when I was helping Rae and her mom put samples out in the new store, they were reviewing old sample items and decided to let go of three scarves they felt were tired. I asked if I could pass them on to my little friend. I was pretty sure she would enjoy playing dress-up with the shiny but soft ruffles.

Here is a photo with Isabel wearing her three new scarves, all at once. I took this photo at the coffee shop about a week ago. Um, I think we can safely say that she liked her gift. Thanks, Rae! (That first photo is of my Gramma Illa as a young woman, I’m guessing somewhere around 1920.)

A Question… You often like questions.

So how do you all keep focused… if not toward the good stuff/happiness, at least away from the tempting complaints and low moods that can come your way? I’m thinking about “small potatoes” this week, myself. I am trying to focus on the stuff that really matters… and remember that if someone is causing me trouble they may have a problem, as my Mom says. I hope I don’t also have a problem of my own. I’ll work on that one hour at a time if need be.

My friend Altu is really excited to knit on *her* sweater. I, on the other hand, am supposed to lead her through each new section with new instructions.

I am knitting the same thing she is, so that I will be sure to understand each new instruction. Which means that I have to stay about where she is on the sweater she is knitting.

The Project 

We are doing the Split-Neck T-Shirt (!) #257 Sweater by Knitting Pure & Simple (it’s an Aran-weight/ somewhat-heavy yarn, raglan sleeved, 3/4 sleeve sweater, so I’m not sure how they thought it could be called a T-Shirt). Despite the name, it is a very nice design that apparently (given what I’ve seen on Ravelry) looks good on a lot of different body types/sizes.

This design is particularly promising for curvy girls, since we can knit top down and adjust for bust shaping or at the very least decrease a bit after the bust to make up for the fact the sweater size was chosen for the disproportionate bust measurement. The model herself has some curves, which is a good hint this will be a good choice.

I am using some yarn that is not quite as fat as it should be, but at least one of my swatches met the stitch gauge so I’m going with it. I really needed to knit from stash, I have enough yarn for about 6 sweaters right now and since I’ve only ever knit one adult sweater with long sleeves by hand, I really could not justify more yarn for a sweater project. At this rate I’ll have enough yarn for 5 sweaters very soon, and a new sweater to boot!

The Yarn

The yarn is Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece. It’s mostly pima cotton with some wool, which is a really excellent combination. I do not usually like cotton yarns and I love this yarn. The way it was spun is quite beautiful, and really shows off the fiber combination well. It is very pleasant to knit with, very nice.

The only complaint I’ve ever heard about this yarn is that sometimes the colors will run, because cotton and wool take different types of dyes (not at all good if you are doing red and white stripes). However, I’m doing a single color: cherry red. It’s beautiful! I will be careful to wash it separately. It will be spectacular, I can see it already.

The Method 

Many sweaters are knit from the hem up to the top. This one is top down, which allows for more clarity and opportunity to fit as we work. First we started at the neck, and then we had to increase for raglan sleeves which are part of the body (not sewn on later).

The neck is shaped somewhat, more like a v-neck than a true split/cut neck, so that took some more attention for a while. Then when the split was finished, we joined the piece into the round and now are knitting in a circle rather than back and forth (aaaahhh).

It is interesting… when we knit flat, we actually knit a row and then turn the piece around and purl back. For those non-knitters out there who are still reading, a purl is merely a reverse/backward knit. A knit has a flat side toward the knitter and a purl has a flat side away from the knitter. However, when you start going in a circle you are always looking at the flat side (outside of a tube) so you no longer need to purl.

It turns out that I purl more tightly than I knit (many people purl more loosely than they knit but I guess I had to be different). When I started, I had rows with taller stitches on the knitted rows and if I had continued it would have become obvious. Since I was using Denise Interchangeable Needles, I switched so that the working needle for the purl side was one size larger than the knit side, and I do not see a problem in my fabric. Save!

The Progress

It is so far an easy-to-follow pattern. At one point it called a Knit-in-front-and-back increase a “kfb” and once an “inc” in the same sentence, but both instructions were clear (inc was defined as kfb at the beginning of the pattern). So no big deal, and every instruction thus far has worked out well.

We are proceeding as though we both have done something like this before. We sort of have, in that Altu has made up a lot of sweaters (not using patterns) and I have followed many patterns (but not for sweaters). It is a fun thing for us to do together.

The only down side is that Altu gets eager to proceed further, sometimes when I’m not available to show her the next part. Small potatoes, as Gramma Illa would say.

So here are photos… one of the piece flat, and one of me wearing the bit that I’d finished just as I started working in a tube. I took the photo of myself in a mirror, so forgive the fuzziness if you will.

I think by the looks of this preview fitting, it will work out just great for me! Woohoo… now we just have to proceed to the end. This will not be a problem, as Altu is a very determined woman and I can’t see her slowing down now. Good for us both!

What a strange weather day we have. We will not see a hint of sunshine today, even at noon it felt like dusk. The temperature is 60F/ 15.5C, unheard of in January in this area. The sky looks like a typical full-cloudcover December day. It’s almost surreal.

It rained two nights ago and started to melt in earnest around then. Our January 1 snowman has lost any resemblance to a snowman, it is now just an unusual pile of snow in the middle of the front lawn. He gave us (and some of you) much joy in his short existance, at any rate. We got about 3 good solid days out of his glory before things started getting warm.

I am sharing two photos with you today… Yesterday’s sad snowman-remains, and the glory of a perfect Michigan snow, from my mother’s front yard on the 2nd, just four days before. Sometimes the sun does come out, and if it is right after a lovely snow, you can get photos like this.

I think I’ll go for a walk today, anyway. It will be another day without appointments so I can play with my schedule a bit. There is SO much to do from my home office/studio, but if it is 60F, I just think it is imperative that I take a walk.

I hope your day is great. So many folks are going back to work and school today. I hope this brings the joy of reunion rather than a sadness at the routine. Remember, if you are one going back to work… income is definitely a wonderful thing, not everyone has work right now.

And truthfully? One must have a place to belong. I figured that out when I had too much alone time and not enough work, back when I lived alone. Peers are essential to a person’s life, particularly if you are like me and relatively social by nature.

(I’ve been knitting… photos tomorrow.)

On Thursday, I finished a pair of socks for Brian that I mostly knit last year. I did one heel on New Year’s eve (these are afterthought-heel socks) and the second at the evening knit-in at Rae’s Thursday.

The yarn is Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino. The needles were probably size 3 US. They were started toe-up as if to knit my First-Time Toe-Up socks, but then I made them afterthought heel instead. I knit the whole thing stockinette except about an inch and a little at the top which was K3P1 rib, followed by a single-crochet bind off.

I present to you, Pair 159 in my lifetime. I’m happy to finish something right now. It seems as if I’ve been in quicksand but I am feeling much more alert or something because things are turning around, and not just in my knitting life.

Advertising just makes me think of doublespeak. Pre-owned as a way of saying “used” is just the tip of the iceberg.

Today I had to go buy something on the OfficeMax website (I need a drum for my printer which is old enough to require special ordering of supplies). I buy from them occasionally, they do a good job thus far.

But how can they use the title “Back to Basics” for an advertisement… for a 4-in-1 Hewlett-Packard printer/copier, etc??? Isn’t basics a pencil and paper? Or a printer that just prints (forget scanning, faxing and copying), if you must talk technology?

OK, I feel better after having spoken up. More fun here soon. Hand-knit socks, to be specific.

ColorJoy, the blog, is a place for all artforms. Today I wish to focus on cooking. Yummy! At the end I will share a new recipe I created today.

I love food. Some of you know that there are a lot of foods I can not eat because of allergy/sensitivity reactions.

However, because of my food restrictions Brian and I eat very well. Everything we eat at home is from scratch. We eat a lot of organic food, a lot of “ethnic” foods, many things I had never heard of while growing up. In fact, I feel really lucky to be living in these times, because so many types of produce are available to me fresh or frozen for most of the year.

New Foods for Me

I am learning a lot right now about root vegetables. I don’t do too well with potato, but taro root which has been boiled and then peeled is a lot like potato, a little more flavorful and a little more work to prepare. They are maybe a quarter of the size of a standard baking potato, and can not be peeled easily before cooking.

They look awful at the store, like small fuzzy brown rocks, but they are worth the effort. Here is a photo of some taro roots after they were scrubbed and then boiled. They look much nicer here than at the store, but they are quite nice to eat (after peeling) with just a little butter or olive oil.

We eat a lot of sweet potatoes. And now I am trying what is sometimes labeled “white yam” which looks like sweet potato, with a purple skin but flesh that is cream colored before cooking and has a few pale green veins after cooking.

It is very smooth in texture, not very sweet but sweeter than potato or taro. I put it in some green (frozen) pea soup the other day and it was incredibly good.

Flat Breads from Root Veggies

I have been trying to make things like tortillas, chapatis or potato lefse (pronounced LEFF-suh, a Norwegian flat bread which we always had at holiday meals when I was growing up). I am not having a great success with this, but I keep trying. (I can not have yeast, but I do not miss regular bread the way I miss tortillas.)

The best so far were the ones last week, made of taro and brown rice flour. The night I made them, they did roll up fine, but they hardened up a lot overnight (see photo).

Honestly, if I just want a bread to eat on the side they work out fine. However, I have not yet done well making anything that would roll up like a tortilla or lefse.

However… when it comes to desserts I am doing great. I make several versions of tapioca pudding that I really enjoy. I make teff spice muffins and pancakes (both gluten free), which are no compromise at all. I make a chocolate cake that is pretty good and I am still working on brownies.

My Friend in the Kitchen: Tapioca

It seems that tapioca is my friend. My mother always used instant tapioca to thicken pie fillings when I was a child, rather than cornstarch. It does have the telltale bumps in it, which I do not mind at all, but it is much cleaner a taste than the cornstarch, less sticky somehow. I know now that tapioca starch can be purchased much like cornstarch, so one could use that without the lumps for pie filling if desired.

I remember the years we would climb up in the neighbor’s cherry trees and pick cherries until we wished there was no such tree. Then we would sit together and pit the cherries, and mom would make wonderful pies, or sometimes just the sauce which we would put over ice cream.

Strawberry Experiments

So tonight I bought two bags full of organic frozen strawberries. What a treat! It is January and the snow is deep, and I can buy organic strawberries in Michigan! I determined that I wanted some sort of sauce or pudding made of strawberries.

I found one recipe that Diana, my Sis-in-Love, had found for me months ago, for a pureed strawberry/tapioca dessert. It seemed to be all sauce and no fruit, and I do not own (or want) a food processor or blender with which to puree fruit.

I found another recipe on the back of my pearl tapioca bag (I have instant tapioca, too, but I rather fancied the larger ones tonight). It was for standard milk-based tapioca pudding. I did not want any milk in mine but it gave me hints on how long to soak the tapioca, how long to boil and how long to simmer, before cooling.

Victory

And voila! I combined bits of both recipes, plus I tripled the amount of fruit the one recipe called for. And I made a wonderful dessert. We ate it warm like a pudding, but it would have been wonderful on ice cream or frozen yogurt. It would be a great topping on a humble poundcake or angel food cake.

Or, I am guessing, it might set up pretty hard after a long cooling night in the refrigerator, and it then could be eaten almost like a gelatin salad. I am making sure I don’t eat at least one of the portions until morning, so I can report back on that.

So here I present to you:

Very-Yummy Strawberry Dessert!

1/4c small pearl tapioca
1-1/2c water
3 Tbsp Brown Sugar (optional, or use white sugar)
1-1/2c Frozen Strawberries, organic if available

Measure berries and set aside in one layer, to thaw. Soak tapioca and water in saucepan for 30 minutes. While waiting, cut 1 cup of the berries into small pieces (may wish to thaw very briefly first). With a fork, mash remaining 1/2c berries (or puree in blender or food processor if desired).After the 30 minutes, add sugar and berries to pan.

Bring mixture to a full boil very briefly. Lower heat to very low, and simmer for 15 minutes uncovered, stirring frequently.

Remove from heat, allow to cool for 15 minutes. (At this point you may add 1tsp of vanilla or other flavoring of your choice, I did not do this myself.)

Makes four half-cup servings. Either pour over cake, ice cream, pancakes, or eat warm as pudding, or chill thoroughly in refrigerator and eat as a cool snack or light dessert. Consider topping with coconut flakes or whipped cream if desired.

Yummy!!!

I am guessing that you could mix up any fruit that was a little sweet and a little tart, and use the same recipe. Pie cherries or raspberries would be great but would need more sugar, blueberries might not need any sugar at all. The sky is the limit! Do let me know if you try it.

Do any of you have recipes calling for Tapioca in unusual ways? I’m all ears.

Prepare for photographs… I am giving in to more than usual for this post. It was a special night, you know?

On New Year’s Eve we almost did not choose to go to the Contra Dance. It was supposed to snow a lot and I was enjoying the warmth of the house. Brian reminded me that I would have a good time once we got there, and he sort of wanted a date for the holiday, so we went. He was right. I was glad I went.

We know most of the folks in the Contra Dance community pretty well. These are people we very much enjoy and very much want to spend our time with. Some of them we see only at dances, but it’s amazing how many are in our regular circle of acquaintances (for starters, Sharon, Julie, Rae, and Cynthia are all knitters I see regularly and who also dance). It is such a warm community! There is just nothing like a New Year’s Contra dance.

I find it fun that at a Contra Dance you will inevitably find a corner of the room full of knitters. We end up talking and knitting, and watching dances, listening to the great live music, but not dancing much. I love that there are a few under-20 young folks who are part of the knitting corner. They are more likely to talk knitting between dances and still do a lot of dancing, but it is a lovely addition to the dynamic.

Just before midnight they had a big circle dance and that was a blast! We all grabbed hands at the end and made a huge spiral of people. We were almost in the center of the spiral and it was amazing how long we needed to spin before the whole line of dancers was wound up together. It sounds crowded but there was plenty of breathing room even at the center, the room is plenty large for this sort of fun.

The band for the dance was The Cosmic Otters, who are otherwise known as Two Sock Knitters, or Meg and Jonathan. It’s funny, I’ve been reading their blog at least a year now and I was sure of Meg’s name, not sure of Jonathan’s (because she refers to him as “the fiddling fool” or just “The Fool.” I was sure of how he looked but now how she looked. It must be that she takes more photos of him than he does of her.

I also did not realize that Meg and Jonathan *are* The Cosmic Otters. As I peek at the New Year’s Eve post by meg, she shows a photo of “the band” and it’s Jonathan and two friends of theirs who joined them for the second half of the dance. With Meg the unofficial photographer, it’s no wonder I didn’t realize she was half of the band!! And no wonder I did not know what she looked like.

After the dance, we proceeded over to the house where we’d spent lovely time just before Christmas, knitters and fiddlers. Meg and Jonathan were going to stay there for the night before heading home to Chicago (a 4-hour trek). So I sat next to Meg and we knit socks, while listening to a group of folks play old-time fiddle tunes. It gave us a little time to chat about knitting and Ravelry and sock yarn and all the things that internet-knitters might want to chat about. Much fun!

On the way home I noticed how beautiful the snow was. I also realized that it was a little above freezing. We drove past a house which had a snowman in it and I got this great idea that we should start the year with our own snowman. And so we did. I think it was a good way to start the year. We started with a play day together. Yup, the right choice.

Photos: The first six photos Brian took, the last is mine. (The musicians, left to right, are Sam from Lansing, Jonathan, Chirps from Chicago, Meg. Notice the otters perched on the monitors, front right. Dance committee member Bonnie even gave one of the otters a party hat!) Food, dance, music, fun.

I wish I’d taken photos of the fiddle jam session at the house. However, I was having too much time getting to know Meg to think of it.