Maybe you have heard me “talk” of my friend Trish Bloom, the designer of the Bloom Shawl (free pattern on Knitty) and the Panes Bag. (I have several Bloom Shawls (most I knit myself, but also a solid purple one that Diana knit for me), and own one Panes Bag that my friend Teresa L. knit for me in a bag exchange at my guild a few years ago.) I adore the Bloom Shawl. The only thing that would make it better would be if *I* had designed it, sigh….

Trish’s Ravelry username is “BloominKnitiot” as is her blogspot blog. We stay in touch through the Internet, as she lives over an hour from me.

We connect at times in Lansing, usually at Threadbear Fiberarts, and I have yet to see the shop where she works, Labor of Love in Romeo, MI. We plan to schedule a polymer clay button class there sometime this year, and I look forward to that!

Trish sent me this photo as her contribution to the “Knit Spring into Existence” group project. I am flattered that she has chosen a yarn I hand-dyed (to the specifications of a knit-along group who got first dibs on that colorway, and made me promise not to repeat it again). It’s my TipToe Sockyarn, with more colors applied than usual. A sort of sherbet rainbow which is called “Midday Garden.” (No, that colorway is no longer available, though I have seven colorways currently available, from flammegarn/almost solid to multicolors.)

If you have a Ravelry account, you can go read details of the sock design on Trish’s project page. In any case, I think that this project in particular is inviting flowers (appropriate from a woman whose last name is Bloom). I’m ready.

Oh, I can not resist sharing this wonderful photo of my Multicolor brushed-mohair Bloom Shawl with optional crochet edge. I wore this shawl SO much… until I accidentally cut the edge with scissors. I still have it but have not found the courage to try and repair it. A repair will be hard because the fabric is so transparent (knit on size 15 needles). I have enough of this yarn in multicolored magenta/fuschia to make another. In my spare time? But this color is perfect for me and I’m sick over the loss. Beautiful, isn’t it?

This post is for the knitters within driving distance of Lansing, Michigan. Sorry to my out-of-area readers… I do appreciate you but you probably should skip this post and come back soon for the next one.

I never seem to finalize a class schedule. I tend to think I need to wait until it’s all final until I can announce. However, this is not going to happen this month, I’m afraid.

Some of you already know some of what I’m going to announce here, because you may be on the e-newsletter lists for the shops where I teach. I am adding classes all the time, but I’m going to tell you about the ones coming up in the next few weeks.

Tuesday, April 1 (tomorrow) 6pm-8pm	Threadbear Fiberarts	Darn that Sock - The long-term socknitters out there know that tossing out a beloved handknit sock is heartbreaking. LynnH will present two different ways of repairing a worn sock, depending on how worn the fabric is. Bring handknit socks in need of repair, and a small Chibi or other blunt needle with large eye. LynnH will bring a few spares in case you have none at this time.
Thursdays, April 3 & 24, May 8 6pm-8pm	Rae’s Yarn Boutique	ZigBagZ: Maxi Collection - Lynn’s new hit pattern using lots of color but not lots of fussing. Make a strong felted project bag. The BiggieZig is a large purse-substitute bag, and the BurlyZig is a project bag which can handle a sweater or a good portion of an afghan in progress. Lynn will guide you through color choices, combining Noro Kureyon self-striping yarns with solid-colored contrast yarns. These bags stand up to real use and will look great for a long time.
Saturday, April 12 Noon-4pm	Yarn Garden of Charlotte, MI	Perfect Hug Shawl - If you need a shawl that does not fall off your shoulders, this design in three variations stays put because it is shaped like a rainbow. There is even a Goddess-sized version for up to size 5X. A great gift, this is fast and easy, and does not take much yarn. Try your lumpy-bumpy first handspun! Good if you want to break away from scarves, or you want a quick knit with just a little bit of variety to keep boredom at bay.

This schedule is a bit light, for one because a few classes with many sessions are already started. In addition, I’m preparing for the Habibi Dancers’ annual concert which will be Saturday, April 19 at the Hannah Center Auditorium in East Lansing. We have a lot of extra rehearsals in the weeks before the show, and that is cutting in to my teaching (and singing) schedule(s) for a while.

At least it looks like Brian and I will get a day or two as a “spring vacation” in between classes and rehearsals. At one point we had planned 5 days out of state. At this point it looks like maybe we will go to Ann Arbor for one day (it’s about an hour away) and maybe Chicago for an overnight (not quite 4 hours away), with a dance rehearsal day in the middle.

After being sick for most of February, I have had to schedule/reschedule classes, plus there is now an unexpected Saturday rehearsal.. We are making lemonade and will call it two vacations, even if short and local.

I hope some of you will join me for these classes! We always have a great time.

Leeanne chose some springlike yarn (it looks like it belongs in my own stash, it’s so like my favorite spring colors), for her first sock project. She reports that this yarn felt like a spring-into-existence colorway. The socks are still in planning stages… but then again, so is spring.

‘Nette lives in Canada, north of me, and she probably needs spring to come forth even more than I do. She knit this spring-enticing hat and shared it for the “Knit Spring into Existence” project.

Thanks for the smile, ‘Nette! This hat is definitely ColorJoy, I’d say!

Susan in California contributed three photographs she took on the way to Yosemite National Park, in my “create spring into existence” project. I am having a less than chipper day, but the photos help me a bit. How could I resist these sunny images???

Thank you for these wonderful images, Susan! It’s good to know that it’s spring (or springlike) somewhere right now. We got a bunch of snow yesterday again, it will be a while before we see daffodils, tulips, poppies or their friends. I figure we will get some violets within a few weeks so I’m holding out for them.

I’ve said here before… I’m not very fond of cooking, but I love to eat. I like cleaning the kitchen afterward even less than the cooking part. However, last weekend I was a wild woman in that kitchen. I made several extra meals and froze them. I experimented with baked goods, sometimes very successfully and once very poorly (it looked pretty, anyway).

But when all is said and done, the only thing better than eating the dinner I made, is looking at the beautiful colors of my dishes coming out of the (half-sized) dishwasher. I’ve done 3 loads in 4 days… but this particular scene just made me happy. (Hmmm, look at those colors, am I cooking spring into existence here?)

My Interior Designer friend Kath told me years ago (when I wanted to buy a set of turquoise dishes as my only dishes after my divorce) “Lynn, go for it!” She figured if I loved that color as much as I do, I’d continually enjoy having dishes that color. She could not have been more right.

So I took her advice to heart. If I love the color of something, and it’s an item I need, I go for that color rather than a safe neutral (which is always available). On the top rack is a frying pan I got at Marshalls a few weeks back, and it is the nicest pan I have had in years (maybe ever). And it’s spring green!!!

The color makes me smile even when I’m a bit grumpy from “having to cook again.” Never mind that sometimes what I make is significantly better than most restaurant food. And food I cook doesn’t have hidden ingredients that might make me feel crummy. Cooking at home is the answer most of the time, and for good reason. The colors reward me as I work.

I have said it before… if you wait for “big deals” to make you happy, you will wait a long time. If you can find little things (like this load of pretty-colored dishes) to make you smile, your life can be very fulfilling. And you will have a heck of a lot more happy little things than big deals, relatively regularly, you know?

I found myself answering a post on the Socknitters email list, about using easter egg dyes for dyeing yarn. Someone in the UK couldn’t find the easter egg dyes, so I piped in about other ways to dye with food-grade colors.

For the record, this does not work on cotton or plant fiber. It does work with protein fibers such as wool, mohair, alpaca and other animal fur; silk, and nylon which is a synthetic that acts like wool for dyeing purposes (although it does not take dye as well as animal fiber, in my experience). Other synthetics such as polyester and acrylic are very hard to dye in a home setting, they are typically colored in solution before the fibers are created in the factory.

If you are dyeing yarn it needs to be able to absorb dye on all surfaces. This means dyeing in a commercially-wound ball or skein will result in the center yarn not taking color. Wrap around your forearm or a chair, to make a large loop. Secure ends loosely (a tight knot makes a tie-dye where it’s white under the knot). Use a few pieces of yarn to tie the loop/hank loosely (most dyers/spinners tie it in a figure-8 shape through the strands).

Then soak the yarn for at least a half hour in warm-not-hot water with a little detergent or soap in it (this helps break the surface tension and allow water into the fiber). When ready to dye, press the fiber gently between clean towels and proceed.

This is what I wrote to the UK member of Socknitters:

Cake frosting dyes are no doubt something you *can* find? You can use those with vinegar and they come in more colors than egg dyes, as well. It’s all “food-grade dye” and you can use any of them with some vinegar (mild food-grade acid).

In the US and Canada we also have “Kool Aid” and other powdered drink mixes which contain dye, flavor and citric acid, so they do not need vinegar as do other food colorings. Of course, it can be hard in some areas to find the drink mix packaged without sugar (in tiny powder packets), and it again comes in very limited colors (the US purple is very disappointing/grayish, Canadian purple is like reddish-plum).

Here you can get only a few colors of liquid food coloring dyes, but the cake decorating dyes come in small gel packages in lots of colors. I’m in love with the turquoise Wilton’s dye, along with a spring green. Beautiful. I know there are other companies making frosting dyes, but Wiltons is the brand I find most often.

The goal is to put dye, acid and heat upon your animal-fiber yarn, and allow enough time for the dye to bond with the yarn. Assuming you did not use more dye than can be bonded with that amount of fiber, usually in 45 minutes or so you will have dyed wool and **totally clear** water. This is called exhausting the dye.

Many folks dabbling in food dyes do not know this part and stop too soon because they are eager to get on with it. (They also may be more familiar with cotton dyes which never exhaust and must be rinsed after dyeing.) When I dye yarn professionally (with commercial acid dyes), I leave the steaming hot wool covered in towels to keep heat in, overnight or at least until it comes to room temperature. This really makes a difference to the washfastness of the product. Color, Acid, Heat, Time. These are the four elements to a good dye experience.

Note: after I posted this I’ve had more questions and correspondence with many folks. It turns out that frosting dyes are not a gel but an oil-base, at least some of them. I never experienced any trouble with the oiliness and I expect that is because I soak my yarn in water with Dawn hand-Dishwashing liquid (a very strong grease-cutting product). If you have any problems with getting this particular coloring agent to work into the wool, try a little more soap or detergent.

Someone asked if the yarn has to go into a large pot with dye dissolved evenly, or if the dyes can be squirted/painted/poured onto the skein. Either works but do be careful to not put too much dye on it if you want color to stay in particular areas. After soaking you can use a salad spinner or the spin cycle of your washer to remove most of the water from the yarn. Then put it on a safe surface (Saran Wrap works, or a glass cooking pan) and apply dye as you like. Press the yarn to distribute the color better, and steam or microwave.

Someone asked about how long to time the microwave. This is a dangerous question, if I were to answer in minutes. I have two microwaves and one is gentle, one mean. You can burn fiber if you do it too much, so do take care and watch, especially when you are inexperienced. I always put a vessel of water in the back corner of my microwave to sort of be a “heat sink” and take the extra heat if the fiber dries out. This I do after one spectacular disaster with silk (silk burns quickly, maybe because it does not hold as much water as wool).

The ideal is to hold it at just under boiling, for about 45 minutes. In my dyeing microwave, this means heating it for anywhere from 1 to 5 minutes depending on how much yarn I am working with (I often dye several pounds at once), then letting it sit for a while, turn the pan the yarn is in (if there is no carousel in the microwave), then zap it again, then rest, then zap. Rest longer than you zap, maybe 10 minutes of resting between 3 minute heat cycles. Be sure it’s hot but not burning. Too hot and your yarn will degrade, especially if it has nylon in it.

May you find something fun to play with…

ChezCarla in Florida is the first to send photos in my spring group concept. She had some freshwater pearls and Tennessee River Stone beads, and decided to bead her spring into existence.

Here are the pearls:

Here is the necklace using those pearls:

Here are the stone beads:

Here is a necklace and earrings from those beads:

Carla, thanks for playing! You inspire me. I must confess I found that I “had to” finish my wintry super-warm alpaca/wool socks (pair #160) before I started on spring. Now I need to dig through and see what inspires me, to join my own project!

My project will definitely be from fingering-weight (sockweight) yarn in greens. I am thinking right now either Colinette Jitterbug wristwarmers, or super-fine alpaca-blend socks. Both yarns are gorgeous.

But first I must finish taxes. Then I get a reward, I get to knit spring into existence with the others who are playing this little game.

Sue sent some wonderful photos to support the spring project, and I’ll share those later in the week. Now, back to taxes.

I just got a promotional email from Ellen Doster of the Motor City Sidestrokers. She handles a few performance spots in the Detroit suburb of Royal Oak.

This is a fun, funky area which has changed a lot since I first visited there… a few years ago, I found a decades-old bakery with truly homemade pies, a block from a funky coffee shop, Mongolian Barbecue and a resale shop with bowling shirts for $75. I hope the bakery is still around…

Anyway, Brian and I (The Fabulous Heftones) are playing the Royal Oak Flea Market (in the Farmers’ Market building) this upcoming Sunday. The folks we know who have played here say it is wonderful, so we are really looking forward to it.

And what Ellen wrote? I have enough ego to love it:

Sunday, March 30 The Royal Oak Farmers Market 11:00am-1:00pm

The Fabulous Heftones make their debut performance at the Market. This duo harkens back to a much simpler time when couples wooed, spooned, fawned and fretted over each other. Their Tin Pan Alley music is happily old-fashioned…

…Brian’s ukelele prowess is unbeatable; Lynn drives the music forward with her bass and sweet harmonies. They “sell” it with their mutual moon-eyes and you can’t help but smile.

Join the treasure-hunting marketeers at the Market Cafe for a stroll down memory lane. www.myspace.com/fabulousheftones

Royal Oak Farmers/Flea Market
316 E. Eleven Mile Road
Royal Oak, MI

Some of my readers live in that general vicinity. I’d love to see you come out and say hello!

I don’t take enough pictures during my CityKidz Knit! program. I’m so busy answering questions for two full hours, there is no time to think of photographs. It is sort of amazing, they are so busy learning new things every single week.

Last week we had some extra special knitting. This first photo is a 4th grade boy who wanted to make something on circular needles. He determined to make a hat for his younger brother (a toddler if I get it right). It was so stretchy that he was able to wear it himself for this photograph.

First he started on circular needles, knitting back and forth as if he had 2 needles, to make a non-rolling garter fabric edge. Then we joined into a tube and he knit a while for the body of the hat. And then we started to decrease for the top.

The decreases required double-pointed needles given the resources of the room. This boy was alternately very impressed with himself (working with 6 needles on one hat, actually knitting with only 2 but it looked impressive), and afraid of this new thing that looked like it might be hard enough he could mess up. Or so it appeared that was the issue, from my vantage point.

He said his heart was pounding during that last inch or so. I told him “you rock” and did admit it looked hard but reminded him that he was doing well even if it looked scary.

He worked on this hat for many weeks, a difficult thing for a child to do. I had promised him that he would finish the hat that week, in the 2 hours we had together. Unfortunately he had to wait for me a few times because of the other big deal in the room (more later) which also took my time. So at the end I told him I’d finish the last 2 rounds for him and get it all put together.

I did 2 rounds of decreases and then finished the hat. He does know how to work ends in, but I had promised a finished item and I really needed to make good on that. He is capable of doing another hat without me doing a stitch. It’s a LOT of stitches for a kid of that age, though, and I am not sure he wants to do something that “big” for a while.

The reason he had competition for my time, was that three of my girls were learning how to follow a pattern. Actually, another of my boys (an older child than most of my kids) asked if he could learn to follow a pattern, last week.

After showing them the wonderful knitted heart that Priscilla gifted me with at Rae’s grand reopening open house (see photo), we determined that making one of the MochiMochiLand.com hearts, would be perfect. (Free pattern here.) It takes me (experienced knitter) 45 minutes to make a heart, start to finish. They figured it would be a great gift for a Grandma.

So this week the boy who had requested this project in the first place, did not make it. But three girls decided to dive in without him. Some knew how to purl, some did not. Some knew how to decrease, some did not. All of them were at least working on the first heart lobe’s decreases when they left. One girl finished one side of the heart and had started a second.

My plan is, if the kids bring me a finished heart or they finish one in class, I will take photos and send them to Anna H., who is the designer of the heart pattern we are using. Anna and I have corresponded about this pattern already, and she loves to hear from folks who like her work. Of course!

The last photo here is one I took a few weeks ago. I tell you, sometimes I have over a dozen kids knitting at one time. Sometimes that is delightful fun and sometimes it pushes me. I think in this case, being pushed is good for me. At least, I feel that way after I’ve gone home and thought about it!

This was Thursday night after dark:

This was Saturday around noon:

Thursday I found daffodil shoots several inches high with yellow buds showing. Friday morning, the little snow in photo #1 was all the snow in our yard (and the pile it represents used to be almost as tall as my car). Friday during our performance at Foods For Living (2-4pm) it went from no snow to an inch or more. By Saturday morning, it really looked like 5 inches (~11cm) on the front windshield of the bug. Ho, Ho, Ho!

I have over 200 photos I took last week and before, in case I had time to show you. If I even try to slog through much of that, I am going to drown in past information.

For now, I have to say that I am delighted to really feel well again. Finally. We sang at Foods for Living on Friday for 2 hours. Then we spent a while filling up a cart with groceries. We came home and stuffed them into our rather small food storage area. I made significantly wonderful Swiss Chard with onion and tomato as the highlight of dinner that night.

Saturday we played at Rendezvous by the Grand in Old Town Lansing (MI) and that was more fun (of a totally different sort). The building was once an early-1900s bank with mezzanine and huge tall windows, rounded at the top. Gorgeous.

At one point I was singing “Till There Was You” (written by Meredith Willson , from the show Music Man/1957… many people know it from the Beatles), and the room was rather quiet and actually paying attention to our music. (This being a “night spot” I would not expect this level of attention.) I really enjoyed hearing the acoustics of the building at the moment, which totally make a good moment better.

My voice is really doing great after all that illness for all that time. I have not felt this in control of my “instrument” in a while. And there we were, singing to friends and new fans… and the room was still, and my voice was resonating in a two-story turn of the century building, and we were playing our hearts out. Well, this is one reason I sing. It was magic.

And the people who came out… thank every one of you. Doug and Cynthia came first, then Libby and Chris and Darby, folks from the Dagwood’s Tuesday open mic clan, a crowd of employees from Elderly Instruments (where Brian works, just around the corner and down one block).

Surely at this point I have waited too long to post and I’m forgetting someone, but it’s not at all intentional. Libby came around to give me the nicest of all compliments and I will not forget that. It was just a lovely time. Just wonderful.

And with that I’ll sign off and make other things fit into a different post.

Photos: None of us, it’s sort of hard to take pictures of ourselves while singing.

Stage (with Scratch & Sniff performing) showing vast tall windows. The Well-Fed Kids, not standing very still in their enthusiasm (you should HEAR these guys and their vocal harmonies, they are wonderful). Scratch & Sniff (Phil Wintermute and Paul Bennett) up close and personal and with odd-colored stage lighting. Cynthia with crowd behind her… Cynthia is such a friend (she’s a knitter as well as a music person) and she usually looks more bubbly than this (but here she was paying attention to the music).

Cynthia and I dress somewhat alike and wear our hair in braids often, and are about the same size. People often confuse us. In fact, once I saw a video of contra dance where someone thought C. was me, and I was confused myself. I finally figured out it couldn’t be me (given that I could not see the dancer’s face) because she was wearing clothes I did not recognize. Too Funny! I love having this energy-creating person in my life, she is a joy to me.

Vicki/KnittingDragonflies has tagged me… in a meme to share 7 random (or weird) facts about me.

Actually, she tagged me on February 7, the day I was so sick with the influenza/nausea that I was trying not to breathe or move at all. I totally missed the tag until today.

So here it goes. I am choosing to share color memories. Some people have no memories of this sort, so I’m thinking they are “weird” facts. I’ve wanted to share a few of these stories, anyway. It is great that they fit together well here.

1. My first memory is of color. I was about 2 years old (according to my mother who can piece together my story into the fact we lived in Minneapolis at the time). We walked to the house of friends who had many children, mostly older than me. They had a game which was a set of rings in sort of a coliseum shape, where you put marbles on the top ring and players took turns pushing the rings back and forth.

   The goal (I found later) was to make the opponents’ marbles go to the bottom faster than yours.I was too small to understand the rules but I did understand that pushing the rings would move marbles down one round at a time. But the important thing, the reason I remember, is because of the blue and yellow alternating rings of color on the toy. It was so beautiful!

   They would not allow me to play with it because I was too small. I was crushed. It was about color!!!

2. As a child I was delighted when told I had been born in “Golden Valley” Minnesota. It’s a suburb of Minneapolis, but it sounded so beautiful to me. And, one more time, it was about color.
3. When I was very young and playing house, either alone down in my basement or with others, we had to make up names for ourselves. I would insist on being the Mommy (what fights we would have when the first-borns would not give up on being the only Mommy in the game). And being a mommy meant that I needed a different name.

   I would work through possible last names. Black? Boring. Brown or White? Boring, too. Gray? Same. Green? OK, that sounded much nicer. So I always said my last name was Green. It did not occur to me that I could choose a last name that was NOT also a color.

4. When I was in elementary school, the mid-to-late 1960’s in small-town Michigan, the color purple was something of a a joke to my father. He would sometimes say he was the Purple People eater. Or he’d say while we were waiting for a railroad train to cross the road, that THIS one surely would have a purple caboose at the end. He was always wrong but we would hope.

   Now, my father never hit us but he loved to tell stories and make them sound extreme and dramatic. So somehow one time he said if we were bad during the year, Santa would bring us a Purple Whip for our stockings (rather than coal). I don’t know why he started this, but once he started he did not back down on it.

   So, one Christmas season we all went as a family (Mom/Dad, Eric and I) to the five and dime store to get small presents for each other’s stockings. And I went with Mom to get presents for Dad and Eric, then we switched parents. And while I was with Dad, the store lady approached Mom and Eric to ask whether she could help them.

   Mind you… at this time, about 1964, it was nearly impossible to find any commercial item in the color purple. No clothing, no pens/pencils, trinkets, nothing. These days many girls say it’s their favorite color but in those days girl clothing came in standard pastels, red and pink but not purple.

   So when the lady came up to ask, Eric (toddler of age 4) asked “Do you have a purple whip?” My mom was floored and embarrassed. So Mom explained Dad’a joke to the lady. And the only thing they could find in the entire store under a dollar, with purple on it, was a washcloth with a tiny purple stripe and wider lavender stripes, on white. So it would have to do.

   Mom had to clue Dad in to the joke ahead of time. Dad laughed as he should (and it was truly funny). And Eric was very pleased with himself. Clever. He still is.

5. I always wanted to play flute as a child. I remember the first time I saw/heard one, Mrs. Gibbs/Music teacher brought one to school and played us records (vinyl) of music played on flute. I was in love.

   I do love the sound of a flute, but I think now that the shiny factor was also very big. I ended up playing Clarinet for 5 years, Dad did not want me on flute (long story). I never loved clarinet.

   Now I realize why. It was black. Flute is shiny. Now, a bad-sounding flute also sounds much nicer than a bad-sounding clarinet, which did not help things. But I remember I also loved banjos at the time and I knew almost nothing about them other than they were silver-bodied. Shiny.

6. I have always loved the colors I still love. My fave colors are turquoise, fuschia/magenta, purple, and hot green. I also sometimes wear bright cobalt blue, emerald green, black (my colors look great against black) and very occasionally red.

   As a small child, my favorite crayons were in the same range of colors I love now. I have a drawing I made when learning to print, and the colors I chose were magenta and purple crayon (see image). I am not sure where the magenta came from, as typically in our house we had “only” 8 colors of crayons.

7. My first knitting project was in 5th grade, in Mr. Johnson’s class (1969). I remember it was a Barbie pink headband with many “hiccups.” Who knows what happed to that project, but my mom amazingly took me all the way to East Lansing to get more yarn after I made that.

   I was allowed to (only) choose 2 colors. It was painful choosing two out of all the choices. They had small skeins of acrylic Red Heart, and I took home one skein in turquoise (go figure) and one in emerald green.

   To this day, when I see those two colors near one another I go back to the day I chose them out of all the possible choices, at the five and dime (same one as the purple story above).

I am not big on choosing people for a meme, but if anyone wants to play who is reading this, please do go right ahead and dive in!

That is news enough for me today. Spring is officially here, even if it is supposed to snow tonight.

We are preparing to go sing right now, and then we sing again tomorrow. My voice is doing very well after so much illness, I am delighted. There is nothing like singing when the whole body supports the sound!

I have lots and lots of photos taken but none processed for web yet. One is an 8-year-old boy wearing a hat he knit… in the round, on circular needles and then Double-Pointed Needles. Very Cool! I also have photos from Carla for the create-spring-into-existence project.
Photos soon, I hope. Until then, maybe I will see a few of you at our concerts.

Thursday it was so warm and sunny that I left my coat behind and did not miss it. I was wearing my beret/hat, a sweater and legwarmers, but no coat, scarf/shawl, or gloves/wristwarmers. No problem. It was lovely.

The snow in our yard is down to a very small pile, not a whole yard wide and not all of two inches deep. At its  largest (in February), it was several feet high from so much shoveling all in a short while.

Friday they are predicting snow. In a 24-hour period we may get enough to shovel. That’s March in Michigan for you.

I still like it better than the February we had. (Ugh.) Thaws alternating with snow is my cup of tea right now!

I can not tell you how glad I am that February is over and we are on the way to better days. The weather service says we will still have some cold days, but not as much cold and snow as we had in February anyway. This would be normal for March. In fact, we usually get a few flurries in April, too. In the meantime, the few melting days give me hope.

And the performance schedule for The Fabulous Heftones has also warmed up a bit this week! I’m happy to have a musical week lined up.

We will be playing two vastly different venues this Friday and Saturday, Foods for Living health food store in East Lansing (from 2-4 in the afternoon), and then Rendezvous on the Grand, a very fine social/drinking establishment in Old Town (three bands, show 9:30pm-1am, I do not know when we will be on during that time). How different can it get? And all fun, of course.

So here is the postcard I’m mailing out this week to friends without email access (click to get a larger image):

If you want an Adobe Acrobat PDF document to print, Click Here. It will print 4 postcards for you, that’s how the document is set up, but it is quite readable.

This postcard presents three new venus, places where we have never performed before. May I exclaim out loud about how excited I am that we will be playing JazzFest in Lansing this year? Our music is indeed very early jazz. My favorite singer of the 1920’s is Annette Hanshaw, who was one of the first Jazz singers (though sadly forgotten through the years, she was brilliant). I do a good number of songs she performed.

And let’s face it, an act in their home town is often passed by for someone outside the city limit. I am very happy to have a chance to smile at Lansing from an Old Town stage on the 2nd day of August. This is looking up to be a good year!

The MMKG (Lansing, Michigan greater area knitting guild) is in transit. Tonight is the monthly large meeting (3rd Tuesday, 7pm-9pm). However, we are moving toward a new location. We have been in University Lutheran Church (East Lansing) for many years. However, this month we have a temporary location and then we will move to a long-term new home.

Tonight we meet at the Okemos branch of the CADL library, also called Hope Borbas Library. When I was a little girl (around 1962) we lived in downtown Okemos. (This was before the mall and Meijer… there were horses in the barn which now is Pilgrim House furniture store.) Mom would walk us to the library where Hope Borbas herself read me stories. She was a kind person, and when her life ended too soon they honored her by naming the branch after her. I love that.

I also moved back to Okemos for one year as an adult, I think it was around 1990. At that time, the library was still “downtown” Okemos (which has a mall now a mile or two away, overpowering any sense of a real downtown). For a reference point, locals, it was about a block from Traveler’s Club Restaurant and Tuba Museum.

I just Googled for the Hope Borbas Library, though, and it is shown as on Okemos Road south of Mount Hope (not as far as the railroad tracks). It looks like it’s near the light at Science Parkway. I sure am glad I spent the time to look it up. For those who would like to check out a map to the new location, here is the page presented by the Capital Area District Library/CADL website:

http://www.cadl.org/news/locations/okemos

I hope local folks will join us. You do not need to be super skilled, you just have to love yarn and knitting and/or crochet. It’s a friendly group, sort of large, so do tell folks you are sitting with that you are new. They might think they should remember meeting you before, with 30-50 people at a meeting. You need not be invited to show up and be welcome (and the snacks are always artful and tasty, if I can lure you that way).

Oh, for the record, the 3rd Tuesday meetings starting in April 2008 will be at the Haslett Public Schools Administration Building at 5593 Franklin Street in Haslett, very near the Middle School.

I love the Spanish language. If I could live my college years over again, I would major in Spanish, in one way or another. That is past, but I have occasionally taken Spanish I over and over again, as an audit, at the local community college. I have sometimes taken Spanish II though for some reason it does not fit my schedule as well.

Once upon a time, in the days before Brian, I planned to move to Mexico. I know that if I lived somewhere like that, I would be up and running without too much delay. I just take to language well, if I allow myself focus.

But now I’m in Lansing for the long haul, it appears. When I find myself lucky, I get to read Spanish here and there, and I recognize maybe every 5th word. I can sort of figure out what is going on but not with any certainty.

Sometimes I go to Mexican restaurants or groceries in Lansing. I just love listening to the sound of the language flow during a conversation. There is such a happiness in me to hear people just plain chatting (or asking where they keep this or that item on the shelves). I love the sound of the language even when I can not tell at all what the subject is.

So today while surfing too much I found a website, Tejemanejes, (labores laneras para internautas hispanohablantes) which is apparently an online knitting magazine in the Spanish language. And the first pattern is wonderful, a cashmere sweater (la perla negra/black pearl) with v-neck that is modeled on a man but I can tell they believe it to be unisex. I’d agree… I would love to have that sweater in my closet (even in black). The bottom “hem” is straight, no ribbing but no hem either (must be the stitch pattern allows it to lie flat).

There are other fascinating photos of pattern (patron) projects. No doubt some of you reading this will be able to use these patterns (and articles) without a struggle. In my case, there is no way my limited Spanish will get me through the very specialized knitting instructions.

I don’t make many sweaters, but this Black Purl one is really right up my alley. I guess in this case it’s good that I have an excuse that I can’t even start to make it!

There are some other interesting designs as well. There is a cabled moebius scarf, what appears to be crocheted colorwork socks, a hair net that appears to be silk/stainless steel from Habu, and a toy; a crocheted “rock star dinosaur.” One of the dinosaurs has an eyepatch, very fun.

(Woohoo… I just looked in the archives, and a wonderful hat based on an Egyptian sock motif, includes guidelines in English for knitting it. It’s not a full pattern but it is a guide and a chart. For me, that would work great, and I bet it will be enough for a few of you out there as well.) Actually, in the archives there are a number of items with English help.

I hope I translated the tiny bit I dared, correctly enough to not embarrass or confuse anyone. Let us face it, many knitters love looking at pictures of knitted items. This will work well in the pictures arena, even if you are, like me, Spanish handicapped when it comes to knitting patterns.

Photo? I took this in 1996, in Tulum, Yucatan, Mexico. Can you see the small squarish pyramid top and left? The water at right is the Caribbean Ocean. It is an ancient and holy place, one of the few places in the world where I literally can find no words.

It is the most beautiful place I have ever seen, and I’ve had the great fortune to travel a bit. This photo was taken with film, printed on photo paper, scanned in, and manipulated for the web when many computers had the capacity to display merely 16 colors on screen. Please forgive its lack of detail and darkness, that’s the best I could do at the time.

I read on Cosmic Pluto’s weblog about her making her own Indian food, Mattar Paneer. She shared the recipe for making this Indian cheese (it does not melt and is not aged/fermented, a very unusual food). I have not had any aged/fermented foods or yeast/mold category foods since 1991, and thought all cheeses were on the “no-no” list. Imagine my surprise when I heard you could make the cheese and eat it less than an hour later. No aging!

For several years I avoided dairy foods but luckily that rest did my system well and now I can have dairy if it is not aged (I miss my yogurt but I have not missed standard “sour” cheeses at all). Ice cream is a real treat, though it is hard to find it without raw egg as an emulsifier, even in a health food store. Luckily I have found one brand I can get locally and that has been a wonderful delight in the last several months. But I digress.

I love Indian food. When I travel, I seek out Indian restaurants. Even better, I have had several friends, co-workers, students over the years who were from India, and thus I have been gifted with foods from folks’ kitchens, the best ever.

I bought an intro-to-Indian-food cookbook over a year ago but never made anything from it. After I had that week where I could barely drink tea in early February, the first thing I craved when I wanted to eat again, was Indian food. And just a few weeks later, Cosmic Pluto posted the recipe she got from a friend who is Indian. Score!

I went to the Health Food store and got some whole milk. It can’t be ultra-pasteurized to make cheese, but I got some that was regular health-level pasteurized only, and it was even the kind where you have to shake it because the fat rises to the top (not homogenized).

And I made Paneer, and it was pretty darned simple to do. Then I made the vegetable base, Mattar Paneer (green peas in a spiced tomato sauce with chunks of paneer in it) from Cosmic Pluto’s recipe. She had made the recipe more simple than her friend’s version… but since I do not like fussing in the kitchen I sped it up even more. And it was really good, and it made me VERY happy.

You may have to look for the cheese in this photo. Since it does not melt and is white, it may look like pieces of tofu in the sauce there. I think firm tofu may substitute, but the cheese was a real treat for me. I put the sauce on quinoa rather than rice, and we garnished the dish with chopped cilantro. Any fresh herb you enjoy would garnish well, I would imagine. The fresh leaves on top of the smooth and spicy sauce were a great balance.

Every year in February/March I favor hot greens and light turquoises. The year I came home from 38 days in sunny Africa, to a blizzard, I realized what I was doing. I was trying to “Knit Spring into Existence.”

That year I went to Threadbear and bought some Koigu handpainted brushed mohair in an incredible spring/grassy green. I continued to scan the store until I found 4 other yarns that also spoke of warm shoots pushing up in a garden, with a clear blue sky above.

With those yarns, I started to knit a stole (which actually took me more than a year to complete). That impulse purchase in the end became my Party Stole pattern.

This is not the only time I have done something on this thought-wavelength. I have noticed for a half-dozen years, that if I dye yarn in February it comes out in the spring-green/turquoise realm, every time. Right now I am wearing spring green bulky yarn footies over my thinner wool socks. I have knit a pair of spring green alpaca/wool Aran-weight (thick) yarn socks in the last month or two. I am also test knitting a mitten, and I could have done that in any yarn from my stash but I picked a hot green Cascade merino/angora blend. I am again trying to knit spring.

SO: I propose a little project. I propose we all knit spring (or crochet, sew, embroider, dye, spin or otherwise work creatively) in concert. This can be a one-day instant project, from a favorite pattern or a new project from one of the excellent books on one-skein projects. It can be bigger, but I’m thinking instant is closer to my concept. For some reason, any project at all can make me feel like I have regained my power over this miserable weather (or even life as a whole). Hey, I’m a mortal human but I can pretend.

I invite you to send me photographs of your project, anything that feels like bringing spring to town early in your own mind. It does not have to be my pet color scheme. (I am guessing Diana/Otterwise is likely to choose yellows for sunlight… I recall her cooking an almost-entirely yellow meal to celebrate solstice.) I will post the projects I receive from you any time in March.

But please hear me… do not send me huge photos straight from your camera. I can not afford to be slammed by too many huge photos at a time. If you know you are not techie enough to edit your photo to a smaller size, consider putting it on Flickr or another website for photos and send me the web page address where it lives (this is ideal, more so than an attachment). If you do not have that option, write me first, before sending a very-large photo via email. If you send me an attachment photo, the largest measurement in either direction should be 400 pixels or less. Thanks.

That said, my email address is Lynn (AT) ColorJoy DOT com. I am eager to see what/if you care to share. Thanks!

(Photos: Me wearing my Party Stole (pattern), Gentle Joy colorway of my Tiptoe Sockyarn.)

The MagKnits.com magazine which was delayed to March is now up, with my Sipp-A-Roo pattern (like a kangaroo pouch for your water bottle). It actually has been up since February 29. I had a few reasons for delaying the announcement here… and I won’t go into all that.

I finished felting two more Sipp-A-Roos using different yarn combinations, a few days ago (OK, so I stuck with my favorite green-turquoise-blue range, after all I am trying to knit spring into existance this time of year). So without any more delay, here is the official photo, and an additional one with 2 more bags.

I actually was inspired by a few friends who have children (and thus strollers). They carry water bottles but they have so much else to carry it seemed a good idea to make a bottle carrier that would strap to the stroller. Never mind that my shoulder-strap bags work great when I walk (which is often) and not at all when I ride my bike (not often enough). Brian rides his bike to work every day the weather is warm enough, and other friends also ride bike a lot (including knitting friend Cynthia who helped me proofread the ZigBagZ pattern charts).

So here is a bottle bag which will work for bicycles, strollers, perhaps even backpack straps. For anyone toting some water along with them. Wool bags do a great job of insulating, too, so if your bottle sweats in the humid weather you will be glad for the fabric as well as the strap.

The pattern can be found at Magknits Pattern Page. Photos and additional information can be see on my Ravelry Sipp-A-Roo project page (if you are a member of Ravelry, which is free but requires a bit of a wait to get in).

Anybody who knits one of these (or any of my patterns, for that matter) is invited to send me a photo of their project. I would LOVE to show off your work here on my blog. Perhaps we can say that I might give you the 15 minutes of fame Andy Warhol talked about? Or not, your choice.

For the knitters interested in the yarns used, I’m including that information here. For my non-knitter readers, you can tune in again tomorrow for less techie-knitter writings!!!

The aqua/gray bag on the MagKnits site (upper left here) is Nashua Creative Focus Worsted aqua with DiVe’ Autunno (which is actually a slowly-self-striping gray to turquoise colorway but it just looks gray here).

The Greenish-Turquoise with Teal is Karaoke Solid turquoise (wool/soy silk, notice the strap did not felt as much because of the soy silk though it looks lovely), and Malabrigo Worsted Merino teal. The Malabrigo felts very quickly so I stopped when the bag was the right circumference for the bottle, leaving the strap lightly felted. This bag “lives” at Rae’s Yarn Boutique in Lansing, Michigan.

The Green/Pink bag is Nashua Creative Focus Worsted (wool/alpaca) Emerald and Paton’s Classic Wool (That’s Pink). The Nashua is a little more dense and is much fuzzier than the pink, so the green it felted very quickly and dominated the bag after felting. I think it looks like a garden.

(Click image for a Letter-Sized PDF poster.)

On Tuesday I made brownies, three bread pans/18 smallish squares… and piled them on a disposable plate. And took them to the corner Meineke Muffler shop. I went in maybe an hour before they were to close. Apparently I caught them at a slow time, because three guys were standing at the front desk, apparently chatting.

I asked “So you guys like brownies, right?” They answered in the affirmative. So I told them I made them brownies as a thank you for giving me a good week. And I drove away, no doubt as they were diving in to the goodies.

That made me feel good.

I found Gretchen’s Kitchen while looking for a recipe for an Indian bread. I found many other recipes, not only Indian in origin, but other locales throughout the world.

The photos (when there are some) are not over-fancy. They do not “style” the foods, they just take photos and then eat (as I do, when I share a recipe with you).

I am eager to try the spicy kohlrabi and a few of the Indian flat breads. Perhaps you will find a recipe that sounds good to you, as well.

My friend Temesgen is a musician who specializes in one specific style of ancient Ethiopian music. He is the house musician for Altu’s Ethiopian Cuisine (see photo at right). He plays there the first Saturday of most months (sometimes messed up by holidays, for example he will not play in July).

Temesgen has a website, Temesgen.com, and he has several CDs available there as well as a new video he just released. There is also a Youtube version of it, for those who like to subscribe to Youtube contributors. I just watched it and enjoyed it very much. It is not like any sort of music I grew up with, but it’s soothing and rhythmic in a way that is more like the earth and less like a march or a polka.

I knew Temesgen’s wife Carol back when I was still teaching computer classes. I taught her how to code HTML web pages (when there were no truly functional programs that created web pages for you). But I digress. Just suffice it to say that in Lansing it seems that everyone knows everyone these days!

Do consider taking a look at a video by a man who is keeping alive a musical tradition that is dying out. And if you find this interesting, consider reading some related detail on Wikipedia (much of which was contributed to the wiki by Temesgen himself):

• Temesgen
• Begena (instrument shown in photo above)
• Krar (smaller instrument)
• Music of Ethiopia (A bigger picture)

I had a sound in the back wheel of my car. It sounded like something plastic dragging, then a clunk, then a drag and another clunk. I got on the ground several times after hearing it, and looked for something but there was nothing. It seemed louder when I would brake to a full stop. I was worried.

I went to the corner Meineke Muffler shop, where they are “just folks” and talk straight talk to me. I’m pretty sure this is a franchise, but at least the folks on the corner (where I can walk from our house) have always felt right to me. It’s not fancy, but that makes me clear they aren’t marking up my repairs to pay for the decor, you know?

I’ve been going there maybe 15+ years (starting when I did not live in the neighborhood), whenever they can do the work. (I have a VW New Beetle, sometimes the dealer is the only place… sometimes another shop with the right sort of Bug Computer does my work.) For mufflers, brakes, shocks, things like that, I always go to this corner shop.

When I had my ‘85 VW Golf with 250,000 miles on it, they did not act like I was wrong to love/keep that old car. A dealer doesn’t look twice at a 14-year-old vehicle, they just think you need a new one. And since it’s their business to love new cars, of course that’s what they think. But at Meineke they like old cars, they understand.

One guy who has been working there 11 years, told me he expects my car to go maybe over 300,000 miles. (I had just told him that it had 131,000 already on it.) I tell you what, that is the guy I want working on my car!

Meineke has twice in the last year sent me away with a little tweak and an explanation… but they didn’t need to bill me and they chose not to. Hey, if they did not need to order a part and have a mechanic on it more than the initial look, they can do it that way. Of course, most shops can bill a little for that and I’d pay it, it’s business. No real big deal.

Today? The coolest news. When I got 2 new tires earlier this year and the tire place moved the front ones to the back, one of the bolts did not get screwed on well. It unscrewed itself. Since I have a sort of hubcap that seals on the wheel tightly, the bolt was in there clunking around. The cap is made of plastic, so that explains the way I described it. I could hear it better when I was going slowly, which makes sense. Nothing wrong with the brakes or the shocks. Woohoo!!!

Can you feel my relief? My elation? He showed me the problem. He screwed the bolt back in securely. He sent me away without a bill. My Joy Bug and I are having a very good day.

Yup, that shop will get my business again. These folks are the real thing.

Vicki of KnittingDragonflies has given me (and my mother) both a “You Make My Day” blogland happiness award. Vicki, I am absolutely honored to be on your list.

Leeann of Wool & Chocolate awarded me this same honor in late January (just as I was heading into the month-of-low-health which we just finished up. I did mention the award when she gave it to me.

I find it impossible to name 10 people. Some of those I might choose have been chosen dozens of times already. I look at my Google Reader (blog organizing system) and I have 20 blogs listed under “friends.” There is no way to do this without hurting someone who I think is fabulous.

So I will specifically decide to exclude every single blog which is knitting or wool related. And I will not choose exactly 10. But I’ll put a few here I have not seen elsewhere (I mostly see knitting blogs awarded, because I am frequently reading knitting blogs).

I am making sure to list only blogs that are updated several times a week. Right now those are criteria that bring my list down to something somewhat manageable. I think these are listed approximately in the order I discovered them.

If you write a knitting or related blog, please know that I wanted very much to choose your site for this award but it was an impossible task.

OK, here are the non-knitting blogs I read regularly, listed under my first list “Friends” in Google Reader. They all do make me happy for Blogland, so this is as reasonable a choosing system as any I can imagine:

The Iceland Weather Report - A woman born in Iceland, raised in Canada, tells of the everyday and the unusual back in Iceland where she has lived for the last 14 years of her adult life. I love her candid and observant writing style.

The Cooking Adventures of Chef Paz - This writer is also a gifted photographer. Her passion (for food, cityscapes of all sorts, cilantro, rice, and life) keeps me coming back. Photos of New York City every Monday.

Kathleen’s Vegetarian Kitchen - My Sister-in-Love Kathy (Brian’s sister) lives in Florida, cooks vegetarian, even shows how to make mozzarella cheese at home. Also traveling/restaurants, both in the USA and out.

Doug Berch - music friend who posts about his music performing and recording, his instrument building (lap/mountain dulcimers, really beautiful to the eyes as well as ears) and sometimes poetry. He’s a fine human being, too.

Ukulele & All That Jazz - Howlin’ Hobbit, a ukulele player in Seattle. I met him through this blog (a report on one of the regional ukefests brought him the first time). He talks about his city, about performing, recording, and geeky interesting things. Never a dull moment.

And here are two blogs about house renovating that I read less often, but when I do get there they can keep me up till too late reading every single word. They are not friends, I may not have even left them any comments before, but I have shared the sites with interested friends:

Stucco House - In the twin cities of Minnesota, a little 1920s bungalow. I used to own a bungalow in Lansing, and I was born in “The Cities.” I’m fascinated.

The Petch House - a Victorian in Eureka, California, which was pretty much gutted and subdivided when the current owner moved in. Reclaimed lumber from warehouses, vintage tile laid one tiny hexagon at a time. Vintage-era light fixtures, re-wired up to code. Absolutely riveting to me.

And a blog I am really new to, but which has exotic and beautiful photographs. I think I followed a food link to this but I do not see food when I look today. I’m not sure I can say that this fits the original essence of the award since I’m still figuring it out. However, what I’ve found so far (living outside the USA, fascinating architecture, embellishment, clothing, photography) sure makes my heart sing when I go there (Yarnstorm fans will enjoy this photography with certainty):

My Marrakesh - You will have to figure this one out yourself, but the photos are worth a peek if you do not read a word.

Kristin Nicholas linked to a blog I had not read before this week, KnittingIris. These are magical but real photos of hoarfrost, the most incredible natural beauty, photos from three very cold winter mornings. If you need to feel better about the cold weather, this might help.

KnittingIris also has some wonderful photos of the recent lunar eclipse. Worth seeing, in my opinion.

On February 29 we were still chilly here, and the piles of snow were so big sometimes they could block the view of most of a small car. Somehow we lucked out and got a serious thaw just in time for March.

It was 52F/11C when I woke up yesterday. I turned off the furnace and opened the back and front doors, and let the fresh air revive our house. I thrive during months where I can keep windows open, and I never quite feel fully alive when cooped up. It was a delight to have those doors open for about an hour. I wrapped up in a blanket, wore a hat and wristwarmers, and my heart felt toasty warm!

They had predicted a large drop in temperature yesterday and a small accumulation (1/2″, about 1cm). Neither happened. And I woke up today and the sun is shining just as much as it can. There are clouds but room between them for the sun to make its way and brighten up my house in a way that I have not seen in far too long.

Apparently we are just north of where the predicted weather actually hit. I talked to Diana yesterday and they were sitting around freezing, while we were balmy. They are only just over an hour away, southeast (near Ann Arbor, we are in Lansing, Michigan).

Today they say it will be below freezing and they are predicting 2 inches/5cm. That seems so minor, like no snow at all, after the feet and feet of snow that has come down during February. One can drive in 2 inches of snow without a plow. We are in business now!!!

I am counting down, not literally but emotionally… my violets typically bloom in March. Come on, Violets! Here is a photo of them from a previous spring:

Well, here I am late afternoon updating the post. The sky is now typical Lansing-winter white, and the National Weather Service is predicting snow both day and night for now through Saturday. At least 30% chance of snow every day/night till Friday night, where it becomes merely a “chance” of snow.

Just the same, it’s getting close to the end of this weather and I am feeling better just thinking that thought.

Well… SO much to do. The ZigBagZ Patterns were sent out to pre-ordering folks on Friday just before the deadline. It is very exciting after eight months of development, to send “my baby” out into the world.

I had some delays, the worst being several weeks of varying illness from “can not focus my eyes/can only sleep” to “wobbly knees.” The last week was not too bad, mostly wobbly knees, but then my printer gave up the ghost and we had to order another one on Monday (a small-office type, so we could not buy at the local Staples).

In the meantime, I had some issues with photographs I placed into my page layout program acting odd. I am so new to InDesign that I just could not figure out what was wrong. Brian helped me get to a place where it didn’t look wrong while printing, though I still do not know what happened.

Thank goodness that got fixed just about when we got the call on Friday that the new printer had arrived. Woohoo!

And the new printer is just spectacular so far. I printed a full ream of paper in part of a day and we had to order more toner the day after the printer got here (printers often come loaded with low-volume toner cartridges and we knew that, but it was scary how fast we used it).

This baby is fast, it’s quieter than our old one by a lot. It deals with color photographs very well. And… once I figure out how to do it, it will print on both sides of one sheet (duplexing) automatically. Without me standing by to control it. Seriously wonderful.

It’s a Ricoh, and it is HUGE (maybe 3 times our last color laser printer which seemed big at the time). However, it’s really perfect for the needs of my business and our musical act, and we gladly made room for it.

Brian did some research for this purchase, and I am thrilled with the result. Since I’ve bought a good number of consumer goods in the last year that I do not like very well. I was extremely happy for him to be the researcher for this very important purchase. I’ll have the printer longer than my laptop, no doubt.

And Now for the Coolest News

Anyway, that was the boring part of this post. I am here to brag about my mom. She and Fred entered the Polk County (Florida) Senior Games again. This is the largest Senior Games in the state of Florida (which has a lot of seniors/retirees). It is even bigger than the State games, a lot of folks participate.

So they competed in couples’ dance (ballroom, etc.) this week. And they came home with NINE MEDALS. All of them are Gold or Silver. Woohoo, Mom!!!

I am at that age where some of my friends are dealing with parents in ill health. Mom had a bit of a struggle about 11-12 years ago, but she is not wasting any time at this point. We all are lucky for this, and none of us in this family take it for granted.

Mom is clear that any day alive on this planet, is a good day. When I want to whine about what seem like big “hiccups” in my life, I try to remember that. I want to be like this woman when I grow up.

I saw my mom kick her foot up to shoulder-height two summers ago, to show off her shoes to someone behind a high counter. Mom is in her young 70’s.

Mom has the most beautiful hair of anyone I know, it’s pure white-silver and perhaps more lovely now than it ever was (and she has always worn her hair long… it’s shorter than it was but still longer than 99% of her peers).

Mom volunteers to help kids learn reading. She rides her recumbent tricycle to school, about 2 miles. Mom is involved in her churches, one in Florida and one up in Michigan. Mom socializes with friends and relatives in both states. Both places are home to her. Mom is a social butterfly of the right kind.

And she and Fred won NINE medals this week for dancing. Cool beans.

Photo added a few hours after initial post: Mom at her 70th birthday lunch. She’s wearing a ColorJoy stole… I designed the pattern, Diana knit it, Mom wears it. All good. It was August so Mom had her famous long hair tied back somehow… but there is her smiling self.