Our newspaper, the Lansing State Journal (LSJ), is interested in locals who use Twitter. There is something called a “hashtag” where a person writing a post/tweet (140 characters maximum) can code/tag for a particular topic. Right now, the paper is interested in the #LoveLansing hashtag.

I have met a few folks through this hashtag. When I need to know how the roads are, I can check the posts of people I don’t even know, who sent notes to the Twitter site with #LoveLansing in their tweet.

Alisha Green, a reporter for the LSJ, found that I use the #LoveLansing hashtag rather frequently. She asked if she could interview me about it. Of course, I agreed.

She also interviewed @TreverJClark, a and Anna-Marie Herman, a young lady who once studied knitting with me and who now works for Rae’s Yarn Boutique. They are both quoted in the article.

If you are local, it is in the Local section of today’s paper (Saturday, January 29). Click here to read it online, or better yet, grace the LSJ with a newspaper purchase. I know they will be appreciative.

Greg DeRuiter was the photographer. He got some great shots during a short but fun photoshoot at Rae’s Yarn Boutique. Above is a screengrab of the main LSJ.com home page today (my photo rotated with a few other images).

There is an additional photo on the web page with the article, me playing a bit with some sock mannequins. The mannequins were showing off two Hot Waves Socks I knit, from the Joy of Sox book.

Are my 15 minutes of fame up yet? This is fun!

For those who are new here… ColorJoy (to me) is “Art as an Everyday Attitude” or “Many creative acts can be considered Art.” I don’t think that drawing and painting are the only activities for artists in the world. Nor do I merely add performance activities to the list. Gardening and cooking are just as artful, but perhaps less permanent.

Humans often embellish their bodies. In the Midwest culture, very few embellish their homes. Even fewer embellish their businesses.

I watch for purple houses when I travel, even near home. This photo is of a brick business building in downtown Charlotte, Michigan (a lovely and friendly small city about a half hour from Lansing). The back door is painted purple.

I think this is a dance studio. I saw some kids inside bouncing up and down, as I passed. No matter what it is, the color makes me smile!

If you want to see more purple house/building photos, check out my Purple Houses Archive.

More Color!

This gray time of year is enough to take many of us down. This time of year I often burst with the need to make everything around me colorful.

One easy thing to create smiles, is to mail something unbreakable through the US Postal Service (without an envelope). There are folks who do this often, and they frequently call it mailart.

If you can get stamps on it, you can send it Priority Mail. This sort of project must be handed directly to a postal worker over a counter, but other than that it’s easy to do. Sometimes the postal worker hasn’t seen mailart before. The proper response to “don’t you want an envelope?” is “No thank you, I do this all the time.”

Pictured here is a vinyl play ball embellished with permanent ink/handmade rubber stamps, sent to me a number of years ago in a mailart ball exchange. Also, there is a fish which comes apart into an envelope, embellished with stickers, which I sent to Brian’s dad; and an empty bleach bottle rescued from a recycle bin. The bottle was embellished with stickers and permanent markers. Once I sent a plastic yard flamingo (sans legs) to an artist friend in New Hampshire.

The way to get a stamp to stick to plastic is easy. Packing tape sticks to anything, it seems. Stick the packing tape on your item, and the stamp(s) on the tape. Voila! Instant Mailart! It makes you happy, the post office happy (if sent in a month other than December), and the recipient as well. I find this very gratifying. There is no need for anything near perfection, it’s all about energy and fun.

Other Embellishments – Nail Enamel on Hard Surfaces

I did a bit of embellishing last night with fingernail polish on a new speaker for my iPod, and got a bit frustrated. The polish is a very good paint, but the brushes the paint comes with, on the bottle cap, are unacceptable for my needs.

The good news was, even with bad brushes it turned out rather fun! I think it looks like an African or Mideastern drum.

Those who know me understand that I am not a fingernail-polish-on-my-hands sort of artist. However, if you want to paint on an enameled metal surface, or on a hard plastic, it’s an excellent and durable paint. I have an entire shoebox full of fingernail polish bottles in every possible bright color, it’s fun stuff.

So last night, I finally realized it was time for proper tools. I just today purchased my first sable-bristle paintbrushes. I wonder what my first project using them will be?

Finally, the Slooooooow Charlie Brown Sweater

Over the holidays, I got out a project that is solely for me. This is a sweater which has been in the works for over a year. I am not much of a sweater knitter, so I picked a pattern I didn’t write and dove in, with the intent to embellish.

I don’t know why… probably because it is a zigzag pattern, but I’ve long wanted a Charlie Brown-inspired shirt or sweater. We all can relate to bits of Charlie Brown, I think. However, the colors he wears in the comic strip are not my colors. I’m going to see if I can pull this off in my own colors.

I knit much of the front and back last year. I somehow had to fudge making the front and back end up with the same number of stitches without it being a strange shape. After our guild retreat last year, I put it away until Christmas parties beckoned. I worked on the zigzag-stripe embroidery in the car and at a family party one day, it went pretty fast. I just LOVE to embroider.

Here are two pieces, one on top of the other. This is when I was reknitting the shoulders for the 5th time, and before embellishing:

Here I am with both pieces pinned together, after embroidering zigzags:

You can tell it has been crunched up in my knitting bag, but I rather like the general idea. I sort of like it as a vest. Is it right for me to contemplate skipping out on the sleeves and just making armholes/neck finish?

I did not imagine the v-neck this deep from looking at the pattern, but I sure fudged enough that it’s not the way the designer intended. This makes me think it might just be better as a vest.

On the other hand, it would look less Charlie Brown if it didn’t have sleeves. I won’t be back to working on it for a while, but my mind can ponder the options while I do other things.

Any opinions? I’m all for input. Tell me what you think! (Please.)

Yesterday a friend asked me to drive her to the airport in Flint, an hour from my home in Lansing, Michigan, USA. I was all for it – an hour with my friend to strengthen relationship is enough bait for me.  (For Michigan folks, Flint’s airport is amazing… friendly folks  from shuttle to security, not too big, just a good place to patronize.)

I collect cities, and prefer them when they include skyscrapers and subway trains. (Art museums and ethnic food are my primary desires.)

I used to work in Flint at night several days a week and never got to adventure during the day. It seemed a good chance to do some of that on the way home. I got off at an exit where I knew there was a lot of commercial activity, and looked for some ethnic food.

First I found a small and tidy grocery called Dale’s Natural Foods. When I’d worked downtown Flint in the mid-1990’s, there was a corner shop called “Dale’s Foods for Health and Caramel Corn.” I loved it. Caramel Corn & freshly-made beet juice, with all the characters of the city, in a tiny space.

I used to go to Dale’s on class breaks when I taught at the bank in downtown Flint. I’ve never had such fun people-watching! Turns out Dale’s son realized that downtown didn’t bring enough customers, so he moved the store to Miller Road, and transformed it into a lovely grocery (sans caramel corn).

The son & I had a nice chat while I was there. Apparently at one time, the family had two separate businesses. One of them was a candy shop, the other a grocery. By the time I came shopping, it had morphed into the health/caramel corn shop (so cool, a poem in one phrase).

After my adventure at Dale’s, I found a mideastern restaurant which has only been there 2 months – Kabob City. I eat a lot of Lebanese food (Michigan has more Lebanese folks than Lebanon at this point). Mideastern food from any area, interests me.

From the outside, I was not sure if it might be a quick take-out place. I was surprised and delighted to find a well-appointed restaurant with fabulous food and good service.

This restaurant had a chef from Israel, and I could taste the love in his food. The flavors were layered perfectly. It was just incredible. I got to talk with him a bit, and tell him I appreciated his artful flavors.

It was so good, I took home some leftovers for my friend Altu She also cooks with love and artfulness at her restaurant in East Lansing, Altu’s Ethiopian Cuisine. Yum!

A day alone out of my house, for me, never turns out into a day of quiet aloneness. I can end up chatting with the security guard if you give me enough access. However, a day in a totally new place can truly renew me, people or not. The people of a city are a big part of its flavor. Yesterday was just the ticket!

I just left this note on as a blog comment on Bindu Wiles’ post, “Replenish, Part 3.”  Great post, highly recommended. My comment seemed just the ticket to share with you here, as well.

Photos: All from Kabob City. The plate was just a few of the selections from their salad bar. The bread was fresh and warm, the rice pudding very creamy, and the tea? The tea was served in a tall glass cup, as I remember it was in Egypt when I was there. That touch was special to me.

Today was spent, in large part, setting up a new internet service at our house. When it appeared that we were up and running, I decided to test by viewing a few videos. Some work better than others, though I am not surprised.

But what I found? Kids. Amazing incredible kids. Very, very different videos, but quite inspiring. Clearly kids are spending time on what interests them/matters to them. I came away with a lovely boost of hope.

First, a speech by 11-year-old Birke Baehr at TED-x Asheville. He is interested in the foods we eat, how they are grown and how they impact our bodies when we eat them. His speech is only 5 minutes, but it’s powerful, clear, and funny.

Then I went to a post by Jonathan Fields, which was entitled “Grumpy?” He did what he could to turn around a grumpy day. First he shares a story which helped him reframe the day, then he shows this video of three young ones dancing like pros!

It’s clear these kids dance any time they can. The passion is clear. Love this.

Tomorrow I get to teach a friend’s 6 -year-old daughter how to knit. I am looking forward to it. Here’s a photo of some kids I taught in the past:

The girl at bottom right in a pink t-shirt, was five years old when I taught her to knit. I’ve never seen a child want to knit so badly!

The first day I worked with her, she struggled with her undeveloped fine-motor skills. I spent over half an hour with her, holding my hands on hers and saying a knitting poem to help remember the motions.

She had it all down by the end of the class. The lovely young one turned into a passionate, dedicated knitter.

She knit any time she possibly could, and the last time I saw her, she was working on a TANK TOP. Yup. I have no doubt that she finished it, either. The parents were all for it, and she could barely wait to knit again any time she had to leave it behind.

Picture at right? This elementary-aged child noticed that someone had donated a kit to knit a frog purse. She knit the frog, almost all at home without my assistance. It was her first time on double-pointed needles if I remember right.

Yes, she was unusual, but there were plenty of backpacks, mittens and socks back in my community center days. Most of my kids there were between 2nd and 5th grades. They learned how to figure things out, rather than following patterns precisely. Looks like a frog to me!

There are many other great stories I recall. I’ll just leave you by saying that I am inspired by children often. Kids in elementary school are used to being imperfect at new tasks. They want to master skills so that they can look older.

“This isn’t hard, look at me knit with my eyes closed” is one thing I hear from 3rd graders from time to time. Yeah! Their enthusiasm inspires me.

If you find you are down or losing faith, I recommend spending some time with children, if possible. Eleanor Roosevelt wrote:

It is impossible to be a cynic if you live a good deal with young people. Fundamentally, every young person has a feeling that the future is going to hold something of value.
Eleanor Roosevelt
“You Learn by Living”

Tonight (Tuesday) Mid-Michigan Knitters Guild meets, 7-9pm.

Haslett Public Schools Admin Bldg,
5593 Franklin St
Haslett, MI 48840

All who are interested are welcome.

#LoveLansing

(Here is an atypical photo, to show we can be a bit of fun!)

This blog started when I found that folks around me did not honor and recognize the ways in which they were creative. I believe that art is much more than beautiful things in frames on walls, and this society seems to stop there.

Folks would meet me, find that I was both a singer and a knitter, and determine that “Lynn is Creative” and declare that they were not. Some of those people were excellent gardeners, cooks, teachers. Some put clothing together on themselves in a creative way… style, not necessarily fashion. Some tell great stories, some make others feel comfortable and at home.

I believe that these actions and skills are definitely artful. I would even go so far as to say they can be called art. I might even insist that they *should* be called art, if not Art with a capital “A.” I realize I am in a minority with that opinion.

One of the things I have always done, is embellish things around me. In high school I would embroider or find patches to sew on favorite things. I went to town on my army-green canvas backpack. Tthey were a new thing then, most kids did not have them and they were not made to carry the weight they do today, thus needed repair often.

Ink

I remember one girl in my school was a wonderful singer and actually “doodled” on her light-colored guitar with ballpoint pen. It had that deco-inspired 70’s look to it and was quite lovely. I was puzzled but fascinated. I was young enough to want my guitar pristine, but loved her boldness and her skill.

Nail Polish

I have an overflowing plastic shoebox full of fingernail polish in many colors. I only wear polish on my hands when I dance, but most of the colors I don’t like much on my hands. I use them to decorate/embellish everyday objects.

In the first photo here, you can see a project I did in December 2001. It’s a standard, heavy-duty Stanley Thermos in industrial green (a baked on finish).

One year the drab weather after Christmas got me down, and I painted this to improve my mood. At the time I was a computer trainer and went out of town to teach most days. I took tea in this, almost every day. I was not pleased with its bland look. The change delighted me.

Fabric Paint

Second is a cell phone I decorated around the same time as the Thermos. This was a hard plastic case, and I wanted to be sure that if I needed warranty service I could remove the embellishment. I tried fabric paint, which scrapes off with a fingernail if needed. It stayed on that phone longer than the phone lasted.

Photos 3 and 4 are my current phone (I’ve tried 2 others recently and liked this one better… it still works, so I’m behind the times but happy). I embellished this one around 2003.

It was navy blue plastic (not as hard and shiny as the first one, but not rubbery). Nokia was selling fun, colorful plastic cover pieces to replace the  intentionally ugly navy. They were about $35. I decided to get out the fabric paint again.

It’s amazing to me how well this has stood up. The red bits are on a shinier surface, the teal is on the matte-finished navy. The one hot pink blob on top of the brand name was fingernail polish I tried later, and it did not cover up the lettering so I stopped right there.

But this phone has not been babied… it knocks around in my purse, my car, my pocket. The corners have worn through but the rest is remarkably untouched. It makes me quite happy, even now, to see those colors.

Stickers

Once upon a time, I had a laptop stolen. I thought it was so pretty straight out of the box, I did not want to mar its surfaces with identifying marks. My husband, a banjo player, has put stickers on both banjo cases and laptops for a long time. It sure makes things clearly the property of only one person. My second laptop got Teletubby stickers. I was working at a community center, and Teletubbies were for “babies” so that made my stuff uncool. Score.

My current laptop is here. I got a great collection of wall stickers from the Dollar Tree store a few years ago, and they were the perfect size to embellish boldly.

Paint

Notice that I also embellished the house a bit. We have white aluminum siding, but the windows and trim are wood. I used purple on the porch floor and part of the windows. I used a salmon color on the horizontal details including the railing.

Our house has a red roof. I picked salmon that was a lighter version of our roof color, to unify the color scheme. It works pretty well. (By the way, the pillow here was made by Brian’s sister Jane, who is quite an amazing quilter. The chairs were that color when Brian got them, before he met me. Amazing, huh? The rocker is “my” turquoise I’ve painted in 3 houses, two before we met.)

Yarn/Embroidery

One can embellish knitting, as well. I knit a pair of mitts based on Kristin Nicholas’ Mother/Daughter Mittens in her Color by Kristin book. They called for a bit of embroidery once the knitting was finished. I love making French knots, so that was a fun process.

In the photo above, the left one is embellished and the right one is waiting for its turn. The pattern in the book actually is a true mitten, I altered these to peek out my fingers instead.

Kristin put out a great book on Embroidery called Colorful Stitchery, which is now out in paperback. She also has two knitting books: Kristin Knits and Color by Kristin. They are all inspiring and informative. You can buy them directly from her at her web page under books: http://KristinNicholas.com

I love all of her work. We’ve met, but I get nothing at all (but joy) for introducing her work to you.

If knitting embellishments is an interest of yours, you may also want to check out any of Nicki Epstein’s books, or Anna Zilboorg’s book “Magnificent Mittens” which has edgings of all sorts (such as those shown above). The Mitten book was just reissued this year with a section on socks added. Very inspiring.

What Have I Missed?

What do you embellish? What might you LIKE to embellish but haven’t tried yet? Did you know that fabric paint was so durable, even on non-fabric surfaces? (It’s also great on magnets for sticking on the car, and it doesn’t fade fast in sun.)

What does this idea bring up for you? A different color of shoelaces? More than just a cherry to decorate a dessert? A tattoo? Multicolored hair? I’d love to get your feedback.

I’ve been knitting!

Warmth is Wonderful

I released a new pattern called “BreezeBlockers” recently.

The design contains three views: Anklewarmer, Pulsewarmer (wrists without a thumb hole), and Cup Cozy. All three are knit flat, with slipped stitches and a few rows of garter/rib on the edges. These stitch patterns mix up the colors in the yarn. There are built-in buttonholes.

You see, when I go for a walk, I want to wear something warm around my ankles. This can keep snow out of my boots, and also keep the wind from chilling me. It’s a real hassle, though, to take off my shoes, put on legwarmers, put shoes back on. I’ve been wishing for buttoned warmers. Here they are!

I’m happy with the stitch pattern. It’s very insulating, and does a great job of making “pooling” yarns not pool. (Pooling is when spots of the same color end up next to each other in the final item, and make strong blobs of color. Some folks like it, many do not.)

The pattern takes very little yarn. The pink/red/purple photos here were knit in Mirasol Hacho. I got two anklewarmers and two pulsewarmers for myself out of 100gm of the DK-weight yarn.

The first cupwarmer in silver/green/blue was knit in Crystal Palace Merino 5. The heather gray is Berroco Ultra Alpaca Lite. And then, there is this last green/purple project.

Two strands of sockyarn held together equals the gauge of DK-weight yarn. Here I used leftover yarns from other projects. I found a solid green that worked with the stripe in my ceramic cup, and also found a self-striping yarn with purple, gray, cream, and blue in it.

I picked the yarns because they had colors related to the mug’s pattern (above, before). I held them together as I knit. They worked well (after, below/right)!

What a great way to use the yarn left over after knitting socks! As a confessed tea addict, I think I need a number of these for myself.

My mom called me today to say she will miss our concert tonight. She reminded me that I had not announced the show here on my blog, as I once did regularly.

So: with appreciation for the nudge, here’s a little blurb for a show that starts in fewer than two hours:

The Fabulous Heftones

Saturday, January 15
6:30-8:30pm
Altu’s Ethiopian Cuisine
East Lansing, Michigan
Map

Romance and Laughs
from the first 20 years of last century

Join us!

I’ve been asked enough that I’ll tell the story of my broken arm. This is far more personal saga than creativity-related. If you bore easily I’m not hurt if you mosey along.

On October 31, I went for my nightly walk, as usual. I walk to strengthen my bones, though I also get much pleasure from it.

I walked around the same block I typically walk. I decided to go the other direction.

A sidewalk crack caught first my left foot and then my right, and I fell hard. My wrists and palms hurt from the impact, and I scraped and bruised in a few places, particularly on my left side (I am right handed).

I assumed I had bruises and was otherwise fine. I babied it as best I could. I wore a homemade sling for a week or so, and braced my wrist.

Knitting was not a big issue, though I could not do it long. Typing was difficult. Twisting my hands to face palm down took effort, so I limited it or typed with one hand. My iPod Touch was a big help during that time.

I was developing the piecrust recipe for my recent dessert cookbook during this time. I learned to roll piecrust with one hand! I crack myself up sometimes. Keep on, keepin’ on!

It continued to hurt, past the time when a bruise would improve. Therefore, a few weeks after the fall I touched base with my doc. My wrist hurt most, so she ordered an X-ray to be taken before we met up. It showed no break in the wrist.

It turned out that even though my pain was in the upper arm and in my wrist, I broke one of the two bones in the lower arm, just underneath the elbow. The nerve which wraps around the bone at the point of the break, has nerve ends where the pain occurred. I was totally fooled.

I played my bass through it all. We did shows for Riverwalk Theatre, Ten Pound Fiddle, Altu’s Ethiopian Cuisine, and a few shows at Foods for Living, while I needed a sling. (The medical-issue sling I received partway through the journey was not my style, so I embellished it with some fabric paint.) For on stage, I found that my many large scarves/Indian wraps worked well as a dressy arm support.

You know, I can be either a wimpy, pouting toddler… or a tough Norwegian farmer like Grandpa B. I never know what I’m being. This time, I guess I did tough while worrying I was a wimp.

Fortunately, the bone doc says that even though it was broken for 2.5 weeks before I knew, I did a good job when I babied it. I don’t need a cast. This is one time where it’s good to be older; I would have been less cautious when I was young.

It’s much better now. I don’t have to even wear a sling at home since mid-December, but I still wear one out in public. It doesn’t hurt, though it is weak.

I do catch the ironic humor in this. I went on a walk to strengthen my bones. I broke a bone. Might as well get a chuckle out of that!

Creativity is everywhere in Lansing. We went to a potluck and Contra Dance at the Central United Methodist Church in downtown on New Year’s Eve.

I wish I had a photo of the food, because that was the first artfulness we experienced. The friendships, of course, are yet another creative force. The room was full of people who truly enjoy one another.

Contra Dance involves a lot of spinning around as a couple, and many women dress in full skirts to really emphasize that move. Costuming (which I define as putting together clothing in a deliberate method) is another enjoyable part of being in this crowd. Because it was New Year’s Eve, even more velvet was seen in what is normally a somewhat folksy group. Loved enjoying the clothes.

And then there was live music and dancing. I can’t use my not-quite-healed broken arm yet to dance, but we sat upstairs, listened to the music, and took some photos.

Even the building, built in the first part of the 1900s, is beautiful. There are precious few buildings of this era in Lansing. I love being there.

It was a great way to start the year! I hope things are pleasant for you thus far.

On New Year’s Eve, I made Habibi Brownies. I expected to take them to an event that night. That did not happen, because the brownies flopped.

You see, the previous time I had made brownies, I measured ingredients for two batches. One cup of rice flour in the mixing bowl, then one cup in a large zipper plastic bag, and so forth. I do this from time to time, and it makes the second batch of brownies easy.

The first clue I had that something was wrong, was when I added oil and water to the dry ingredients. I stirred. That is, I tried to stir. It was dry and paste-like. It was time for “plan B.”

My first theory was that I had perhaps measured an extra cup of flour into the baggie. I added more water, a lot more water. Now it acted like batter, but it still did not have the normal texture I expected.

I baked them the normal amount of time, at the normal temperature. They came out of the oven looking like the bottom of the dead sea. Brownies normally have a few cracks, but these were beyond the norm in a real way.

Then came the taste test. My mistake? I had not added sugar. None. They were rather inedible.

Mind you, my ingredients are more expensive than most, and I just hate throwing food away. Tossing out  from-scratch baked goods is just against my grain. But what could I do?

At this point I had nothing to lose. I contemplated how one might add sweetness (and the resulting moisture) to these brownies. Could I put a sauce/frosting on them? That seemed inadequate.

Then out of the depths of my mind came an idea: Bread Pudding! It’s not like what we typically call pudding in the USA, but my Grandma Illa used to make it on the farm. Grandma’s was made with dry bread, milk, egg, butter, sugar and cinnamon.

Could I make a non-cinnamon version of bread pudding with brownies instead of standard bread? It seemed worth a try.

As an aside, some of you know I just put out a recipe book which contains no egg and no dairy. For five years I had to eat that way, but I again can tolerate milk, and occasional eggs which are cooked all the way through. Bread Pudding would require serious experimentation if I wanted to make it without standard dairy/egg contents. I did not worry about it, for our own consumption.

The Internet was a fine source to read a few recipes, for reference. I took a stab at a combination of ingredients that just might work.

In the oven it went! The mixture puffed up like it might expand beyond the size of my baking pan (think souffle). Somehow I avoided a Dr. Seuss-like disaster, for which I am grateful.

Figuring out whether it was baked all the way was a guessing game, but somehow it worked well. After it cooled off, the pudding shrunk back into the pan, to un-scary proportions.

In the end? Success! We went from nasty, dry, un-sweetened brownies, to a lovely dessert. Score!

Some bread puddings are served with a thin, sweet glaze/sauce. This one did not need a thing. It was “just right,” as Goldilocks would say.

The poet in me has a sincere wish. I hope that transforming the final (failed) baked item of 2010 into the first (triumphant) baked good of 2011, is a metaphor. May we all have a similar transformation in our lives.

(It’s a better metaphor than lemonade, don’t you think? May you have a “Brownie Bread Pudding” sort of year!)