Kat Jorgensen - Yarns to Spin

Writers' Police Academy - The Experience

2011-11-11T21:37:00.000-05:00

So I got sidetracked by launching my mystery (Your Eight O'Clock Is Dead) and didn't get back to tell you about my adventures at the Writers' Police Academy.

First, I have to say it was a fabulous experience, and I'm so happy I had the opportunity to attend this year. I owe a huge thank you to Sisters In Crime since they defrayed a large portion of our registration fee.

Our first experience was a wet visit to the academy's body farm. I have never been so wet in my life - and I had an umbrella. I swear it was hurricane type rains. But everyone was good sports and trekked through the woods to the location.

Fortunately, the "body" turned out to be a mannequin. A lot of the dead body smells were washed away by the downpour. But it was quite realistic to be out in the woods at the site of a crime scene and to be aware of what the real life investigators go through to get clues and solve murders under all kinds of circumstances.

After the body farm, I had a fascinating session with Deneen Lofland who talked to us about Bio terrorism. We learned about the various types of labs used in our country and around the world and how bio terrorism works. I have to say I'm very happy Deneen is on our side.

Deneen showed all kinds of slides and I left with a wealth of information. I have a very healthy respect now for the kind of work she does and a much better understanding of how things can go terribly wrong either by accident or on purpose.

I went to classes on trace evidence, undercover work, processing a scene, blood spatter, ATF and cyber crimes. But one of my favorite times was the mock hostage demonstration the instructors put on for the entire 2011 class. We came into the main auditorium and this white tent was on stage. We'd later learn that one of our teachers was taken hostage by someone who worked for her. The negotiators came in and tried to get the bad guy to release his hostage and put down his gun.

But he refused. A shot rang out.

And down he went. Fortunately this was all a demonstration for us. But we learned that is what happens when the negotiations aren't going well and the hostage's life is in imminent danger. The sniper took his shot and aimed for the kill zone and that causes the bad guy to drop. The shot takes out the control center in the brain and there is no danger of reflexes causing injuries once that shot hits.

The sniper was then brought up on stage and showed us the weapon he used and the protective gear he wears. Sometimes he will be at a hostage situation for 20+ hours in full gear. I was so impressed that we have these kind of people protecting us. I also had a chance to take a separate class later from this sniper and he was very thorough and gave us a lot of detail about what it's like to do his job.

This is from the sniper class and shows one of the protective head coverings that are used to blend into the surroundings.

I also got to hear Katherine Ramsland, a forensic psychologist, present several cases that she worked and they were mind-blowing. In some cases - literally. We were not allowed to take pictures, but let me tell you, the crime scene information was just as the authorities would have seen. She even presented a case that remains unsolved - but we all have our theories on that one.

All too soon the two days of classes were over. My head was overflowing with details and information. My mind was bursting with ideas for future plots. Even though I write funny mysteries, I have law enforcement and ex-law enforcement characters in my books. It's important for me to get the details right and to understand these men and women of law enforcement so I can write realistic characters.

This whole WPA was an amazing experience. I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in writing with realism.

Although I was tired from the experience, I was really sad to leave the conference. I can truthfully say it is one of the best experiences I've had as a writer. My thanks to Lee Lofland, all of the staff at WPA and Sisters in Crime. A special thank you goes to my husband for driving me to the WPA and watching me crash each day after dinner. He didn't see much of me during these 4 days, but he sure heard all about it on the way home and for weeks after.

Your Eight O'Clock Is Dead

2011-11-02T00:32:00.000-04:00

Your Eight O'Clock Is Dead, Book One in my River City Mystery Series is available NOW! Woo HOO!!!! It went up last Friday on Amazon Kindle and on Barnes and Noble Nook. It's also available in many formats on Smashwords.

Eight O'Clock is a light-hearted, humorous mystery. And I had an absolute blast writing this book and creating these quirky characters. Here's a bit about the story.

Becca Reynolds is having a bad day. But her day takes a turn for the worse when she finds the fledgling psychiatric firm's 8 o'clock patient dead in the waiting room. Becca appoints herself the unofficial investigator since the police seem to be doing a really bad job of finding the murderer.

The case takes Becca from the sordid depths of the Russian mob, to the upscale West End of Richmond, Virginia (known locally as River City), and even to her own backyard. In the course of the story she finds herself in hot water, hot danger, and with dreams of hot men.

I described it to a friend today as:

A dead body

An innocent accused of murder

A mysterious Russian and a hunky ex-cop turned accountant - each with deep secrets and hidden agendas

And a lovable screw-up who is determined to save her job, bring the real killer to justice and increase her love life in the process.

I've received quite a bit of positive feedback from early readers. I hope you'll join with me in celebrating the release of my book.

Right now I'm hard at work on Book 2 - Your Time Is Up. And I've got Book 3 - Your Lights Are Out - already plotted out. Both books will be released in 2012.

October was very, very good to me. A son who got engaged and a book release. Chocolate and mimosas all around.

Kat

Newsflash - Proud Mom

2011-10-18T18:13:00.000-04:00

My darling son, Michael, called this past Sunday to let me know that he had proposed to his sweet girlfriend, Jenna, and she had accepted. I am so very happy for both of them and hope they will have a long, happy married life. I think it'll be a 2012 wedding.

Jenna and Michael

Writers' Police Academy - Getting There

2011-10-16T12:37:00.000-04:00

The end of September saw me heading southwest from where I live in Richmond, VA, to Greensboro, NC and The Writers' Police Academy. I had been wanting to do this for the past several years. Initially, I'd heard about it when I was going through chemotherapy in 2009. The only places I went that year was to doctors. But I made myself a promise that when I was healthy again, I was going to go to this event. And this year I made it!

The drive down wasn't too bad. About four hours by interstates with some nice, peaceful scenery as well as the usual interstate views.

My dear husband, Jorgie, was my trip companion and driver. Even with the GPS, we managed to get lost once - which for us is good. I still blame the Magellan, or Maggie as we call her. She had us go off the interstate when I was frantically pointing to the highway signs. This allowed us a little excursion off the beaten path and I managed to snap a picture or two while Maggie was recalculating.

Back on track and speeding right along, we were both amazed to see a BRICK sound wall. Wow! I know we have a lot to talk about in the car. But we're so used to seeing plain barriers, it was interesting to see this brick work. And long stretches of it. We were both speculating about the cost.

It takes a lot to amuse me on a trip. I'm worse than a small child (are we there yet?). This happens mostly when traveling to yarn shops, but this time I was anxious and excited to get to the hotel and get this party at WPA started. So I had to get a picture of the sign for the Guilford Technical Community College in Jamestown, NC, which is where our classes were going to be - and is the home of an active police academy. It's the 3rd largest community college in NC with an enrollment of about 11,000.

Before I knew it, we were pulling up in front of the hotel and Jorgie was dropping me off with the luggage while he searched for a parking place.

I also tend to get caught up in picture taking and while I was snapping a few shots of plantlife and the hotel, Jorgie was back.

The hotel interior was lovely. Had to get a few shots of that too!

Atrium Skylights

Elevators with great views.

Atrium looking down from our room. The breakfast buffet was served each morning here toward the back of the Atrium. This was to become a very important area for this trip. I had to be up, showered, dressed, fed and on the bus to the Academy by 7 a.m. or so each day. The buses left promptly at 7:30 a.m. I am NOT a morning person, so this was a challenge to stagger into the breakfast buffet each day and make intelligent choices and try to get my body to wake up. This was also a great time to network with fellow attendees who were also jump-starting their day.

Meanwhile, Jorgie got to sleep in and stroll down at 9 a.m. or so for his breakfast. He even had time to get an omelet made to order each day.

Here are a few pictures of our two room suite. Yes, a suite. We might work hard during the day, but Lee Lofland, organizer of the Writers' Police Academy, made sure we were comfortable at night. Jorgie got to enjoy it much more than I did. We had a great bedroom with a king size bed and a flat screen television.

The living room had a sleeper sofa, ottoman, comfy chairs along with a mini-fridge and microwave. Oh yes, and another flat screen television along with a desk and internet connections.

After checking in and registering for the academy and getting all of my supplies, we decided we'd better go grab a bite to eat before the evening sessions started. Maggie was a great help in locating one of my favorite food chains, Ruby Tuesday. We had an excellent meal and then hurried back to the hotel where I donned my academy badge and headed down to the orientation meeting led by Lee Lofland.

Head filled with all kinds of rules and things to come in the next few days, I opted out for the meet and greet late night session (that up and at 'em time for the next day was looming large in my mind). I headed back to the room, kissed my honey good night and hit the bed.

Next time, I share with you what I learned. All I can say was it was a huge learning experience for me as a writer and as a citizen.

Until my next post,

Kat - who had NO time to knit on this trip

Day Tripping to Charlottesville

2011-10-08T18:53:00.000-04:00

Back in the summer several of my fellow Tuesday Night Knitters (TNK) took a 60 mile trip up Interstate 64 to Charlottesville, Virginia, for a day of yarn shopping, knitting and camaraderie.

The Downtown Mall is closed to motorized traffic leaving brick streets for pedestrians to stroll. This is especially nice in great weather. And we had such a day. Low humidity, warm temperatures, lots of sunshine.

Our first stop (and the main reason for our trip) was The Needle Lady. Lots of lovely fiber was on display in the shop window. More fun yarn and accessories were inside. Great samples were shown throughout the shop.

I'd really like to make this shawl. Love the colors. I was really tempted by this one and if I go back up there, I may cave and buy both the yarn and the pattern.

This one was striking and unusual. Several of our group stopped to look at this one and comment.

TNK member Issy Thomas posed beside a very pretty green sweater sample. Issy does love those greens. She is one of our most accomplished knitters. In fact, she was one of the knitters for Wendy Johnson's lace book,Wendy Knits Lace.

Here I am with Jo and Deb inside of The Needle Lady. I wish Cathy T (bonaircat on Ravelry) had told me to stand up straight and suck in my stomach and turn to a more flattering angle, but she didn't. I'm thinking the camera adds at least 50 lbs. By the way, all of these pictures were generously supplied by our trip photographer, Cathy T. You'll see her in another picture.

Jo and I may have won the unofficial prize that day for doing the most shopping.

After shopping for yarn and needles (for those of us who didn't bring projects and had an immediate desire to join in the knitting fun) we decided we should have some lunch before doing any more shopping.

We ate at outdoors since the day was so nice.

Here are Issy, Cathy T (who briefly relinquished her camera so she could have her picture taken) and Linda enjoying drinks and waiting for their lunch to arrive. We had a great waitress who stayed hopping the whole time. I have immense respect for waitstaff since I would be an absolutely terrible waitress. "What do you mean you don't want water? I brought it, drink it." I don't think I would get many tips. Anyway, we had a wonderful waitress and very tasty food.

Here we are. That's Janice, me (not looking too perky, am I?), Jo and Deb. I really was having a great time. I think I was shopped out and *very* hungry at this point. It had been a long morning. And as we all know, I'm not a morning person.

After lunch we strolled in a few of the shops and may have bought a few more things other than yarn. I confess that I have a weakness for earrings. Linda has a bag thing and found a perfect wallet and I believe a bracelet. No pictures of these purchases, but there are pictures of some of the shops, both exteriors and interiors.

Loved the J. Fenton store. They had some lovely items inside including unique jewelry, purses, quilts and toys. Plus the giraffe outside is pretty darn cool, imo.

The crowds had picked up after lunch and we went in and out of various shops. I was lured by a bookstore as I struggle to carry my purchases. Note to self: bring a large tote bag for future trips.

This mosaic sofa was really interesting. Typical of the art that you'll find along the mall.

These earrings were gorgeous. And I may have an in with the artist who crafted them. Mary's designs are always so creative and colorful. We're encouraging her to open an Etsy shop. She also has cute, cute sheep and kitty pins. A very talented artist for sure.

After we strolled and did our shopping, we found a nice round outside table, parked ourselves and our knitting and sat and did a lot of people-watching and a lot of knitting.

Sadly my Charlottesville shawl is still in progress. But here's a picture of what I've knit so far.

The yarn and colors are beautiful. And it's a super simple knit. I need to get back to this, but so far Anne Hanson's Fall in Full Color club has been keeping me busy with knitting projects.

Linda is much better at finishing things than I am. Here's her Stripe Study Shawl that she was working on while we sitting and knitting in the fresh air. Love the colors. Linda is another one of our prolific and accomplished knitters.

We had a great day and I'm so glad I had the chance to go and bond with this great group of women. I so look forward to Tuesday nights and meeting with them from 7pm to 9pm across the James River. They are funny, kind, supportive and interesting.

I encourage you to find a group of similar knitters in your area. And I hope you're as lucky as I have been with the Tuesday Night Knitters.
Kat

Private Investigations with Meriah L. Crawford

2011-10-04T23:29:00.000-04:00

On Saturday, August 27, 2011 about a dozen intrepid souls braved Hurricane Irene's imminent threat to gather at Tuckahoe Library, in Richmond, VA to attend the last summer meeting of our local Sisters in Crime chaper.

The speaker was Meriah L. Crawford, owner of Rhino Investiagations and English teacher at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Meriah shared information with the group as the winds kick up outside and the lights blink inside. Not knowing how long the library would be open, the group decided to start in on our Panera boxed lunches while Meriah gave her presentation.

Suspense writer Mary Burton manages to juggle lunch and ask some great questions of our guest speaker.

Meriah showed how she set up a fake Facebook account and friended Heather W, one of our program chairs. Then Meriah set out to pretend to be someone that Heather and her friends went to school with. Of the 51 people she sent friend requests to, only one questioned who she was. That's kind of scary and an eye-opener. You really could be "talking" or friending just about anybody on these social networks. As writers, we tend to friend potential readers and rarely don't friend folks. Writers need to accept a certain loss of privacy. But people not in the public eye may want to think carefully before jumping in with both feet.

Ms. Crawford does a lot of Internet work in her investigations. The social networks are becoming more and more of an issue in divorce cases as the cheating spouse will be in online friendships with the person they are cheating with. A staggering 50% of divorces now have some social networking involved.

In her work as a private investigator, Meriah L. Crawford has worked on many types of cases from insurance fraud, background checks and stalking to murder and theft cases. The day of a PI is never boring.

She used google maps to explain to us how she sets up a stakeout. And she explained how to park to best see the person you're surveilling and methods to follow a target.

Google maps is also a great way to visit a neighborhood where you'd like to set a book. You can do a 3D 360 degree view of any location and this was demonstrated to us as well.

Another site that Meriah uses is Wunderground. Not only does she use this to check the weather for surveillance activity, but she also uses it in her writing. With this site you can check the weather for many locations and for many dates, both present and past. If you're writing anything other than a current date into your story, this can be very helpful in figuring out what the weather was for a certain date. It will lend reality to your story.

Meriah shared some inside information with those of us gathered - such as, you can walk on a person's property even if they have a posted No Trespassing sign until the owner tells you to get off of their property. Then you must leave.

Both paid and free internet search sites are used by private investigators as they attempt to locate people or work a case.

Since stalkers have been known to hire PIs to locate their victims, Meriah stressed how careful a PI needs to be in taking cases. She asks careful questions before she'll commit to a case and trusts her internal moral compass to decide whether or not to take a case.

She once had a client who wanted her to locate his high school sweetheart 20 years after the fact and provide him with pictures. Ms. Crawford stated that for some reason this creeped her out, and she refused to take the case. You have to use your good judgment in deciding what to do or not do.

We were just getting into more detailed information when the library announced it was closing early due to the impending hurricane. We had to wrap up the meeting quite quickly. Meriah was given a round of applause not only for sharing her information with us but for also braving the weather.

It is my sincere hope that we will have her visit us again in order to continue her fascinating presentation.

Kat

Poor Mr. Greenjeans

2011-09-26T20:23:00.000-04:00

Mr. Greenjeans

In 2008 (gah!) I fell in love with Amy Swenson's sweater pattern Mr. Greenjeans. 2008!!!! That's 3 years ago. I decided to knit it out of one of my favorite yarns, Dream in Color Classy in the Jungle Cloud colorway.

So very pretty. It was love at first sight. I love the different subtle shades that appear in this colorway and I could envision myself wearing it with jeans and slacks. I was so happy.

This may be my most neglected UFO, and lately I'm feeling really bad about it. It's a beautiful sweater, and the pattern is well-written. Way back when, I tried it on and it actually fit great.

See, my tell-tale camera even recorded the date on the picture (hanging head in SHAME). I don't even have that much left to do. So what is my problem???

Well, I remember the holidays hit in 2008 and it was a mad rush to put all of my knitting away and clean up the house for the holiday decorating and all of the holiday visitors. I stuck poor Mr. Greenjeans in a project bag - or a plastic grocery bag : ( and stuffed it "somewhere."

That was the first problem. It went "somewhere" in the house with all of my other active and inactive projects at the time.

Now you'd think since I was on such a roll before the holidays I would have pulled the sweater out right after the New Year and started back in on it. Well, I didn't.

Then in April 2009, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. A couple of surgeries followed along with chemotherapy and radiation. That pretty much finished off 2009 and some of 2010 for me.

Every once in awhile I'd think about Mr. Greenjeans and wonder where I'd put it. Then my son was helping me straighten up my office in late 2010 and there it was. We'd found Mr. G. sitting there lost and lonely. I was so happy. But then I looked and I was missing the rest of the yarn. What???? Where in the heck was the rest of my Jungle Cloud DIC yarn?

Finally I found the rest of the yarn, but by then I'd once again lost the project. Thank goodness I had pictures on Ravelry to help me remember what it looked like. sigh.

Then, after searching the house from top to bottom, I relocated the elusive Mr. G. again. And I quickly put the yarn in the bag with it and put it in a safe place.

Well, I checked the bag and sure enough I'd "lost" the pattern. All it would take would be to sign on to Knitty and pull up the pattern and copy it. That brings me to a broken printer. My printer died a most tragic and noisy death. By the time I replaced it, I had once again lost Mr. G. and along with it the desire to knit it. You see, I'd replaced it in my heart with about a dozen other more crucial must-do projects. Some of which are still not finished. Do we see a pattern emerging here?

At the knitting retreat I attended a couple of weeks ago my roommate Renny pulled out her knitting and yes, it was her own Mr. Greenjeans in a subtle pastel that's going to look great on her. Now that's motivated and inspired me again to go on the search for the project and pattern. Hopefully the yarn is still with the project. If not, I'm ordering more and alternating skeins if I have to. But I am going to finish this.

Since I'm over 55% done, I stand a semi-decent chance of finishing this long overdue project. I will keep you posted.

Knitting Retreat

2011-09-20T16:22:00.000-04:00

Friday, September 9, 2011, I left Richmond and headed about a 100 miles west/northwest of Richmond to the mountains of Virginia. My destination - Staunton, Virginia and the Hotel Stonewall Jackson for the 3rd annual Staunton Knitting Retreat. Sixteen of us attended and had an absolute blast. The attendees were Emmy, Mary, Kat E, Norma, Janice, Renny, Issy, Linda, Cindy, Nelda, Fran, Jo, Wanda, Rita, Pam and me, Kat J. Several of the ladies I knew through my local Tuesday Night Knit Night (TNK), and others I met for the first time but quickly became friends with through our common love of all things knitting.

We stayed in historical downtown Staunton.

Lots of stores and shops abound. There's a great health food shop just up from the hotel. I'm taking this picture from outside of Cranberries where I had lunch one day and a Sunday brunch. Great food and good for you. What a great combination. They make delicious looking smoothies. Sadly, I didn't get to get one. I'll just have to go back and have one or put it on next year's list of must do things.

This is another view of the historical area from my hotel room (also note the scenic top deck to the parking garage - LOL).

Blackfriars, a theater presenting Shakespeare plays, is located right next door to the hotel. Michael, my darling son and his lady love Jenna were in attendance on the Friday night to see AS YOU LIKE IT. Sorry to say that I didn't get to see them although we were *that* close.

Several of the retreat attendees got there before I did. About 6 or 7 of them had decided to do a KAL of the Bermuda shawl by Ilga Leja. Now most of these knitters are advanced knitters with lots of experience. I watched them frog all day on Friday. They were intrepid though and between them managed to figure out the instructions.

We joked about the pattern being "easy", "addictive" and "unable to stop knitting" since these advanced knitters were having so much trouble with the pattern. But nothing stopped them. One of the ladies said she'd never gotten so much mileage out of yarn as she kept pulling it out and casting it back on.

I have to say it must have become addictive, because by the end of the weekend several of them had made a fair bit of progress on their Bermuda Shawls (renamed by the group in jest, The Bermuda Triangle Shawl). I have to admit, the shawl as it comes together is quite intriguing. The Noro Silk sock is perfect for this project and I watched in interest as each shawl grew and the colors changed with each new section. Beautiful, really. I'm so glad they stuck with it. And I'm sorry to say I don't have any progress pictures to show you. But I hope to have some in a future post.

I got to get to know a lot of the retreat attendees better. Fran (in the navy top and blue shawl) is someone that I have had the pleasure of meeting through knitting classes. She's a lovely person and when she pulled out this shawl my jaw dropped. It is gorgeous! I wish my camera had captured the silkiness of the yarn. The pattern is Sweet Jazz by Samantha Roshak, and I've got to make one. But since I have about 15 unfinished projects right now, I'd better finish some things first. But I do love it and Fran wears it so well.

Friday night we went out to dinner as a group at The Mill Street Grill.

The Mill has great food. I think we all ordered something different and everyone raved about how good the food was.

No shots of the food though. I was so hungry, I think I inhaled mine.

I hit the bed early that night, but my roommate and I ended up talking until the wee hours of the morning. Renny is the best roommate. Very kind. Very sweet. And funny. We had lots of laughs together.

Here's a picture of our room. Notice my awesome beach tote has a place of honor on the bed - but only while I'm up and about. I was able to get several projects in the bag and have room for more. Since I'm the unofficial cast on Queen, this may not be a good thing.

Left to right - Norma, Wanda, Janis, Fran and Renny during some retreat laughter and project sharing.

Nelda explains to Fran and me a technique she uses - or we could be talking about our cats. Nelda is another very experienced knitter and I wish I had pictures of her show and tell. Linda and Cindy are still discussing the Bermuda Shawl in the background.

Linda shares a work in progress. It looked stunning here, but once we were home and she had it finished and blocked it was breath-taking. The pattern is Semele. It may also be on my wishlist of patterns I want to knit. I think Linda knitted it in 2 weeks or so. She always amazes me with her speed. As do most of the ladies in this group. I'm the original slow-poke.

The only other picture I got during show and tell is a wedding shawl that Mary is making. Shhh...it may be a surprise.

I'm hoping that someone else with a camera (hint, hint Linda!) will share some of their pictures with me. I was so upset with myself and my camera. Dead batteries right in the middle of show and tell. But to make matters worse, I'd brought my battery charger with what I thought were charged batteries only to find that they were dead as a doornail too. None of my batteries came back to life until Sunday : (

The next day with batteries recharged, I snapped this picture. All hand blown glass, this piece of art was spectacular and brightened up the lobby.

The weekend was great. Tons of laughs, lots of knitting time, good friendships forged - it just couldn't have been better.

The only bad part was when Sunday afternoon came and we had to leave. We all agreed we couldn't wait until for the 4th annual weekend to be here. But that's not until September 2012.

On the drive home, I stopped along the way and got some great shots of the mountains. Rain clouds were gathering and it made the pictures unusual.

These pictures are taken from the top of Afton Mountain. There were a couple of historical markers here.

This one talks about the flight of Richard Dupont. He used this point to fly his plane in 1933, I think, and break the distance record for sail planes.

And the other marker talks about a meeting held at a nearby tavern in 1818 to decide the location of the University of Virginia, which ended up in Charlottesville, VA. The meeting was attended by former presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. The tavern burned down in a 1909 fire. I've lived in Virginia most of my life, but I don't know that I'd ever stopped to read these markers before. Virginia is full of history and markers. It's fun to know that you're walking in the same place that others have travelled before you and to know what they were up to. Me, I was just taking pictures after a great weekend of fun.

I'm already looking forward to the next retreat. And yes, I did get dumped on by torrential downpours about 20 minutes later.

Kat

V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N Part 2

2011-09-12T19:36:00.000-04:00

So when I left you last I was headed into Nags Head, NC, on the Outer Banks, after a 7 hour trip that should have taken half that time.

We did get there - eventually. Got the keys to the house we were renting and directions. We hadn't eaten since lunch, but we decided to unload the car and then go to dinner.

The house was lovely with lots of decks and porches to enjoy the views. This is a shot of the living room. We could sit here and look out a wall of glass to the beach. Well worth the trip. After an evening shower, we even saw a rainbow but sadly I could not get a good picture of it.

I had the best knitting intentions for vacation.

This is the WestKnits Mystery KAL - Earth and Sky. I was up to clue #2 when we went on vacation and took the project with me along with the clues so I could work on it. And didn't. There was just too much to do. I loved being with the family and the hours just flew by. So not much knitting time for me.

However, I did get to visit the local yarn shop, Knitting Addiction.

It's a great shop with a lot packed into the square footage. I might have bought some more yarn. I was trying to check out when the rest of the family showed up and Jorgie insisted on paying for my purchase as part of my birthday gift.

And he joined in the fun and "helped" the ladies as they wound my yarn. Thank goodness Lisa (shop helper extraordinaire) and Jeanne (the owner) were good sports.

Here's a shot of Lisa with Jorgie and our son, Jorgie, after she had wound one of my skeins of yarn. The boys makes themselves home wherever they go.

I also got an awesome new knitting bag - HUGE - made by a local artisan.

The ceramic button is also made locally, and I just love the bag. I've packed it full with projects to take on an upcoming knitting retreat. When I saw the bag as I walked into the shop, it truly was love at first sight.

Now Jorgie has a few objections to all of my bags, totes and satchels. He thinks I have way too many. So imagine his surprise when he discovered that he had bought me the MacDaddy of all totes. LOL!!!! Vacation - fun times.

After leaving the yarn shop, we managed to get up to Duck and Corolla (more towns in the Outer Banks) and do some shopping.

The kids visited the Flip Flop Shops and while we were waiting for them, the owners decided to prop open the door with the biggest Flip Flop I've ever seen.

And I thought our Jorgies had big feet.

Every Outer Banks vacation it is tradition to get a shot of my three Jorgies (husband, son and grandson) sitting on a bench together. Here's this year's shot and I do think my Jorgie looks especially handsome with my purse sitting on his lap. It takes a secure man to do that and endure the teasing that he'll get from the rest of the family.

Told you we grow them big. Jorgen, the grandson, is just over 6 feet tall and the other two Jorgies are about 6'4".

We didn't do all of our shopping on one day. It was nice to have the beach, family time and a little getting out and looking around/shopping time.

This year we didn't visit the Wright Memorial where Wilbur and Orville Wright had the first manned flight. We've done that in previous years. But we did pass by Jockey's Ridge where people hang-glide and try to replicate that first feeling of flying. Those dunes are much higher than my camera makes them look. And they're HOT. It feels like your feet are going to spontaneously combust. People (not me) actually walk up these dune.

Back to the house - and the beach. The water was wonderful. Cool, but not cold. Always a bit of an undertow, and I don't go out far. I did manage to get the family in the water. It's always a chore to get them to put that first toe in the water. But after that, they're good.

Here's a shot of me hamming it up for the camera complete with beach hat and sunglasses.

These seagulls absolutely cracked me up. This is only a portion of them all lined up and hoping for lunch. It was so cool to sit and watch them queue up in their straight lines. Yes, I'm easily amused. The beach was deserted except for a few families and the birds. Just the way I like it. The sound of the ocean waves rolling in and out, in and out. It really relaxes me.

One last view before I go of the beach and the ocean. It was a great vacation. Wonder what it looks like after Hurricane Irene?

Kat

V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N Part 1

2011-09-07T13:17:00.000-04:00

This year I got to spend my birthday at the beach! Well, technically, I spent most of my day in traffic.

Heavy traffic. The usual 3.5 hours that it takes us to get to the Outer Banks of North Carolina took us double the time - 7 long hours in the car.

Now anyone who knows me, knows that I'm not a particularly good traveler. I'm worse than most children. (Are we there yet?)

I got bored in the car and began amusing myself by taking pictures out the window and some not out the window.

Here's a picture of the great pedicure my daugther gave me before leaving home. My feet look pudgy from sitting so long in the car.

Part of the fun about traveling to the Outer Banks is that we get to go through tunnels. Now a lot of people don't like tunnel travel, but I've always liked to go through them. Here's a shot of us going down into the tunnel in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia.

Traffic was moving swiftly at this point (enjoyed it while we could) and that made Jorgie (dh) very happy since he's one of the ones not overly fond of tunnel travel.

This was his happy view - the light at the end of the tunnel. He always lets out a sigh of relief.

We had an awesome view of the bay after emerging from the tunnel. Water, water all around.

We also crossed over the Intracoastal Waterway. I was feeling pretty relaxed and counting the time until I could get out of the car and into a bathing suit.

Next stop was a time-saving short-cut via the Cheasapeake Expressway. We surprised our family in the car behind us by paying for their toll too. Jorgie gets a kick out of this and will routinely pay for the car behind him - family or not.

You can see we don't have a built in GPS, but since we're prone to getting lost wherever we go, we travel with a portable GPS unit that Jorgie has called Maggie ever since the first time he heard her voice. Maggie often will get upset with us when we veer from her chosen path and we'll hear her "recalculating" our route. I often think she's really muttering obsene words under her breath.

At this point in our trip, I really had high hopes that we would get to the beach ahead of time. Traffic jams had leveled out and we were speeding along without any hang-ups. My birthday cake and ice cream was just a memory. And a saved picture on the camera.

I don't know if you can see it, but Jorgie got a question mark candle for the cake. Last year he forgot to get a candle and for a few minutes I didn't have a candle to blow out and make a wish on. This year he made sure I had a candle to make my wish.

When we stopped for a break, I noticed that family member Brittani didn't look too thrilled at our progress. She was yearning for waves and sun. Not more traffic.

I'll have to see if I can't put a smile on her face before the day is out. She's much prettier than this grumpy face shows.

As soon as we passed into North Carolina, it seems that we picked up beach traffic in earnest. We kept moving along, until about 40 miles from our destination. Then it took us 3 hours to go that distance. No fun. In retrospect I feel sorry for Jorgie since he had to put up with the clogged traffic and with amusing me.

Finally we got a glimpse of the sound.

Now we're talking. If the sound is outside the car window, surely the ocean can't be far behind.

Or maybe not. That 3 hours of sitting in traffic kind of took the love out of the day. Stop. Go. Stop some more. And I was getting hungry. Now we were stuck on the Wright Memorial Bridge - the bridge that leads into the Outer Banks. Nags Head, North Carolina was our destination.

Finally off of the bridge, I was sooo happy. But we still weren't moving. I couldn't resist taking a picture of the speed limit sign. Well, we had one of the numbers right.

At long last (and just before I could think of going postal) the sign for Nags Head.
YIPPEEEE~~~

Next post I'll show you non-travel shots. We really did have a great vacation at the beach. Perfect weather, perfect people to spend the time with. It just went too fast.

Until next post....

Kat

Visiting the State Police Headquarters

2011-09-03T20:35:00.000-04:00

As many of you know I write mysteries and a lot of my characters are law enforcement officials. As a mystery writer, I belong to my local chapter of Sisters in Crime and for our summer meeting some of our group was lucky enough to visit the Virginia State Police Academy.

Assistant Training Officer Jeff Baker sacrificed several hours of his weekend to give us information about the Academy and its training program and to give us a tour of the facilities. I found Jeff to be extremely knowlegdeable, friendly, professional and the epitome of what I expect a law enforcement officer to be. I think Jeff's rank is a Major, but I didn't write it down and I'm just going from memory. So I hope I'm neither promoting nor demoting him.

The classroom is structured in an theater style with tiered seating. We got to sit in the desks that the actual trainees occupy from Mondy - Friday for the approximately nine months of training that each person receives. Each trainee will log more than 1700 hours of classroom and practical experience before graduation and will live at the academy during their training period. After the trainees have been on campus for awhile they are allowed to go off campus for weekends, but must return by 9pm Sunday night. Lights are out at 10 pm. every night. Jeff's haircut is typical of what male trainees have. Women trainees are expected to have either short hair or hair pulled back in a neat manner.

Here are two of my Sisters in Crime cohorts relaxing in the trainees' chairs. I'm sure the trainees don't get to relax. Their day is all work.

Jeff explained that the current class had been in session since October of 2010 and started out with 82 members. The graduating class will hopefully graduate 62 new Virginia State Troopers. Reasons for not graduating vary from low academic scores to not adjusting to the structure and anything in between. About 70% of the troopers have a college education and a lot are ex-military or officers in local police departments who want to be a State Trooper.

After graduation, officers will spend approximately 6-8 weeks with a senior officer in real life on the job situations. Jeff said he'd done a little of everything in his career. The troopers take care of all of Virignia highways and interstates. They are involved in anything from delivering babies, herding cattle that have escaped their fences to plane crashes, domestic calls, terrorism (the Pentagon on 9/11) and even murder. You name it and the State Police can do it.

This is the main stairway in the Academy. It's made out of marble and beautiful. Trainees keep this building that is their home spotless and the staircase is no exception. However, they are not allowed to walk up this main staircase until they have graduated. We were a lot luckier and got to go up it to see the State Police museum and living quarters.

This is a bed in the museum, but as I understand it, it isn't unlike the austere bedrooms that trainees occupy for those long 9 months. Although the trainees have moved into the computer age, it wasn't all that long ago that typewriters like this were used in the trainees' rooms. I believe desks very much like this one are part of the trainee's bedroom. Very no-frills.

There were displays of various officer uniforms used through the years.

As well as vintage motorcycles used by Virginia Troopers.

Weapons were also on display. Troopers are accomplished shots and have won numerous awards for their accuracy.

There was also a display of law enforcement patches.

Here are some of the members of the Central Virginia Sisters in Crime who were lucky enough to spend part of their day learning more about our State Troopers, the training that that go through to keep us safe and the academy that teaches them.

I believe my writing has been enriched by this tour, and I certainly thank Corinne Geller, Public Information Officer and Jeff Baker for this great tour.

Kat

More UFOs

2011-08-08T14:14:00.000-04:00

As I sit here and write out my list of things to pack for the big family beach trip coming up at the end of the week, I have to think about what projects to take with me. And as I do that, I study my Ravelry pages of 13 UFOs (unfinished objects). Yowser!!! Not sure at all yet which projects will accompany me yet. It may end up being an eenie, meanie, minie, moe kind of thing.

Today I wanted to show you pictures on 3 of my favorite (okay, they're ALL my favorites) projects.

The first is Hillflowers, and stunningly gorgeous Anne Hanson Knitspot pattern.

I am much farther along than this picture show and the pattern has a really great rhythm as you knit. The yarn is my favorite yarn - Bugga! by the Sanguine Gryphon - in the Dragonfly Tattoo colorway.

photo courtesy of the SG

As you can see my project photos do not do the yarn justice. It is a beautiful, subtle colorway with hints of pinks, purples, yellows and greens all very muted. This yarn is so soft and so drapeable. And it blocks like a dream. I'll be sure to post some blocking pictures when I get to that stage. The Sanguine Gryphon shop has some tempting yarns. I might have quite a few in my stash. Like it said, it is my favorite yarn. And Gryphon is a dear.

So my Hillflowers stands a really great chance of making into the beach bag. I can talk and knit while I work on this one.

Project #2 is Potager another Knitspot design. This one is is done is Madelinetosh Tosh sock yarn in the Chambray colorway.

This is my first project using nupps. I've tried several methods of knitting the nupps and I haven't found one that I like better than the other (or easier than the other). This is a design that I use the chart a lot for instead of the printed directions. After I knit on it awhile I find I get into a unique rhythm of the pattern and it moves right along. But I also find that I have to be quiet and think when I'm knitting this or I'll miss a yarn over and be ripping out a row or more. So as much as I love this project, I don't think it's a good beach project. Maybe I'll set September aside to finish this one up.

In fact, I love Potager so much, I have two (count 'em two) Potagers on the needles.

This second one is done in The Woolen Rabbit Pandora, another wonderful yarn that is soft and squishy. The colorway is Sweetheart, which was featured in the pattern release. I love the color. But sadly I am not much further along than this picture shows.

Now I know you're wondering why I have two Potagers in progress. Well, it's like this. I couldn't find the first one and I was anxious to work the pattern - so I cast on a 2nd one and got this far (those darn nupps again). Put it aside and finally Potager Project 1 (say that five times fast) resurfaced as things tend to do around here. I felt guilty about neglecting the first one and started in on that one again. Now I may have "misplaced" the Sweetheart Potager. It's not lost - just in hiding for a bit. And I will get it done. Maybe I'll put both Potagers on my September to remember Potager list. Get 'er done!

And now we come to the sadly neglected 3rd project - Cluaranach. Mine is made out of Sweet Georgia yarns tough love sock in the Boysenberry colorway. This is quite a tight twist yarn and it took a bit for me to get used to knitting with it since I'm used to softer yarns. Not that Sweet Georgia isn't soft, it is. But the tight twist makes it seem not as soft as you're kniting with it.

This project has been OTNs for over a year. Yes, another casualty of misplacing the yarn and pattern in this baker's dozen of projects. I found it again briefly in May of this year and saw the purl through the back loops and only worked a few rows before wondering if I was doing the stitch correctly.

Then Anne Hanson popped into Richmond, Virginia, for a class and she showed me how to easily do the stitch. As usual, I was making it way too hard. I really want to find this project (and I think I know where it is) and get it completed. So I'm prioritizing this as the October to finish project. And since I'm telling the world about it, maybe I'll keep myself to this schedule. It truly isn't a difficult pattern once you master the one stitch. The rest is easy.

photo courtesy of AgnesTville

Now I wish I could take credit for this Cluraranach. This is AgnesTville's magnificient project (and finished, I might add). You can really see the pattern in her picture. Agnes is one of the most prolific and talented knitters that I know. I am in awe of her knitting. I'm hoping my finished object will be half as lovely as Agnes' Cluraranach.

Next time, I'll focus on 3 more lonely UFOs. And hopefully I'll have made some progress on something.

Kat

Projects, We have projects

2011-08-04T21:06:00.000-04:00

Projects - boy, do I have projects going on. Unfinished. I have officially declared myself the Queen of Casting On.

Earlier this summer I'd made a small committment to myself to limit what I had on the needles at any one time. But that didn't last long. I am hopelessly drawn to new projects. And I guess I think I'm Super Knitter and can get it all done. Well, I do - eventually.

Take a look at this work in progress (WIP). It's a Striped Study Shawl.

It's a very easy shawl done with short rows. I love how the purple yarn defines the stripes and the variegated yarn plays off of the purple with softer shades of lavendar, pink and pale green. Both yarns are Colinette Jitterbug in the colorways Velvet Bilberry (the purple) and Marble (the variegated).

I use this as my mindless knitting project, because it is so simple. I'm hoping to take this on vacation to the beach and finish it up, if I haven't finished it before then.

Next up in the actively working on it projects is Leaving, a gorgeous sweater pattern by Anne Hanson of Knitspot fame. If you aren't familiar with Anne's patterns, I urge you to go visit her website immediately. I became hooked on her patterns several years ago. She is a genius at design. So many of my projects are Knitspot patterns.

These pictures are of the Leaving sleeves. The yarn used is The Woolen Rabbit Opulence in Arabian Nights, a luscious fingering weight yarn. I've now completed both sleeves, the back and the left front. All I have left is the right front. Piece of cake, righ? Well, theoretically. But see, I still have a ton of other projectst that all scream to be heard and worked on.

Like this Ondule sweater - also a Knitspot pattern. The yarn used in this is Knitting Notions Classic Merino Superwash in a bluish-purpley yarn. Super soft and warm, a true joy to knit with.

Now this isn't a particularly good picture. You can't see the wonderful texture of the pattern. I have completely finished knitting this sweater - well all except for the neckband, I believe. But I have to steam block it and seam it up.

This is no longer a problem, because I have taken a blocking class from Anne and I've successfully seamed another sweater. So what I my problem? It's the unrelenting summer heatwave. I just cannot make myself block with steam when it is over 100 degrees outside. So this project is on hold until after the heat dies down and the autumn winds and cooler temperatures come my way.

But the way I look at it, I'll have 2 wonderful sweaters to wear this winter - Leaving and Ondule.

Now these are only three of the thirteen projects I currently have going. Yes, thirteen. And chomping at the bit to cast on for something else.

I'll share 3 more projects in progress in my next post. But before I close out, I wanted you to see what seduced my knitter's mind this week. Yes, I caved and joined the Mystery Shawl KAL on the WestKnits group on Ravelry.

And since I'm late to the party and don't have enough stash yarn (so wrong, I'm drowning in yarn), I ordered some beautiful blues from Purl Soho in New York City. The yarn I chose is Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light. Here are the 3 colors I'm planning on using.

Colors are Betty Draper Blues, Well Water and Denim. Love, love, love these colors. Hope they'll work well together since I'm kind of going in the dark here. I've never done a mystery shawl before. But how can I go wrong with these three blues?

Tomorrow the yarn is supposed to arrive. YAY. I'm behind already since the first clue came out Monday, August 1st. But I've checked out what I have to knit for the first clue and I think I'll be able to catch up. Now to stay focused on this over the month of August. I'll keep you posted.

Until next time,

Kat

The Gift of Grace

2011-07-24T16:03:00.003-04:00

   In this life we are lucky to find good friends along the way. I have been blessed by the friendship of a truly remarkable woman, Dee Roberts.

   Dee and I met online through Ravelry a little over a year ago when I was destashing some yarn and she bought a skein from me. Who knew that that sales opportunity would open the doors to what has become a fantastic friendship. Dee and I have many, many things in common and can chat online with long emails that I hope brings Dee as much joy as her emails bring to me.

   Dee surprised me recently with a gift package. In it was a gorgeous skein of Grant Creek Yarn in the colorway Mermaid's Perspective and a heart-shaped shawl pin to go with it.

Isn't this just the most gorgeous gift. The blues and greens are spectacular and the heart pin is so me!

For days I tried to decide what to make out of this yummy yarn. I looked through patterns and nothing seemed to work. Finally, the yarn spoke to me...Tudor Grace, it said. Tudor Grace by the talented Anne Hanson of Knitspot. YES. That was it.

So last night I cast on - despite the fact that I have quite a few projects on the needles. I couldn't resist it. And it is going to be a stunner.

Just look how the colors play through the pattern. I'm hoping to have time to work on it tonight. And I'll keep you updated on my progress.

Here's another shot of more of the pattern in progress.

42 pattern repeats. But I'm going to go as long as the yarn lasts. And in honor of dear Dee, I've named this project The Gift of Grace because Dee is one of the most graceful and lovely people I know.

Tour de Fleece

2011-07-23T15:52:00.000-04:00

For the 2nd year in a row I've been spinning along on Tour de Fleece while the cyclists spin on their bikes for Tour de France.

It's been loads of fun. I took a more laid back approach this year and spun for Team Superfleece. I'm ashamed to say it, but I've had some merino/silk on the wheel for almost a year and had gotten tired of the family's comments about it gathering dust. So that was my committment - I'd spin the 4 oz of fiber and ply it during TdF.

I'm happy to say I got it done. It's also the best spinning I've done. And the best yardage. I got 400 yards of fingering weight fiber.

On the wheel still spinning

Done. Much prettier in person.

Sothia, Beautiful Sothia

2011-07-23T15:18:00.010-04:00

I've been on a knitting mission this summer trying to finish up some projects, but I seem to be easily seduced by new projects. One such project that caught my eye was the Sothia Shawl by Robin Ulrich. http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/sothia

She is a beauty. And having seen Sothia, I just had to make one for me. I chose two colors of Bugga, Milkweed Beetle and Southern Green Stinkbug. Check it out here.

My Sothia

I am so pleased with the results. This is a pre-blocking picture and it is soft and gorgeous.

Robin's pattern was well-written and easy to follow. It was a quick and easy knit and the results are amazing.

I'm already planning Sothia #2.

A Sprossling is Born

2011-06-05T17:23:00.007-04:00

I seem to be very good at starting projects. Not so great at finishing them - or so it seems. But I've made a mid-year resolution to try to finish up some long standing and ignored knitting projects.

Some got stuffed in bags at Christmastime to try to tidy up the house. My projects seem to take over. Lately I've "found" my Daybreak Shawl and I'm working a few rows on that every day. But my biggest accomplishment is finished Sprossling - my beautiful sweater.

Last fall I took a blocking class from the very talented Anne Hanson and learned everything I needed to know to block the sweater. But I didn't think I had the room to do the blocking. Well, that problem was solved when friends recommended buying a folding sweater blocking mat (I got mine from WEBS, but there are other places that sell this great project, too.

In no time, hours maybe, I had all of the pieces blocked and I started on seaming the pieces together. I'd never attempted the mattress stitch before but after reading up on it and watching several You Tube videos, I was ready to go.

Found the perfect buttons for this sweater and voila, finished.

No shots with me wearing my Sprossling because it has been too hot for wool. But I will add some later.

I'm busy now working on a SWAP KAL on Ravelry. My wonderful swap partner gifted me with some yummy Sundara yarn in lilac and I'm making a second Miss Doolittle Scarf. Here's a picture of my work in progress.

Next time, hopefully you'll get to see finished shots. Miss Doolittle is another Knitspot pattern.

On the writing front, I've started a book that's going to be fun to write. It's about a fortune teller and has some cute twists and turns.

Valentine's Day

2011-02-13T21:44:00.006-05:00

Look at these beauties! Now you might think my darling husband gave these to me, but no he didn't. We stopped giving each other Valentine's gifts a few years ago. We still exchange cards, which is lovely.

A dear knitting friend of mine sent these to me. And boy, talk about brightening a room and lifting a spirit out of the winter doldrums - these gorgeous flowers do it.

Of course, Ben had to check them out. Anything that comes in this house has to pass Ben's approval. And Dee's beautiful bouquet passed the picky cat's test.

I've been so lucky to meet some wonderful people online. That's right - Dee and I have never met in person - yet. She lives in Missouri and I live in Virginia. But our mutual love of knitting connected us to begin with and since then we have connected on so many levels. In fact, it's hard for me to remember a time when Dee wasn't in my life. And I hope she feels the same about me.

No matter our age, we need good friends in our lives. I hope as you think about Valentine's Day, you'll think not just of your partner, but of all of your loved ones - family and friends. And count your blessings just like I'm counting mine today.

Now a few more pictures of these beauties.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

Overhauling

2011-02-05T21:24:00.002-05:00

I've found that this new year is all about overhauls. The house, the website, even me.

The house is getting a good decluttering. I'm going through every room and finding things to give away to charity, throw away or move to another place. I'm also spiffing things up a bit with paint, new curtains and/or linens and decorative items. I've even "found" some things that I thought were gone forever. It's all good. And with every donation to charity, I feel the house grow lighter and my mood brighter. Our cat, Ben, doesn't know what to think. Unlike me, he doesn't like change.

I'm excited about the new website. Instead of updating the old website (using Front Page), I decided to go with a website building package. So far I'm really pleased with the ease of design. It helps that I designed the first website and knew what I wanted - more or less.

The overhauled website should go live soon. Just a few more things to add.

I've also tweaked a bit with this blog. I just can't seem to get into the habit of blogging. But in 2011 I'm going to aim for at least once a month.

Overhauling me was on my to-do list this year too. I'm working with a top notch nutritionist to learn how to eat healthier. One month into the new eating plan and so far, so good.

I'm also learning to read the books I crave on my Kindle. I'm so used to hard copy that it was a bit of a transition at first. But now that I'm into it, I find so many pluses for this format. I read faster. I can adjust the print to a size that is comfortable at the end of the day when I do most of my reading. And I always know where I left off reading, because the Kindle bookmarks my place. : )

I'm busy editing the mystery book. Soon, it'll be ready to submit. I'm more excited than I've been in a long time. No matter how many times I read the book, I still love it. And the people that have been my first readers have been very complimentary.

And as always, I have a ton of story ideas waiting to go.

Now if I could just stretch those 24 hour days into about 36....

Kat

Almost Fall

2010-09-10T14:26:00.013-04:00

I can't believe it's been almost 6 months since I posted on the blog. A lot has happened since then. Back in June I got a spinning wheel. She's a beauty. An Ashford Traveller Double Drive.

Since I got her I took some spinning lessons and have managed to spin several yarns that I'm reasonably happy with. Here are a couple.

The first one is from fiber I spun during Tour de Fleece, an event where I spun yarn every day that the cyclists competed in Tour de France. It's Koi Pond, a fiber from All Spun Up. The 2nd picture is a work in progress. It's from Bee Mice Elf and is a silk/merino blend and spins so fine. The 3rd picture is of Goldfish Wearing a Tutu - also a yarn I spun during TdF and also by All Spun Up. The colors in these are so much prettier in real life.

When I first named this blog, I guess in the back of my mind I knew I wanted to spin yarn. At the time, I was thinking of telling stories - spinning yarns - since I write novels.

Now I'm so happy that two of my most favorite things can be described by this blog - writing and spinning - spinning tales and fibers. It all works out. Guess my creative mind was at work all along - and way ahead of me.

I'm also back to writing, actually editing. I'm editing a mystery I wrote. I still laugh in all of the right places and am happy with what I've written. So that's good.

The summer has been a great time for reading too. It was so hot here this summer - like it was in many places in the US. I love a good mystery. I also love to have some light moments in the mystery. Recently I discovered Dorothy Howell. Loved her mystery series. Also have read Kate Carlisle. She has a wonderful bookbinder as her main character. I remain a huge fan of Patricia Sprinkle. I'm sad that her geneaology mystery series didn't continue, but I hope she'll be back to writing mysteries soon.

And of course, Lisa Scottoline and Tess Gerritsen remain favorites along with David Baldacci and John Grisham. (Just in case you think I only read female writers.)

I've finished several knitting projects. And we made a trip to St. Louis for The Loopy Ewe's Spring Fling. A 3 day event with national teachers. I got to take classes with two of my favorite people - Anne Hanson of Knitspot and Gryphon Perkins of The Sanguine Gryphon.

Here are the gift bag goodies I got when I checked into the Fling. Name tag holder, Little Loopy (the stores mascot), a Loopy mug, Loopy post-its and a beautiful skein of Wollmeise yarn dyed by Claudia just for the Fling participants. Sadly due to that erupting volcano, Claudia could not make the trip from Germany to St. Louis.

Here's a picture of the vivacious Anne Hanson during one of her classes. Anne is on the right and looking lovely in her green Sprossling. The other lady was in the class and was showing everybody her Ondule sweater that she knit and is proudly wearing. Knitspot patterns are my absolute favorite. Well-written and well thought out. Anne is a genius. And so nice. I felt like I'd known both her and Gryphon for years and years.

And here's a picture of Gryphon from The Sanguine Gryphon. I took a colorwork class from Gryphon that stretched my mind so much. She can see things and concepts that my poor mind struggles to grasp. I love Gryphon's yarns. She's just a sweet in person as she is online.

My darling husband Jorgie and I braved our claustrophobia (me) and fear of heights (him) and went up in the St. Louis Arch. The views of the city were magnificient. I'm so glad we finally got to do this although the little closed in pods we rode to the top in left a lot to be desired. But it was worth it.

I'll try to be more regular in posting. Still lots to catch up on.

Kat

On the Needles and In the Works

2010-03-19T15:31:00.006-04:00

What's on my knitting needles right now? Several projects. I've decided that I definitely have to have multiple projects going to suit my knitting mood.

One of the projects is Anne Hanson's Longjohn Socks. Here's my first sock.

On the foot and sitting pretty. The yarn is Fiesta Baby Boomerang from The Loopy Ewe's Valentine 2010 package

I wasn't sure that I was going to love the yarn since I'm usually more of a fan of solid colors. But there's something about this yarn and this pattern that speaks to me. In fact, it's inspired me to buy more striped yarns.

Currently some of my favorite yarns are Vesper from Knitterly Things and Gothsocks.

Also on the needles is Anne Hanson's Sprossling. I've done the two fronts and the back, and am now working on the 2 sleeves - two at a time.

Here are the 2 fronts. I'm loving this pattern. Anne always does such a great job with making working from a pattern easy and pain-free.

And if that wasn't enough to do, I also am knitting a Shawl That Jazz with some really pretty Numma Numma yarn that I got from Allen some time back just for a special project.

Hard to tell from this photo how it's going to look, but trust me, it's going to be gorgeous.

I also have a Seraphim shawl in the works, but I'm not sure I have a photo of my progress. It's a fun shawl to knit. I love having easy to complicated projects to work on depending on my mood and brainpower.

I'm also trying to photograph all of my yarns. This is going to take a while. I've photographed about 6 bags full of yarns and haven't even made a dent in the 10 large plastic tubs that I have. I look at it as an adventure. I'm sure I'll find yarns that I didn't even remember that I had.

And I just put together a swap package for my Loopy Ewe Spring Fling swap partner, Shannon (Minerva Turkey on Ravelry). I had the best time gathering goodies for her. I sure hope that she loves them all.

Next post I'll tell you what I've been doing with my writing.

Happy knitting.

Kat

Projects

2010-03-17T20:59:00.007-04:00

It's been too long since I posted. At Christmas I had the pleasure of giving my dear daughter a Girasole, a round, lacy shawl by Jared Flood. I'd given my son a hand-knit sweater from a Jared Flood pattern.

Here's BJ's Girasole done in Dream in Classy Butter Peeps. I think her expression shows just how much she loved it.

It makes me feel good to have knit this project for her. Here are a few more pictures of BJ with her shawl.

We had a great tme doing photos. And she was very kind to let me decorate her hair with a Christmas bow.

Christmas Giving and Knitting

2009-12-26T19:57:00.015-05:00

Christmas 2009. All the yarn projects got finished on time and I hope the recipients liked them and will enjoy them. I had a blast making things for people this year.

First was my son Michael. I'd wrestled with the yoke on his seamless Cobblestone sweater (designed by Jared Flood.) The short rows and wraps and turns were challenging. These were used to shape the shoulders and neck and gave me quite a fit. Eventually, I did figure it out (very similar to short row heels on socks), but not without a struggle. And Michael witnessed my many attempts to make it work.

While he was away for a few days, I put the knitting needles to work and was able to finish it just minutes before he came home. Wanting to surprise him, I told him that I'd become so frustrated that I'd ripped the whole thing out. And Jorgie went along with it. So Michael believed that it was gone for good.

Imagine his surprise on Christmas when he pulled out his Cobblestone sweater as part of the last gift he opened. His smile says it all.

Here's a picture of just the sweater. The wool is Miss Babs worsted and the color is Hemlock. Michael loves muted colors, especially colors of the forest.

I also made a Mara shawl and a pair of Anne Hanson's Leafprint mitts for my daughter-in-law Eileen who shares a love of handmade objects.

Here's a picture of the mitts and shawl blocking.

The last big project was another Jared Flood design. A Girasole shawl/blanket for my daughter BJ. I made it in Dream in Color Classy Butter Peeps. Here's Ben not looking too happy about the 6' shawl blocking and taking up his space in the living room.

I'm already searching through my patterns for some gifts for 2010. But first I'm going to knit some things for ME. And throw in a few charity projects, too.

Happy Spring

2009-04-12T11:44:00.010-04:00

LACE! LACE! and MORE LACE!

It's lace, lace, lace here these days. My sock addiction hasn't gone away, but boy, am I attracted to knitting lace shawls and scarves these days.

I joined two lace groups, Embrace the Lace and Year of Lace.

The picture above is from the Embrace the Lace group and is two gorgeous skeins of Malabrigo lace yarn in a special colorway dyed just for the group.

The finished project is supposed to look like this for the front and the back.

I'm in the midst of casting on and it's going slow. Not because of the pattern, but because I have so many other projects on the needles.

The Year of the Lace project is a bit bigger project.

It's a beautiful woodland shawl and will be done in Lorna's Laces in a pretty green with brown tones.

I only got this project yesterday and am still in the fondling the lace stage of the project. Need to wind the yarn and locate my lace needles in the size for this project. I don't think this is going to be one of my "mindless" projects where I watch television and knit. I think I'm going to have to concentrate on the charts.

As a long time devotee of Anne Hanson patterns, I've finally found the courage to knit some of them. Currently I'm working on her Japanese feather stole. Check out her website for her gorgeous patterns at http://knitspot.com/. She's a superb designer and the pictures of her patterns take your breath away.

I hope you're finding time to indulge your creative gene. If not, think about what you'd like to create - painting, sculpting, knitting, quilting, or whatever. And then go for it.

Happy Easter. Happy Spring.

Kat's Greenjeans

2008-11-07T16:32:00.007-05:00

Works in Progress: It's autumn. Cooler weather is here. And I'm busy knitting. Knitting and buying yarn and dreaming of projects to do.

Here are a couple of pictures of one of my latest projects. It's Mr. Greenjeans in Dream In Color - Classy in Jungle Cloud. The picture does not do the colors justice. The subtle changes are striking and beautiful. Knit in one piece, love that, I'm working top to bottom and then will go back and do the sleeves and the bands.

Here's a close-up of the cabling. I love to do cables. This has been a really fun project so far. Love, love, love it.

I'll post pictures here when I finish it.

Fountain Bookstore Signing - October 17, 2008

2008-10-24T16:04:00.012-04:00

Last Friday was a cold, wet, windy day here in Richmond, VA. It was also the day of my booksigning in historic downtown Richmond at The Fountain Bookstore.
Here I am with owner Kelly Justice. That's Kelly on the left looking gorgeous as usual. Don't you just love her long hair? Not only is she beautiful, but she's also super friendly and very knowledgeable about books. She is so kind to both authors and readers alike. Make a point to stop in her bookstore. You won't be disappointed.

As I walked up to the store battling the elements and trying to keep my umbrella from blowing away, I was so pleased to see a huge red banner with white lettering strung over the shop indicating an author event was being held there that day. Wow! As I got closer, I noticed a copy of my book, A CUP OF COMFORT FOR CAT LOVERS prominently displayed in the store window.

Kelly and I ran into each other outside the entrance. I was early and she'd popped out to grab a bite to eat. She instantly made me feel right at home and had a table set up for me with my books. I unloaded all of my personal items, a picture of my husband Jorgie holding our not so lovable cat Ben, a blue and white candy dish filled with Hershey kisses, promotional materials and of course, my favorite pen for signing. Photographer and fellow author, Carolyn Greene, aka The Plot Doctor, snapped shots of the event for me. She's such a good friend.

Dear friend Jackie Elston stopped by for the event. Jackie had surprised me for my birthday this year with a framed copy of my book cover. Jackie has star quality and even on a drab and dreary day, she manages to look fantastic.

Traffic was steady throughout the signing. I met many wonderful people and was happy to sign books for them. I love hearing stories about cats and the customers were only to happy to share personal bits of information about their favorite felines. I told them a little about Ben (cat) and Jorgie (my husband) since my story in the anthology is about the two of them. Here I am looking very pleased at the end of the signing.

Again, a HUGE thank you to Kelly and the whole staff at Fountain Bookstore for giving me this opportunity. It was a memorable day.

My 1st Booksigning

2008-08-10T21:31:00.015-04:00

Here I am (in the middle) with mystery authors Mary Anna Evans (in yellow) and JB Stanley (in the print dress) at Creatures 'n Crooks Bookshoppe.

This was my first booksigning. I was on hand to sign copies of CUP OF COMFORT FOR CAT LOVERS. My story about my husband and our tuxedo cat "Man's Best Friend" is #8 in the anthology.

I was quite pleased with how the event went. Bookstore owner, Leila Taylor, had everything perfect for both those of us signing and the many customers who stopped by. Adding to the day's excitement was the annual Carytown Watermelon Festival, an event that attracts a good 100,000 visitors.

Among the many shoppers to stop by and say hello and purchase a book were my grandchildren. Yes, it's hard to believe I'm really old enough to have grandchildren! You can't tell that we're happy, can you? My grandson was busy snapping pictures and I hope to have some of those to share with you also. My personal photographer for the day was my daughter. Both did a great job. And it meant a lot to have both family and friends in attendance.

Here I am signing a book. I've dreamed of this day for so long. A first signing is quite a milestone in any writer's career. Surprisingly, I wasn't nervous and actually seemed to know what I was doing. But then I've rehearsed this over and over in my mind probably a million times since I was a small child.

Multi-published author, Carolyn Greene, acted as my personal assistant for the day. Here she is making sure that the customers will not be lacking for chocolate. When I couldn't find a candy dish the night before the signing, I improvised (as any creative person would) with a blue and white cereal bowl from our china cabinet.

Luckily, I not only matched the decor that Leila had for the table, but my bookcover as well. Sure, it was planned...

And here we are back home after the signing. That's my daughter, BJ, on the left, me in the middle, and Carolyn Greene on the right.

You know, it's wonderful to have a great first event of any kind. To be able to share it with those you love is even better. I was truly blessed today to have a wealth of caring people with me. Jorgie, my husband, decided to stay home with Ben. But they were at the signing in spirit and via a picture that was proudly displayed on the author table in front of me.

Writing, knitting, creating. When we finish a book, sell a book, finish a pair of socks or a scarf, or accomplish whatever when we use our creativity, we need to celebrate our accomplishment. Today marked that celebration for me.

New York City Trip

2008-07-31T21:36:00.005-04:00

July had me traveling by train to Thrillerfest in New York City. It was a fabulous experience, worth every penny I spent on it. I attended workshops on writing taught by some of the heaviest hitters in fiction writing today. Many NY Times writers were in attendance. And we all know that is my goal - to be a bestselling writer.

In addition to attending classes, I also took part in Agentfest where 150 hearty souls in search of The agent speed dated 45 top industry professionals for 3 hours. The agents were seated around the room in alphabetical order and the participants lined up to pitch their stories to them. Each person got 3 minutes per agent. And when the bell rang, even if you were in the middle of a word, you got up and moved on. It was a very exciting experience.

I have to congratulate the people who were responsible for running Thrillerfest/Craftfest and Agentfest. Highly professional and well done. I'm so looking forward to going again next year.

Also managed to get in a couple of Broadway plays. Spring Awakening was very good. The music was phenomenal and I was captivated the whole time.

39 Steps, a spoof of Hitchcock's masterpiece, was not my cup of tea. But to be fair, I was very tired when we went and it would have been hard for anything to capture my imagination.

I also visited the UN Headquarters and was very impressed by the building, the grounds, the security and the photo gallery that was on display.

Bernadette Peters was doing her annual adopt a pet thing on Schubert Alley and in addition to seeing Ms. Peters, I also got to see Mary Tyler Moore, Peter Gallagher, Christine Baranski and Mario Lopez.

Behind the 8 Ball

2008-06-25T23:25:00.002-04:00

Last week was super exciting. The FedEx man brought 2 boxes of my books, Cup of Comfort for Cat Lovers. My hands were literally shaking as I opened the packages and held tangible proof of my writing creativity.

The book is even more beautiful in person than it was in the pictures I'd seen. My story, "Man's Best Friend" starts on page 49. It is one of 50 stories in the anthology that celebrates our feline friends.

This week it has been a thrill to sign books for dear friends and family members. The book officially comes out July 8, 2008 and I'll be in New York City attending the ThrillerFest writing convention.

The title of this post is Behind the 8 Ball because I'm about two months behind on promo. Since having a story in print and to sell is a first for me, I'm learning as I go.

My goal is to set up some local booksignings at bookstores and public libraries. I also have to have a picture taken and that's one of my least favorite things to do.

As soon as I have some definite dates and locations for the signings, I'll be sure to post them on my website (www.katjorgensen.com) and here. I hope some of you will be able to attend.

If you can't make it to a signing, be sure to check you local bookseller or online bookstore to pick up your copy. There's something for everyone in the anthology whether you're a "cat person" or not.

And to relax while all of this is taking place, I'm still knitting and writing, not necessarily in that order.

And speaking of pictures - I must post some of my sock pictures here. I've got gold to spin into yarn in more ways than one.

Kat

Sidelined but not idle

2008-05-27T20:59:00.006-04:00

I've been very busy since my last blog post. Surgery sidelined me for several weeks, but the recovery phase allowed me to do some awesome sock knitting. I'll be photographing my latest in a few days and posting the pictures here. Several are going to be given away as gifts to friends and family.

All of the downtime has also given me a chance to order more yarn (like I needed it -but hey, what's need got to do with it?) and plan some future projects.

I'm knitting a pair of Monkey socks right now from a Cookie A pattern, and I'm really enjoying them. The first sock is finished and fits like it was made for me. LOL! The yarn is so soft and caresses my feet. Can't wait until I have the other one made.

And the downtime has given me a chance to think about the mystery series that I'm writing. So looking forward to finishing the edits and starting on book 2.

My non-fiction short story, "Man's Best Friend" will be out in less than 5 weeks in A Cup of Comfort for Cat Lovers. I'm planning a few book signings and getting some promotional material ready. Busy, busy, busy.

To relax, I've been enjoying reading "The Lincoln Lawyer" by Michael Connelly. I can highly recommend this book. I didn't want it to end and it kept me turning the pages. Connelly is a master at plot twists, something that I aspire to.

Until next time when I have those pictures for you...

Kat

What I've Been Up To

2008-04-13T20:48:00.004-04:00

Writing, well actually, revising. I'm collaborating on a mystery series and we've been working on the rough draft. Today, I finished the first set of revisions. And it felt good. Really good. Even though I wrote the last couple of chapters and knew how the book ended, I found myself racing to read the pages and see how the book turned out. It's good. I like it. A lot!

Now my collaborator, Tracy, and I have to exchange our revisions and read each other's notes on what we've done. And then come to a consensus on where do we go from here on the next draft. Lots of work? Yes. But you know what? I feel like I'm taking a simple ball of clay and shaping it into a piece of art. Like in knitting when you start out with a length of yarn and a couple of needles and you create something spectacular from the parts.

At least, I hope that's what we're doing.

And in my spare time, I'm knitting socks. I'm working on the second Shibui knit toe-up sock and I'm also working on the Knitter's SOTM kit from last month (picture of yarn and pattern at the top of this post). This is knit cuff down and I'm about 2/3rds of the way down the cuff. It's a pretty pattern and fun to knit. I get bored doing ribbing designs and love the challenge of lace.

I've also been spending money ordering yarn and patterns to do more socks and a shawl or two. We'll see. I'm still very happy with the gratification that sock knitting gives me.

Plus, I love wearing them and showing them off. The best will be when I do a booksigning and can wear a really cool pair of socks.

Hope your creativity is flowing.

Kat

The Cat and the Sock and My Daughter

2008-04-03T19:09:00.005-04:00

Here's Ben and my latest sock creation, the Ariel. Doesn't he look happy? Not.

The Ariel was made out of Soxx Appeal and knitted on size 1 double-pointed needles. It seemed to take me forever to make this one sock. It may suffer second sock syndrome for a while.

Maybe Ben is just mirroring my expression. I like fast projects. It does look pretty on my foot though.

Here's a picture of my daughter BJ and me from my recent Charlottesville trip. She's neither a writer nor a knitter, but she's very creative with a special flair for floral arrangements. We had a great visit.

And no, I don't love Ben best because he got top billing on this blog post.

Kat

Luxury Socks

2008-04-02T00:56:00.010-04:00

Here's a picture of my favorite sock. It's from a SOTM club pattern called This Way and That and refers to the cables that go every which way on the sock. The yarn is wonderfully soft and feels so good to wear. It's from Pagewood Farms and is in the colorway Prism. I'd definitely use this yarn again. The socks were fun to knit and I've received a lot of compliments on both the pattern and the feel of the finished product. And I have both socks made. It doesn't get much better than this.

New Yarn Store Discovered and Booksigning

2008-03-30T13:58:00.014-04:00

Last week, I visited my daughter in Charlottesville, VA and discovered a wonderful yarn shop, It's A Stitch. The staff was friendly and helpful and the yarn was beautiful - but is there really an ugly yarn to a sock knitter?

I went into the store only planning to buy enough yarn to do one new pair of socks and came out with some gorgeous cream Panda silk to knit a lacy scarf and enough sock yarn to keep me busy for months.
After a sumptious dinner with my daughter and a visit to her apartment, I bopped back over to Barracks Road Barnes & Noble to catch the Romance Panel during Virginia Festival of the Book.

The panel was moderated by New York Times best-selling author, Cathy Maxwell. Cathy and I have served together for the last five years working as program co-ordinators for Virginia Romance Writers. A couple of years ago, Cathy dedicated her book "In the Bed of a Duke" to me. At the booksigning that followed the panel discussion, Cathy signed a copy of that book for my daughter. Talk about smiles all around.

The panel was composed of Mary Burton, Joanna Bourne and Patrice Michelle - all accomplished writers who had a lot of valuable information to share with the audience.

After the event was over, I was so happy to have a chance to talk with one of the most awesome and knowledgeable booksellers in the business, Sandi Cararo. During our chat, Sandi found out about my story in the up-coming Cup of Comfort for Cat Lovers anthology and asked me to do a signing at the store. Of course, I said YES. The book comes out in July, so I have a lot to do before then. This will be my first foray into signings and promotion.

Yarn and books. Knitters and writers. It just doesn't get much better.
My mind was popping on the way home! And hasn't stopped yet.

Super Socks

2008-03-25T11:05:00.004-04:00

These are my first attempt at knitting socks. I call them my super socks because they were very easy to do and they make me feel super when I wear them. Made out of Paton's Kroy self-striping yarn, the pattern was a simple knit every row. Lots of fun to do and even more fun to hear people's comments.

The Writing and Knitting Life

2008-03-24T23:37:00.014-04:00

Today I met with two of my writer friends. I'm collaborating with one of them on a mystery series, and we're working on editing book one in the series. This isn't the cover for the mystery series. Read on to find out what this cover represents.

Editing is my least favorite part of the creative process. You use a different set of muscles to edit than those that you use to write. I much prefer the initial writing, but I have to admit that it is the editing that shapes the project and makes it shine.

While I'm in edit mode, I'll use my spare time to create some beauty in my life by knitting some more socks or buying some wonderful yarn. I dream about future sock projects just like I dream about new stories to write.

Both writing and knitting have been passions of mine most of my life. I started spinning stories as soon as I learned to talk and began writing them down when I was about 4. I learned to knit from the ladies in my neighborhood when I was about 7 and loved to listen to the stories of their lives and to watch as they created beautiful woolen projects.

Some exciting news - this July the non-fiction story I wrote about our unloveable cat's reaction to my husband's cancer diagnosis and many surgeries will be published in CUP OF COMFORT FOR CAT LOVERS. The title of my story is "Man's Best Friend." A copy of the cover is shown above. I'm very proud of this accomplishment.

Not only does the story involve my darling husband, our cranky cat (who we love in spite of his attitude), but it also has yarn in it. When I first saw the cover and noticed the ball of yarn, I thought it could not have been more perfect.

Until next time when I share some photos of my hand-knit socks and my yarn stash.