Valentine's Day

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.