Getting Closer to Seams Like Murder

I’m looking out my window and wondering if it is really April. The sky is gray, the air chilly compared to yesterday when it was hot. And most unusual is the rain. Not only that we’re getting it in Southern California so late in the season, but the kind of rain. Usually we get rain of a nerve wracking variety. Steady pouring for hours on end, with torrents swirling down the side street near us that carries water down from the hills. The kind of rain that threatens mud slides and street flooding. But this rain has been light. Wet enough to leave some puddles on the patio, but not enough to turn the trunks of the orange trees in the yard shiny. I had the window open and the air coming in smelled so sweet.

We need the rain. All the threats of El Nino never materialized. It is supposed to continue tomorrow and the next day. It should give the grass a good soaking before it is done.

Hawaii already seems a distant memory and I’m getting ready to pack my bag to go to Chicago. If I thought this rain was strange, light snow is predicted for the day I arrive.

I am in the process of getting ready for the release of SEAMS LIKE MURDER. It means getting photographs of the projects from the book. One of my characters, Sheila, has been making pieces in mixtures of colors so that they resemble an Impressionist painting. I always imagined them, but never actually made anything like it. I decided to create one of her pieces for SEAMS LIKE MURDER. I found out that crocheting in your imagination is a bit like baking in your mind. It turns out different in real life. I had imagined just mixing all different kinds of yarns, but I soon discovered that didn’t work.

My first attempts turned out to heavy. I finally saw that the yarn had to be very fine if I was going to use three strands. And then it started to be amazing to be actually making what I’d only seen in my minds eye.