LindyLou

Life has kept me within a very small circle, but curiosity about other places and other people helps give everything a much wider scope.

I've a family that is like everyone else's family--the stuff that sitcoms are made of and dramas, too. There are two teenaged boys still at home and three kids who have grown. I now have time for old interests long neglected--making things, drawing and reading--and new interests--writing to people I've met through blogging and becoming 'way too fond of knitting.

I had vowed not to accumulate a large stash of yarn which seems to be an occupational hazard of knitting and for actual months I had only the yarn for the thing I was knitting and maybe one or two others on hand. I've noticed that they seem to be inviting other yarns to live with them, though. If I don't put an end to it, they are going to organize and declare themselves a stash.

I am also accumulating knitting needles, finding that no matter what I already own, the next project requires some other size or type.

When I've had enough of knitting for a while, I go back to the first creative activity I enjoyed--sketching. I've also begun making small books and handsewing projects. Someday I may get back to work on the queen sized sampler quilt I started years ago--every stitch handsewn. What I lose in speed, I gain in enjoying the process of stitching one-by-one.

I like mystery books, especially those by women authors. Sue Grafton and Sara Paretsky are favorites. Other favorite authors are Ken Follette and Martin Cruz Smith. The last book that surprised me with how very much I loved it was "A Farewell to Arms". The other book I'd put at the top of my favorites list is "To Kill a Mockingbird".

Music is one of the great pleasures of my days. My teenaged and young adults do me the favor of keeping me listening to new music--though I don't think I'll every like rap--and a blog friend in England got my ears listening to people I never noticed before. There are so many people whose music I enjoy that it's hard to think where to begin listing them. I'll have to think of it and come back to that.

After reading all of those indoor-type pleasures you might think I don't enjoy the out-of-doors, but I do, very much. My job gets me outdoors for part of every day and when I am home, I love being in my yard, sort of gardening, but if the truth be told I spend a lot of my time just enjoying the look of outdoors and the feel of fresh air on my face.

Favorite colors begin with red, all shades of red, and go on to just about every other color, though I seem to have missed out on whatever it takes to like purple and shades of that color. I prefer clear colors to odd shades. I usually wear black and red or blue denim and after avoiding pink for years and years, I find that I really like wearing pink now.

I love leaves, especially maple leaves and when I open my sketch book, the first thing I look at around me is the trees.

As for what I don't love? Well, after thinking about it for a while I had to conclude that I just don't like "cute" very much. It seems like a personality defect, but it's just the way I am.