Knitting and love...how much better can it get?!??

Hi, gang! It's so much fun to have you all come play with us! Dear, wonderful Barbara (my fellow curly hair, only she's in the closet with those lovely straight locks and I'm dancing in the parade on Curly Pride Day;)) kindly invited me to join, even though I'm waaaaay behind her in knitting prowess (those socks! I stand in awe.) And she is one of my all-time favorite writers, with a whole section in my keeper shelves. (Just re-read AT LAST, BB, and I think I'm going to have to drag out A SOFT PLACE TO FALL soon...that Annie and Sam just really get to me.)

I'm a fifth-generation Texan, and I've done needlework forever, sort of all over the map, crochet, needlepoint, embroidery, knitting, cross-stitch...but having just about put my eyes out on CS beauties on 32-count linen and such (but oh, those Mirabilia patterns or Lavender and Lace!), I decided a year ago that I was not up for being a blind writer just yet. So I started knitting again after an absence of eons, and I'm loving it (okay, I backslid and am doing one last CS project, but no more! I swear it!)

If you read the early posts, you'll see that I just did my first felting project and am madly in love! Here's a picture I emailed from my cameraphone (LOVE that little dude!) of my current OTN: a little girl's purse in Cascade and Glowing Tribute, on 10.5 bamboo needles (yes, you Addi addicts, I know they're wonderful, but I just looooove bamboo!) I'm told that when I felt it, I'll be left with sparklies, which will fill my little cutie's heart with rapture.

As for writing (oh, yeah, that! What I get paid for!) I'm approaching 8 years of publication this fall, and I've had 15 books out from first Silhouette Special Edition, then Harlequin Superromance and Signature, with #16 (LOVE IS LOVELIER, part of the Hotel Marchand miniseries from Harlequin) coming up in Dec.

Unlike most of the writers I know, I didn't always know I wanted to be one. I was in the slow class on What I Want to Be When I Grow Up, so I didn't begin writing until my youngest was about to graduate from high school. I could kick myself around the block for not figuring this out sooner, but I guess I just wasn't ready, and I wouldn't trade anything for the time to focus on my family.

But I hope I die at the keyboard because I have a bazillion or so stories I still want to tell, and it's just the best thing in the world to hear from readers who've been touched by my books.

Knitting and writing about love, which I truly believe is the most powerful force on the planet...life is good. And I am one very lucky lady to be living it.

Jean
www.jeanbrashear.com