Latest FO: On Me & On My Camera

My linen vest is now a FO.

These photos were shot by Mr K on Saturday, and edited (cropped) by me on Sunday.

I have a new camera that has a lot more options than my old little Cannon PowerShot SD600 with 6.0 megapixels.  My new camera is a Fujifilm X10 with 12.0 megapixels.  I will be learning more about all of its features as I go, but it does power on with a amazingly sharp 'auto' mode.  Doubling the number of pixels not only makes an incredible difference in the clarity of the images, but also allows for a major kind of cropping, which, in this case, made me feel like a professional photo editor.  (No, these are not perfect; but really, they were pretty effortless, and are already better than what my old camera would take.)

Anyway, back to the vest... I did work hard to finish this early enough in the season to be able to wear it often this summer.  My modifications were minor, mostly affecting the length, and are described on my Ravelry project page.  I went with the color 'ash', as was used by the designer, because it will go with every color that I normally wear.  The vest could be dressed up, but more often I will wear it dressed down and combined with other casual everyday clothing.  After I finished a last bit of steam pressing on Saturday morning, I put it on with what I was wearing for the day.  Unexpectedly, Mr K became an available photographer when an appointment of his was postponed by a half an hour.

And would you believe that I wore the vest all the day long?  I really do like it.  Must be because it is linen.

On the Blog

Today is the third anniversary of this blog.  Here is the very first photo from my very first post three years ago.

I took the photo while on a special vacation trip to Bermuda in 2007.  It shows a flowerbed at the pink "Princess Hotel" (the Fairmont Southampton).

On the first anniversary of this blog, I was vacationing at St Thomas, USVI, and I was proud to have posted about my first Blogiversary while being so far from home.  (I was anxious to keep up with the blog while one of my first knit designs was just out out in a magazine.)

Here is a photo from that trip in 2012.

The photo is of a tree branch at Lindquist Beach.  I was happy that I caught just enough of the sun through the branch in my photo.  I was laying on a chair on the beach under the tree.  Loved that. 

Last year I forgot about it being my Blogiversary (or, I think that I remembered it, but I also thought that self-congratulations would be a boring topic).  I did post a Colorwork Meditation (#7, no less, my favorite number) on the day.  That post contained this photo (not by me) of Josef Albers, Homage to Square, collection.  Love it.

Photo credit: http://igetitart.com/tag/josef-albers/

Today, then, begins the fourth year of the blog.

I was thinking that I might briefly share some of my blogging experience.

There are spammers, and worse, "referer" spammers, who have caused me grief... but that has mostly died down.

I (once, not long ago) had a vacation post with a good number of links that I believe was being used by someone for advertising purposes.  It was getting a crazily growing number of page views each hour over several days.  It made me nervous.  I deleted it, but then I re-posted it without the links.  I was not able to preserve the comments or page view numbers, but at least what I wrote and all of the photos are there.  (Last I checked, it still had zero views.)

I do enjoy going to my blogger stats page.  I like to see all the page views that my tutorials (especially my colorwork one) get everyday and from all around the world.

Is it funny that I have no worries about readers (who I imagine to be knitters) from India or Argentina or Korea viewing my blog in good number, but I do worry about unknowns (who seemed to be "storming" the old there)?

Lastly, thanks to my new blogging friends!  You know who you are.  You blog.  I blog.  You comment.  I comment.  I love that you are there! 

The Best of the Rest

Photos from California.

Huntington Beach

Surf at Huntington Beach

Huntington Beach Pier

A Road Stop on the way to Oceanside

Venice  Beach

Sidewalk, Venice Beach

Venice Beach Skate Park

Grauman's Chinese Theatre, Hollywood

From the Hollywood Walk of Fame

Holiday Reflections

On Christmas day, in the evening, 2013

Hours after dinner, most of us are still inside... a moment reflected on a window and caught by a camera...

It was after desert... (the candles are already burning low)... but before the traditional family card game of Apples to Apples.  Thirteen for dinner and ten for Apples to Apples.

In the morning we awoke to a fresh coat of snow.

Just a Few and Just a Bit

I took just a few photos at Rhinebeck yesterday.

These are the ones I like best.

 

I bought just a bit of yarn.

The four small skeins are Bartlett Yarns sport weight.  They came as a "Swirls" color pack with four 1 ounce skeins.  The larger skein is worsted wool from Hope Spinnery in Hope, Maine.  It was unlabeled, and on sale.

It was a beautiful day at the New York Sheep and Wool Festival in Rhinebeck, New York.  As I said in a blog post last year, "It was a wonderful way to spend a Sunday with some of my knitting friends and many thousands of like minded individuals."

This morning I decided to find the yarn in my stash from my last two trips to Rhinebeck.  I was pleased to find that because I have been a regular enough blogger for over two years now, I was able to find photos of my past Rhinebeck purchases in my archives.

2012
Yesterday Was...
(Lots of photos in that post.)

 

2011
Photos Not from Rhinebeck
(No Rhinebeck photos in that one.)

Would you believe that I have not yet knit with any of the yarns I purchased at Rhinebeck in my last three trips there?  I hope to use some very soon!

 

It was the Goldfish

My lack of blog posts might be blamed on "Goldfish".  Here are some lovely images of goldfish from Wikimedia.  These are photos that offer inspiring color palettes.

I might have posted my "Colorwork #5" post days earlier but I was stuck on the idea of getting an original photo of my framed art poster of "Goldfish" by Henri Matisse.  I love that poster.  It hangs in my family room.  I could not get a decent photo when it was cloudy, because the overhead light reflected on the plexiglass which is typical for a poster frame.  I could not get a decent photo when it was sunny, because the window light was reflected similarily.

It took a couple of days for me to decide to use a photo from Creative Commons at Flickr instead of my own pathetic poster photos.

I must admit that I cannot really blame "Goldfish" for me not posting.  What I can use is the excuse that other designers sometimes use on their blogs:  I have been working on a "Super Secret" design project.  It will take another week or two to finish.

If you like color as I do, I can recommend a great website that I learned of from the blog of knitwear designer, Linda Marving.  It is Design Seeds.  You can subscribe there (just type in your email address), and you will get one email each day with two photos and their accompanying palettes.  They always brighten my day.


Photo credits:  http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AShubukin_goldfish.JPG
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Goldfish_-_East_Park_-_geograph.org.uk_-_390130.jpg
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Goldfishs.jpg

Some Things I Like

I like knitting lace... even lace swatches.

I like photos of knitted lace with flowers.

The lace... a remnant of old.

The flowers... here for a season.

Both (profoundly) beautiful...

(Some of these bits of lace may be appearing in future posts.)

Just one FO for Friday

Not too long ago I finished my Thundercloud Cowl, and yesterday I had a couple of photos shot by Mr K.

More than half of my finished project photos on Ravelry are headless.  I just had my haircut and styled yesterday, so I guess that is why I thought that these would look Ok.  Maybe a light sweater would have looked better than the white tee, but it was quite humid and near 80 degrees.

With photos, even more so than with knitting, there is a pretty big leap from "good job" to "perfect!"

Have a good weekend!

Look, look, a lookbook!

Please take another look at my Jonna Cowl.  I took this photo of my cowl before I sent it up to Quince & Co in Portland, ME.

I had one Raveler message me that she wondered if there was a place to see the Jonna stitch pattern spread out.  I directed her to my Ravelry project page, which includes this photo, and she replied that it was exactly what she wanted to see.

The eggplant colored swatch was the original one that I sent to Quince for the "Scarf Call."  They sent it back to me with the lovely 'Bird's Egg' blue Chickadee yarn.

After reading the comments to my last post (thanks!), I did move this next photo to the top of my Ravelry pattern page.  It does make a lot of sense, since this is also the photo that Quince & Co selected as their main image for Jonna on their website!

© Quince & Co

I found, and am in love with, the lookbook for the Quince & Co Scarf, etc. collection.  You can open it and page through all twelve of the designs.  There are alternate images for all of them.  And did I mention it is b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l ! ?  Note (1): I have an ipad and the lookbook does not always come up as well on the ipad as it does on my laptop.  (It might just be me, but I am not really sure.)  Note (2): Jonna is the last design in the book, so please be patient.  You will enjoy looking at the others, too, I guarantee it!

Look, look, take a look...