Verity

How do you tell if you’re obsessed with knitting? When you don’t even wear hats but you knit one anyway because “the construction looks interesting”.

This is Verity, another WIP that has since become an FO.

Verity

Pattern: Verity by Ysolda. I made the 56cm version.
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran colour #010, 2 balls.
Needles: 4.5mm circulars, with magic looping to start off at the top. (I just love magic loop, you can do all sorts of circumference with just one pair of needles!)

I’m a big fan of Ysolda’s patterns, she does make beautiful designs that are fun and interesting to knit. (I have my eyes on this one next 🙂 )

The band of this hat here looks like moss stitch (seed stitch), but in fact it’s the reverse side of linen stitch. Doing it this way has the effect of having the smooth texture on the inside, and also makes a denser fabric that doesn’t overstretch easily. Very clever!

Verity

I like it! It’s not as slouchy as in the pattern (my gauge was a bit tighter), but I didn’t want it too slouchy anyway. Very happy with this! I think I might become a hat person after all… I’ve worn it outside a few times already and I love it! It’s great for keeping my hair together on windy days 🙂

On photo-taking

Well April has gone past, and so has the 30 days macro challenge. Thank you so much to everyone who commented on my photos or gave me feedback. I really appreciate it!

As expected I didn’t get to post every day of the month, and I didn’t end up with 30 macro photos, but I’m very happy with what I managed to do. I first joined in the challenge just for fun, but as it progressed I started to get more and more into it. I started bringing my camera with me everywhere I go, and started to pay attention to things that I didn’t even notice before. Like how fallen leaves can look rather pretty, or how knitting needles can look like artwork, or how some things look even better in black and white.

Macro challenge photos

It seems that I’m drawn towards nature shots. I guess the good thing with nature shots is that I don’t have to pose them, I just have to find a good angle 🙂 Plus it tied in quite well with Project Spectrum‘s “earth” theme.

The other day I was digging up some of my bookmarked photography links, and I thought I’d put them up here.

  • Product photo tips — A good bunch of tips on good photo taking, like lighting, background, etc. This tutorial is aimed at making product shots for selling on etsy/ebay, but I think they’re very relevant as well for us who take photos of our knitting/craft projects for our blogs.
  • 21 ways to shoot better photos — Some good tips on how to make your photos more interesting, something I’m still learning!
  • Pink Chalk Studio’s Photography 101 — Great description on how to process your photos after you shoot them, like adjusting colours and contrast. Kathy’s way of doing it is pretty much the same as how I process my photos, except that she explains it much better than I could. I use Photoshop Elements (sort of a “lite” version of Photoshop) to process my photos, which is more than enough for what I need. Another one that I’ve had the pleasure of trying out recently is Picnik, which is an online photo editor, does cool things and can be linked to your flickr account as well.

Well I hope some of you find these useful!

Happy Mothers Day to all the mums, hope you have a lovely weekend!

Loopy

Loopy

What could this be? Let’s zoom out a bit…

Grrr washcloth

“Grrr… I’m a washcloth hear me ROAR!” Hahaha, okay, okay, that was bad.

Well the pattern is the Aslan-inspired washcloth Grrr from Knitty. I used probably about two thirds of a ball of Sugar ‘n Cream Ombres. I had wanted to make this washcloth with the yarn held double, to make the loops look even fuller. But I only have one ball, so I wouldn’t have enough yarn anyway.

Pattern: Grrr from Knitty.
Yarn: Lily Sugar ‘n Cream Ombres, mix of yellows and white, less than a ball.
Needles: 4mm.

Notes: The loop stitch can be a bit tricky to do at first, but after a couple of rows it gets better. Other than that, it’s a fun little pattern to make, and very quick knit too. I’ll be making more of this I think!

Grrr….

Pointy sticks

Pointy sticks

Baking

Easy chocolate slices

Following Sadieandlance’s advice I stepped away from the computer for a few minutes this afternoon and whipped this up. Yummy! Recipe is here.