Photography for Knitters
Posted by: fourpeass on: January 26, 2010
This past weekend I took Gale’s “Photography for Knitters” workshop and it was great. I learned a lot especially about exposure, trying different backgrounds and how different photos look after you upload them to your blog. I wanted to upload a few photos untouched to showcase what I learned but as soon as I put them on flickr, they lost a lot of color. We didn’t get the chance to explore this much during the workshop but I noticed it immediately after I uploaded some photos. Check out the photos below:
The photo on the left is completely untouched but the color looks nothing like it did when it came out of my camera. I don’t think I noticed this before because I almost always upload my photos with the intention of editing them later in Picnik. The photo on the right looks almost identical to the original file on my computer but I boosted the color, contrast and over saturated it, like Gale suggested, before uploading it. Needless to say, I ended up editing the rest of the photos in this post.
EDIT 1/26: Now that I’m looking at these photos on my work computer, they look completely different which is a little disappointing. The photos I edited look over saturated but on my macbook they look fine. What do you see?
Up until this point, I hadn’t really considered backgrounds too much when shooting finished knits and yarn, I usually just try to find a good light source (which is also important, of course) and a plain surface. During out first hands on session we played around with different fabrics to create a background for small objects and yarn:
I never think to grab some fabric and throw yarn on top of it. Normally, I use my light box or clear off my kitchen table which, is the whitest surface in my apartment but this is way more interesting. Now I can finally use that fabric that I bought during my sewing phase. I also need to get my hands on my some black velvet:
It was fun to shoot just for the sake of shooting. Getting photos of my finished objects and yarn always stresses me out a bit because I focus on trying to get a good photo instead of having some fun with it. I’m looking forward to putting what I learned to use and getting a bit more creative with my knitting photography.
I took over 300 photos yesterday so I’m going to leave you with just a few that I like.
This is Rebecca’s Peaks Island Hood.
The hood of Becca’s Central Park Hoodie.
Drive by post
Posted by: fourpeass on: January 23, 2010
Fresh off the wheel:
All Spun Up Falkland, 2 oz. ~98 yards, worsted weight
Three (four?) years in the making
Posted by: fourpeass on: January 21, 2010
Three (or four) years ago, Conor said he wanted to learn how to knit. The next day we hopped on the T to Windsor Button, one of my favorite yarn stores in Boston, to buy some yarn and needles. I led Conor to a wall of Cascade 220 – a wonderful beginner yarn and a nice go-to yarn even when you’re way past the beginning stages.
Later that day, we sat down and I taught him the basics. I watched as he knit each stitch slowly and carefully. If he dropped a stitch or made a mistake, he’d pause and ask me to fix it. When I first learned to knit, I wouldn’t stop for anything. I was dropping, twisting and adding new stitches left and right. That explains why my first scarf looks like a mangled baby blanket and Conor’s is perfection.
Conor would work on the scarf every so often, knitting for a half hour then putting it down for a couple days, weeks, months, YEARS!! Three (or four) years later, Conor has a wonderful hand knit scarf:
I’m not sure if this is the first of many knits or the end of trying something new but in my heart, Conor will always be a knitter.
It’s been a great year
Posted by: fourpeass on: December 31, 2009
1. handspun – merino/tencel, 2. Guernsey, 3. Snapdragon Tam, 4. Toasty, 5. Kiss, 6. Handspun: Merino, 7. Snapdragon Flip Mittens, 8. Vine Yoke Cardi, 9. Engagement Ring, 10. Snap Tam, 11. Vine Yoke, 12. Favorite handspun so far, 13. Snap Flip Mittens, 14. Baby Sophisticate, 15. Simple Yet Effective, 16. Kaari, 17. Merino/Silk Blend All Spun Up, 18. Grande Hat, 19. Spiraluscious, 20. Heart, 21. Afterthought heel socks, 22. Iceland, 23. Maddox, 24. Helena
Next year: marriage, Spain, knitting, spinning and maybe some new hobbies. Weaving, perhaps.
Hello, Internet
Posted by: fourpeass on: September 28, 2009
- In: knitting| spinning
- 2 Comments
During the first few weeks of being engaged, I bought a wedding planner and started reading every wedding blog I could find. Hello, information overload! I thought wedding planning would be hard and scary but it’s only been two months and most of the important things are done. The wedding is still 11 months away so there’s a few things I can’t do yet but I feel pretty good about everything. I can’t wait till next spring so I can get started on the fun DIY stuff.
Other than wedding planning, I’ve been doing some spinning and knitting. First, spinning:
I bought some very fine Merino fiber from Alafoss when I was in Iceland. I forgot to take a photo of the before but it came in 1 oz strips and was striped with purple, orange and blue. I tried to separate the colors somewhat but it’s still a marled yarn. I thought it would be ugly knit up but I actually love the scarf I made with it:
Next up, a merino/tencel blend from Yarn Chef:
Turned into:
I was able to retain the colors by splitting the braid in half. Now,what to make with it? I only have about 200 yards and was thinking of using white or black yarn to go with it. I may do something like this to showcase the gradual change in color. By the way, tencel is my new favorite thing to spin.
Everyone is having babies which means I get to knit cute baby sweaters like this tiny grandpa cardigan:
Pattern: Baby Sophisticate
Yarn: My Family by Muench Yarns
Needles: US 8
Notes: This is for Conor’s future cousin once removed, little Liam, who is due in December. Doesn’t this look like a sweater for someone named Liam? First, let’s talk about this yarn. I went to the yarn store and asked for a super wash wool or wool blend for a baby sweater but was immediately met with a “We only have acrylic”. I never use acrylic yarn because acrylic = plastic and plastic = gross and not fun to knit with but not this yarn. I reluctantly went over to feel it and was floored. This is the softest synthetic stuff I’ve ever touched and it was great to knit with. I’m still going nowhere near Red Heart but I’ve learned to feel before I judge.
The construction of the sweater is really simple but it was a fun knit. I love the garter stitch edging and the shawl collar. It usually takes me an hour or more to pick out buttons for a sweater but when I saw these leather buttons, I knew.
I need to figure out how to make one of these for myself. More photos below:
This photo shows the true color of the yarn.
