Lace loom

I thought I'd post a bit of an explanation of the lace loom I got at Knit Nation.  This is the model I have, and here is a video explaining how it works.

I haven't used it yet, too many other projects on the go, but I've got some ideas for it and will post them here when I get to them!

Glows

This is my first project using yarn acquired at Knit Nation.  The pattern is Glows by Laris Designs and the yarn is 100% Merino Superwash from Wollmeise in Johannisbeer und Brennessel, which translates as Redcurrant and Stinging Nettle.  Being a fine yarn on small needles, with lots of cables etc, it's quite a fiddly project, but I'm really enjoying it anyway.  It's also the first time I've worked from a chart rather than a written pattern, which is interesting to say the least!

Debbie Bliss garter stitch jacket

Here is a photo of a recently finished project made for a friend's premature baby girl.  The pattern is by Debbie Bliss and the yarn is Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino which is gorgeous and soft and perfect for delicate skin.  Being so tiny and simple, it was really quick to knit.

I also made this card to send with it, which is my second attempt at cardmaking.

Knit Nation

The last weekend in July was the weekend of Knit Nation in London.  I went along on the Saturday with my sister, and we had a great time.  I wish I'd known how brilliant it was going to be as I would have saved up and gone for longer!  The marketplace was amazing, every single stall had something gorgeous on it and restraining myself from buying (or trying to buy - not enough money to actually do it!) everything was so hard!  My favourite stall was Rohrspatz & Wollmeise (below) just because it looked so beautiful!

As soon as we saw the wall of colours, we had to make a beeline for it.  The yarn isn't cheap, but when we realised the yardage per 150g skein was immense, it was very easy to convince ourselves to get some.  The gorgeous projects on display around the booth, which were all made with one skein or less, helped make the decision!  The shawls at the front are by Arlene's World of Lace, and the gloves on top of the shelves are by Laris Designs.

Below is the haul of goodies I came away with.  Not bad considering we were only there for about two hours or so!  Left to right, back: Fashion Flats for designing clothes, lace loom (both from Purlescence), Kumihimo discs and book (can't even remember the name of the stall that came from!), "Vintage Gifts to Knit" by Susan Crawford (signed).  Slightly chaotic pile of yarn in the middle, left to right: five balls each of Little Knitting Company Camelot in white and pink, pale pink shawl kit from Artisan Yarns, black and silver shawl kit from Be Sweet, six balls of Be Sweet Extra Fine Boucle Mohair in red, orange, purple and lime, more shawl kits from Artisan (purple and red ones), and three gorgeous skeins of Wollmeise in mostly red based colours.  There are also a bunch of extra bits for my Denise interchangeable needles on the far right.  Phew!  It's going to take me ages to get through that little lot!

Assignment 4

The brief for Assignment 4:

"Capture and share at least two images demonstrating your ability to control depth of field to achieve desired photographic effects.



The important point is that you should have a go at testing the theory and practice controlling depth of field as appropriate in your own images. You may wish to try some of these ideas:Close-up macro shots showing extremely narrow depths of field to pleasing effect.


Portrait or still-life shots with very narrow depths of field (it is fashionable in portrait photography to have, say, just the eyes in focus and the hair out of focus. This requires a large aperture.


Landscape shots where you have maximised depth of field.


Sports action or wildlife shots with a narrow depth of field on the subject to give a pleasing composition."

I didn't get many landscape shots for this one, everything seemed to have cranes or office buildings in it, but I'm quite pleased with the close ups.  The one of the ball of wool is included as I wanted to achieve that effect with the previous set of yarn photos but didn't know how.

Assignment 3

This was the brief for Assignment 3:

"Capture and share two well exposed images from at least two of the following categories of varied and challenging lighting conditions:



Creative motion blur in low or normal light conditions (e.g. walking, cycling, cars, sugar falling from a spoon, running water, car lights after dark). For this task you will need to steady your camera by either resting it on something or using a tripod. Avoid camera shake.


Low light, high speed (high ISO) still photography (e.g. moonlight, street lights). This can be hand-held if the shutter speed is fast enough or using a tripod or other camera support as appropriate. Avoid camera shake.


High contrast photography (bright indoor lights, or bright daylight, or highly reflective subjects)."

This is my attempt:

I'm reasonably pleased with the first one, which does have motion blur and I think is ok as far as exposure goes, but the second one isn't particularly well exposed.  Not sure why apart from the ISO settings on my camera only go up to 800 - I do find balancing shutter and aperture tricky for high speed photography so it may be that.

Assignment 2

I'm running quite a long way behind, so trying to catch up before my first computer marked assignment.

Assignment 2 was to take "pictures of someone, somewhere or something that you really like".  I chose knitting as being one of my favourite activities, and decided to use some of my stash to experiment with colour and texture.  For one photo, we also had to "boldly crop the image in an interesting way", so the last photo in this sequence is my attempt at interesting cropping.

Assignment 1

For this assignment I had to pick two letters of the alphabet and take photos for them. I interpreted that to mean of something that looks like the letter, not of something beginning with that letter. I picked C and F.

First exercise

I had to take three photos of a bottle, focusing separately on colour, light and view point in each one. These aren't even shared on the course, I think they're just for practice, but it seems a pity not to do something with them.

Time to restart

I've decided that for the next couple of months I'm going to use this blog as a means of sharing photos taken for my Open University photography course with the wider world, as they'll otherwise only be seen and commented on by the other students.

I'm already running about a week behind, having had the most ridiculously hectic week last week, so I'm trying to catch up with the whole first week today. As a result, there may be a few posts today!

Sky Watch Friday

For this week's Sky Watch, I'm going back just about four years to some photos I took with my then very new camera. These were taken over Cardiff Bay from our front window, during the Cardiff Harbour Festival (if I remember rightly). I'll admit to being useless with planes, I'd have to rely on my father or my other half for identifying these, and although other half did have something to say about them at the time, I can't remember what that was... I just thought it was an unusual sight to see from your sitting room, and grabbed the camera - I pretty much forgotten I had these, until Picasa decided to organise my photos for me!

For more skies, visit Sky Watch Friday. By the way, I won't be participating next week, as I'll be away and won't have time to find a suitable photo before I go. See you in two weeks!

Sky Watch Friday

That time of the week again, and this week I managed to get a slightly different photo from my usual. As I came home from work on Monday evening, I became aware of rather a lot of seagull noise, and looking round from the front door I saw this:

I think the gulls were after flying ants - we'd actually had quite a hot and sunny few days, and there were critters everywhere. I keep my camera in my handbag just in case I spot something good while I'm out, so I took a photo. A little boy sitting on the neighbour's wall said "there's millions of birds over there as well if you want to take a photo of them", so I thought it would be rude not to! This was the result.

For more Sky Watch photos, visit its new home here.

Def Leppard, Whitesnake and Thunder come to Cardiff

I'm posting this more than a week after the event, because my Blogger hasn't wanted to play ball recently...

On Monday 14th July, one of the girls in work was celebrating her birthday, and coincidentally Def Leppard, supported by Whitesnake and Thunder, were playing at the CIA in Cardiff that night. She's a BIG fan of Whitesnake (or David Coverdale...) so said months ago that she wanted to go to the gig and asked who wanted to come - I refrained from jumping at the chance for just long enough to phone the other half, to see if he wanted to go, and then told her with very little excited jumping up and down, that we'd both love to go. The excitement being almost entirely due to the fact that I've been a Def Leppard fan since I was 14 and hadn't actually seen them live before, or thought I'd get the chance!

Thunder were excellent, they could have done with longer than 45 minutes to be honest, as it really wasn't long enough to fit in all their best/biggest songs. Danny Bowes was hardly recognisable with short hair, but the voice was very much present and correct - I don't think I'd be being unreasonably disrespectful to the other two frontmen that night if I said he was the best singer there.

Whitesnake were initially a bit disappointing - the new album is good, but I think practically everyone there was there mainly for "1987" (it's certainly the album I know best) and after a large number of songs I didn't know, standing there getting pushed and squashed was losing its appeal! Particularly as Coverdale didn't appear to be singing entirely live all the time (he was getting a lot of help from the guy on keyboards, and there was a certain amount of "singing" with his mouth closed). Fortunately, they remembered why they are where they are, and the second half of the set was entirely made up of the big hits - the crowd perked up and the set ended well, and the lady from my office was in seventh heaven!

Finally, Def Leppard, the real reason I was there, took the stage and were brilliant throughout. Joe Elliott might not be the best singer in the world, and his voice might have been suffering a bit by the end, but they're still a great band. Highlights included "oh my god, Phil Collen doesn't look a day older", Joe in a Welsh rugby shirt, Rick Savage's bass solo and the awesome version of David Essex's "Rock On" that followed it, every one of their big hits - in fact, there were too many to list, but general opinion is that "Rock On" was the very best bit. All in all, it was totally worth £37.50 and the pain of standing up for 5+ hours!

The night in photos follows...

Thunder

Luke Morley (far left) was still recognisable - Danny Bowes (centre) wasn't without the hair!

Danny Bowes: "I wanna see you all jumping up and down" Audience: "**** off, we're middle aged!"

Whitesnake

David Coverdale in full flow

Doug Aldritch mid solo

Coverdale and Aldritch