Stoneview

Anniversaries

A few weeks ago I spent the morning at the local frame shop picking out frames and mats for a special anniversary surprise. Usually Jason and I don't do anniversary gifts, preferring a nice dinner at home but this year I pulled out photos and invitations for some framing that's long overdue. This year on May 1st we'll mark our tenth anniversary though that in itself can be a bit confusing. We had a Justice of the Peace ceremony at the Arnold Arboretum beneath the blooming cherry trees on May 1st, 1999 and then a renewal of vows complete with a rehearsal dinner on April 29th, 2000. Later I made a little commemorative cross-stitch piece and didn't realize until I was arranging this framing that I got my dates jumbled, it has the month and day of one ceremony and the year of the other. Oops! The framing was done much more quickly than I anticipated so I've given the gift early. This morning we hung them in the bedroom on that big empty wall we created during a recent rearranging of furniture. I think they turned out beautifully and it's lovely to finally have them framed.

For those waiting to hear- the doc says I have some arthritis in the shoulder, tendonitis in the elbow, a strained or torn rotator cuff (most likely just strained) and cervical disk degenerative disease with a bone spur on c6-c7. I've got an NSAID prescription and appointments with the physical therapist and no physical activity restrictions so I can still knit, yay!

MOO notecards

I recently took the plunge and ordered some MOO Notecards created from some of my photos off Flickr. I thought they might make nice gifts. I love that they are made to stand up and that you get a "contact print" card along with the set. My only grumble is that some of the photos appear to have a soft focus which is not the case with the original. I can't figure out why some of them are like this and not others since they are all taken with the same camera etc. I have sent them a query and hopefully will learn something useful in the process.

I am forbidden to produce milk

I definitely had MOO card envy a couple of years ago when they were brand new but as I had no Flickr account at the time there wasn't much I could do about it. This year I finally remedied that and here's a sampling of my very first set of MOO cards. A few of the images have oversaturated color and one or two seem a bit washed out but overall they turned out very nicely indeed. On the back I put my name, email address, blog address and avatar photo.

All dressed up

Here's the finished scarf after it's rather aggressive blocking session. The pattern calls for fingering weight but used sportweight Frog Tree alpaca. I adjusted it a bit by casting on  75% of the recommended stitches and knit 75% of the rows before binding off. Casting on and joining without a twist is much easier with a 60" circular rather than the 28" called for.   Note that I have used size 3 needles with this yarn but I knit loosely and usually go down a size so if you wanted to replicate what I did and you normally knit on gauge then you'd want to use size 4 needles.

We had another beautiful day yesterday and celebrated Labor Day with a gathering of friends. We provided pulled pork and coleslaw and they brought yummy things like baked beans, guacamole, and peanut butter trifle. I couldn't resist these sunflowers at the market when I was picking up the rest of the fixin's.

Photogenic

We're celebrating my birthday a few days early this weekend. Jason cooked a fabulous dinner last night and there's cake in the fridge for later today. As a gift I got a new little camera that can fit in my pocket and will be perfect for pictures when the big camera is too intimidating. This is the Canon Elph with 6 MP and a 1 gig memory card. Should keep me out of trouble, no?

Spring cleaning

The computer has been a wee bit grumpy of late so I felt it was time to clean house and double check that important things were backed up. I spent the whole of yesterday cleaning out unwanted photos that were duplicates, out of focus, poorly exposed or unusable for any other reason. I was left with photos dating back to December 2004 (the last time my computer imploded and ate all my digital photos) that total nearly 15 gigs of memory. I needed 4 DVDs just to back them all up but now they are happily safe and sound.

I also managed to finish up the first half finger glove out of the tan Frog Tree. This will be the pair that I keep for myself. I altered the ribbing for this pair from 1 x 1 to 2 x 2 which is a bit quicker for a thrower like me to knit.

White Balance

Here's the first Toasty Toes sock and also the first experiment with white balance. I think it's still going to take some fiddling to get it right but this is at least an improvement. The background is much whiter but the sock colors are a bit washed out and not nearly as vibrant as they are in person.

Freeze Frame

After so many frustrations of taking photos without adequate lighting, I decided to do something about it. The days are getting shorter and my lovely natural light is rapidly disappearing not to mention it's usually dark by the time I want to do food photos. I began poking around looking at light tent prices and I didn't like them.  I thought it was something I could probably make myself much more inexpensively. After a bit of searching I found some directions for a light tent and I went from there.

Over the weekend I spent some hours purchasing PVC, ripstop nylon, lamps, and backgrounds. Yesterday I began sawing PVC and assembling. I've modified the original design (You know I can never quite follow directions, don't you?) to include a full box frame and a sewn nylon cover. I wanted to use the nylon rather than a sheet because dirt and things won't cling to it like they will an old sheet. It's also easier to keep the nylon ripple free if I want to shoot without a background.

Here's the first test photo. I need to get out the camera manual still because my background isn't as white as it should be and I know I can fix that with white and grey cards. I've got white and grey felt but those should do nicely. I do think the yarn colors are a bit more true in this photo and oh by the way, this is the start of my exchange socks. If it looks like a big honkin' ball 'o yarn, that's because it is.