Faking It

I've been reading and watching a lot of photoshop tips and tutorials lately. Mostly I'm trying to be better at "fixing" all those little mistakes I make in-camera, and trying to improve my photoshopping skills in general. But sometimes I just find something FUN. This photo was taken on our last trip out East in June 2006. It was a brief glimpse of blue sky from a Lunenburg street and the original was pretty uninspired (see below). Based on this tutorial I created a photoshop action to "fake" the HDR (High Dynamic Range) look of photos in an instant, and after playing around for a lot of time applying it to bunches of my old photos, this was my favourite one. I love how that siding pops in this new and improved version. The clouds are a bit pinkish but the siding just looks gloriously detailed to me, which I love.

ZOMG, a Finished Object: Tattoo-less Kimono Shrug

Have you ever experienced love at first sight?

I first saw this sweater on the marketplace floor at the DKC Knitter's Frolic this past April. I was shopping with my best friend Meredith and we were both determined to buy only things that we loved. Usually this means just a few skeins of expensive luxury yarns for me and a selection of beautiful but practical yarns and projects for her. But when we both saw this sweater I'm pretty sure we both fell madly in love with it at the same time. Luckily for us, the wearer of the sweater not only shared the name and origin of the pattern but let us know that it was for sale in the very next room. We both bought the pattern, and after rejecting the idea of buying 10 skeins of Malabrigo (it would have been lovely but $170+tax for a shrug seemed a bit insane, even to me) I settled on two fat skeins of a silvery-grey wool-silk blend. I wound it up and started knitting that very night; masses of garter stitch were the perfect antidote to a completely crazy period at work around the same time.

I think I may be the only person grateful for the crapppy summer weather we've been having so far, since it allowed me to wear this cozy shrug a lot more than I thought I would be able to in June. Which worked out perfectly because it meant that I could convince the talented photographer Jacquie to do these shots for me on her recent Toronto visit. Also, if you like the jewellery I'm wearing, it is by Sprout Jewelry (etsy). I adore these diamond earrings, and they were ridiculously affordable.


Pattern & Modifications
Tattoo Kimono Shrug by Danielle Wilson from Spun Fibre Arts in Burlington, Ontario. As it turns out, you can buy it directly via Ravelry as a downloadable PDF, something I wish I had taken advantage of since I have a terrible time keeping track of paper patterns and I fully plan to make another of these in the future. The only modifications I made were to eliminate the "tattoo" part and just knit a solid garter-stitch back instead, and to completely knit my own size since the pattern as written was turning out giant for me. Probably a gauge issue but I didn't bother checking, I just ripped and re-knit to what you see here. I wish I'd taken better notes about that, actually. (see this project on ravelry)


Needles & Yarn
I knit this on hefty 6mm (US10) Addi Turbo needles. The yarn is Fleece Artist Margaree in a lovely silvery grey colour called Salt Spray: it is 45% Mohair, 45% Wool, 10% Silk and in each giant hank of 250g you get 375m, pretty great yardage for a heavy worsted. The wool/silk mix make it cozy, drapey and gorgeous; I've been wearing it a lot and see no sign of any pilling so far, something I often have a problem with in yarns soft and drapey enough to wear right next to the skin.


Timeline
Cast on April 25 and completed on May 28, 2009. The only reason it took so long to knit was a lack of knitting time (due to work) and the fact that I had to knit the entire body twice due to a major sizing issue. As it turns out, it was cold enough in June to wear it anyways!

MP3 Shuffle

Tagged by Yvette, who has a mostly female lineup of oldies and goodies :) Since I just recently replaced my lost 1GB iRiver with a shiny new 8GB iRiver, I have a whole bunch of new stuff on my player, so it was fun to just sit here and shuffle through 'em. Here are the rules:

• Turn on your MP3 player.
• Go to SHUFFLE songs mode.
• Write down the first 15 songs that come up--song title and artist--NO editing/cheating, please.
• Choose some people to be tagged. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about your musical tastes, or at least a random sampling thereof.

And my songs were:

1. Death Cab for Cutie - New Candles
2. Corey Hart - Boy in the Box
3. The White Stripes - We're Going to be Friends
4. X-Ray Spex - Oh Bondage, Up Yours!
5. KMFDM - Brute
6. Black-eyed Peas - Anxiety
7. Ash - Burn Baby Burn
8. The Killers - All the Pretty Faces
9. Kimya Dawson - So Nice So Smart
10. Siouxsie and the Banshees - Not Forgotten
11. Rancid - Not to Regret
12. My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult - The International Sin Set
13. Dayglo Abortions - Wake up America
14. Furnaceface - Just Buy It
15. Goldfinger - 99 Red Balloons (cover)

What is in your random 15? I tag Jacquie, Dr Steph, Joyce and Glenna. Now I get to see if any of them even read my sad neglected blog anymore, too!

(This post also contains a random photo day photo! These are details from some photos I took at Casa Loma a few weeks ago.)

All That Sparkles

Must be beaded.

I don't know why but lately I have been seized by the urge to knit with beads. Little sparkly accents just seem right, and so I have been seeking out projects with a generous amount of bling. Combined with my recent startititis, and I find myself with teensy crochet hooks and bead-filled tupperware everywhere.

First there was Fabergé (Rav link), a pattern I came across the last time I went on a major cowl spree (sometimes I become obsessed with knitting one specific type of item and then spend hours lurking on ravelry and adding tons of them to my faves/queue). Some sexy Handmaiden Samira, some random sparkly beads I had in my craft stash, a teensy crochet hook and I was good to go.


Then that familiar feeling hit... I needed to start something else, something new. And while I was at it, I could use another cute shrug. I like to wear tank tops to ride my bike to work, but I'm not comfortable showing my shoulders (especially with my big black tat on one shoulder). So, a little lightweight shrug is perfect to throw in the milkcrate on my bike and slip into before I hit the office.
Oh and, did I mention the beads? Cobweb (Rav link) is just pretty and perfect. Lace and beads. I'm using some laceweight Zephyr silk from my stash, held double and combined with lots of shiny blue and purple beads for this one. Now that I've started knitting it I kind of never want to stop, even though I am starting to think I may run out of beads before I finish the second sleeve. I'm also thinking vaguely of adding a tie and extending the body length to have more of a wrap/cardigan feel to it -- it is so light and airy I think that would be super cute.


Oh and for my next trick... I'm kind of in love with Morning Glory... at this point it is more a question of whether I have enough beads for it and where to find an appropriately sized purse frame.

TTC Knitalong = Awesome

So the TTC Knitalong was this past saturday and it was awesome!! And I'm not just saying that because I was one of the organizers. It was a seriously great time and it wouldn't have happened without a lot of hard work and creative input from so many people. Thank you everyone who helped out and thank you everyone who came out!

I started my day heading for the subway and eastward from my central-west 'hood. I love taking these moving subway photos, they will never get old for me ;) Ironically it was the only subway ride I got that day, since my team's entire route was on streetcars, and mostly the Queen 501 car.

I was team captain along with Meredith (we're the ones in the awesome red t-shirts) for "Team East B" the coolest team of all (not that I'm biased). We got started at the Naked Sheep, where owner Lisa went all out and put on a spread that included a whole variety of tasty breakfast snacks, a piping hot carafe of coffee and baileys and amarretto to put in it. Yum! She also gave door prizes to absolutely everyone, ranging from cute prize packs of tape measure + soak, to store gift cards and travel mugs. All this on top of a generous discount and being super friendly to everyone. It was a great start to the day!

Next up we hit the Purple Purl, where even more delicious treats awaited along with Jen's special punch, grab bags for everyone that included a cute Purl tote, hot yarn calendars and some gorgous alpaca! And they raffled off a really amazing prize for each team -- think Vicuna laceweight, omg!

They also provided some suberb comic relief in the form of a new European yarn... what does that look like to you?

Between the amazing yarns at these two first stores there were already some bulging tote bags by the time we headed for our next stop in Kensington market!

It was then that we encountered TEAM A. It was like something out of West Side Story as we crossed paths on the way to Lettuce Knit.

Where we got some much needed relaxation time sitting on the porch and front patio, after enjoying some of the awesome new product and great discounts.

Next stop was Americo Original, a really one-of-a-kind yarn shop that stocks only beautiful, high-quality yarns imported from South America. We spent some more money and ooohed and aaahed over the luscious samples. Emily and Clara both enjoyed the visit :)

Our final stop was Romni, the queen of all Toronto yarn stores, where despite feeling like I shouldn't keep spending money I think we all just went a little crazy. It was the perfect place to end up and certainly the only yarn shop that could handle more than one team at a time (we ended up with about 60 participants spread over 4 teams, so even though we were pretty spaced out by the end it was still pretty busy!)

We ended at the Rivoli, where we filled the upstairs front with knitters (and got some distinctly odd looks from the bartenders and handful of other customers). Is that not a great crowd? It was a great spot to wrap up as everyone had a chance to grab some food and beverages while all the teams straggled in and the captains all met to confer.

We ended up with 15 prizes to give out, here you see the 4 winners of the Fierce! Knitwear prize for each team -- aren't they wearing some beautiful handknits? Some of the other prizes included Knitting WIN, Knitovation, Needs a Sherpa (a classic), Best Knitticism and more. The prizes included some great donations from all the LYSs that participated, including Village Yarns, Knitomatic, The Knit Cafe, Mary Maxim, The Yarn Boutique, Passionknit and all the stores listed already.

And it never would have happened without this amazing team. Than you so much Glenna, Lisa, Meredith, Sandi, Joyce, Yvette, Nadia & Sophie! We rock! Oh and super special thanks to my cousin Jay (Sandi's hubby), who rocked not just the logo design but hooked us up with a sweet deal on the shirts and tote bags too. All of which meant we got to enjoy cool swag and still donate a hefty portion of the proceeds to our chosen charity, Sistering.

Oh yeah, did I mention that I bought a lot of yarn? YUM!

(The full photo set is here and it was HARD to choose the best ones to share here. Definitely check them out, especially if you're looking for more soft-focus yarn porn)

Its TTC Knitalong Time!!

New & Improved: Its the TTC KNITALONG.
Join us on June 6, 2009.


In my time as a knitter there have been some events that really stood out, and the TTC Knitalongs were one of them. The last one was in June 2007, which is when these photos were taken (see the full details if you like: Part I | Part II | Part III). The previous organizers have had some busy/crazy years in between and so a few months ago Joyce and I decided it was time to pick up the torch. We emailed the old guard and started gathering volunteers and in just a few short weeks we'll be TTC-ing all around the city, yarn in hand! The big day is June 6, and practically every yarn store in the region has signed up to participate. There will be some phenomenal discounts, special treats and super prizes so go to the official blog for all the details and sign up if you haven't already!

Finished Object: Topographic Cowl

This knit started out as an emergency knitting project a few weeks ago when I realized I'd forgotten my knitting at home and wouldn't have time to go back before drunken knitting. Naturally, I did have time to hit the Purple Purl to buy some new Malabrigo and Addi Turbo Lace needles in a 5mm and cast on a completely new project!


Pattern & Modifications
The pattern is Topographie from knitty, only I pretty much ignored everything but the instructions on when to purl and made a big tube-style cowl/neckwarmer. I replaced the ribbing with a few rounds of garter stitch, knit and purled as the yarn told me to until I was starting to run low on yarn, and then did another few rounds of garter stitch. The results are stunning -- this was super easy and its easily one my favourite recent FO's. Not that there are that many of those these days, silly job taking away all my knitting time ;)

Needles & Yarn
The yarn is the always delicious Malabrigo Worsted in colourway Loro Barranquero. Knit on 5mm needles this yielded a perfectly balanced fabric that is cozy and yet drapey and soft.

Timeline
I cast on March 13 (drunken knitters!) and finished this up on March 21st, so just over a week. Not bad considering how little time I actually spend knitting lately.