Fiber Fool

I’ve spent a lot of this week learning and stretching myself photography wise. On Wednesday evening I attended a free photography class at the library taught by Ron Stern. What I learned there was that I know quite a bit about photography already :-) Oh, and that I had already chosen and read 2/3 of a great book on photography - Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson. It is good to be reminded of the basics once in a while too.

The class was huge. At least double of what they expected so that was a little crazy. The timing was also a bit unfortunate since we were to have some lecture followed by some shooting. By the time we got outside the light was fading fast. But I still managed to capture a few things…

The instructor did a great job despite having at least double the number of people in the workshop as expected. I wouldn’t hesitate to take another workshop from him in the future. There were rumors at this one that another would be scheduled for a Saturday morning so there would not be the light issues we had to deal with. If you are a newer photographer or an auto-pilot photographer in the Fort Collins area I recommend keeping an eye on the library schedule of events for the reprise of this workshop.

Then yesterday I decided to take the DPS (digital photography School) 10 Shots, 10 Portraits, 1 Focal Length Challenge. I failed. Without a prime lens I couldn’t seem to maintain a single focal length. Neither extreme of my lens was really appropriate for portraiture. I do realize one could take that as a challenge as well, but I found it near impossible to get a good shot in one shot doing that. Fortunately, I had also taken on the challenge of photographing strangers. So, while I didn’t get 10 shots (I got 6 and only liked 3 of those) and they were at ~3 different focal lengths, I did stretch myself greatly. I’m not an extrovert and do not randomly start up conversations with others. This meant it was extremely difficult for me to ask strangers if I could take their picture. I also learned that women are probably more likely to say yes - at least of those people at the The Bean Cycle late yesterday afternoon.

Man, it has seemed like ages since I had an FO Friday! Boo to the shoulders!

In May it struck me that when I went home to MN I would have access to Grandma’s 1949 General Electric Stove as a photo prop. It is in the basement apartment that my great grandparents lived in so the lighting is not ideal, but my sister has a flash unit and I have a flash unit and they can both be linked with the camera body to aid in the photo taking.

Once I figured I could likely get decent pictures down there I had to decide what would be styled nicely with that stove? My mind kept flashing to all the kitchen towels that had been cut in half and adorned with a crochet hanging loop by various women in my life. I like their retro look so decided to set about recreating an all-knit towel with a similar aesthetic. This is one of those weird instances where the pattern was born out of the idea of the final picture. You just never know where pattern ideas (or any other creative idea) is going to come from, do you? Thus, the Towel Trio pattern (on Ravelry) was born.

Knowing how cotton can grow when it doesn’t have a body to rest against and thinking about the towels hanging there damp I opted to use slipped stitches to add some stability. As a bonus the slightly denser fabric is more absorbent as well - perfect for a kitchen towel! All three towels use slipped stitches in some manner, but each towel includes different techniques so I never tired of working on these as a set.

The chevron towel is the easiest one, knit from bottom to tip all in one piece with only one color of yarn. The three-color one is knit sideways to create the vertical stripes and uses some single crochet for the finishing. Any odd number of colors can be used for it so that one is great for using up odds and ends of leftover skeins. The stitch pattern even helps to blend the colors a bit so you can go as wild or as tame as you wish (I’m wanting to do one with 3-5 “neutral” shades for a real polished look). The plaid one, while it looks real simple is a tad spicy - it uses some very simple intarsia to create a very polished look to the final towel (mom has even staked her claim on that one).

For these towels I opted for a DK weight yarn. But since size and fit are not critical you could use any cotton, linen or hemp yarn in finer or heavier gauges. In the written version of the stitch patterns I’ve included the pattern repeat size so the towels can easily be adjusted to give the size you prefer with your favorite gauge. If you do substitute yarn I recommend aiming for the manufacturer’s suggested gauge for your stockinette stitch swatch or slightly looser so that the towels maintain some drape even with a slipped stitch fabric.

What color combos will work in your kitchen? In my kitchen colors of the Mediterranean would be ideal, but I had fun making a nod to the upcoming holiday too.

But, this time I made sure to bring some sights home to Colorado with me…

There is a pic of me at about age 3 sitting in this truck with grandma somewhere around the house. Now it sits on the farm yard with flat tires and ages a little more each year. It is still interesting and pretty in its own way though. The blue bike in the photo on the right was my first ten speed. Mom and dad put together a very elaborate treasure hunt around the farm for myself and one friend for my tenth birthday. There were little presents for both of as at each stop - candy bars, mystery books (yes, even at age ten I loved my mysteries) and the final stop was this bike, hidden away up in the hay loft!

I remember hopping a fence to sit in this old car that sits in the woods on the west side of the farm with one of my older cousins when I was little. I really wanted to get closer and get some detail shots, but I’m pretty certain I would have had to wade through a large patch of burning weed to do so :-( At least I’m pretty sure that was burning weed.

Of course there was no resisting these cuties! I hadn’t even though about the fact that I’d be home for spring kittens! My allergies weren’t happy, but I was :-)

Of course I needed some pics of the trees and grases of MN to get me through the usually dry Colorado summer!

I have work to catch up on now that I’m back in Colorado. If you’ve contacted me in the last two weeks you can expect it to take me until later this week to get back to everyone.

On Tuesday I got to spend some great quality time with one of my cousins, Andrea. We grew up more or less across a field from each other. I’ve shown her cutie on here before when he was much, much younger (but still cute, of course).

On this trip, he just recently turned 2 and had a 6 week old brother with him as well. His little brother took a really nice nap in my lap while Andrea and I caught up on the goings on in our lives. Then I got to tag along and take some pics of big brother feeding the “cows” :-)

How can you not snap a million pictures of those gorgeous blond curls? Especially with all that energy!

On the farm the lilacs (boo, I’m very allergic to them) and the irises have been in bloom so I had to get up close to those with my birthday filters of course…

Lastly, I had to capture this one, even if it made Amber laugh really hard. It was a good shot waiting to be taken, even if the subject is a bit prickly…

The camping trip was mostly a photographic bust for both Amber and I. The sunset wasn’t terribly special and choosing the proper metering for something like that is something I need more practice with! Sunrise was 100% clear so we rolled over and went back to sleep, LOL! But, it was worth the cabin price for the hotdogs and marshmallows (Energy Nuggets of Phat Photographers) roasted over our campfire :-)

I did capture some interesting things with nice warm pre-sunset light…

Including the requisite one of Amber taking a photo of me taking a photo of her, LOL!

Then my favorite of the evening I think, which totally toned my abs in order to be able to capture it!