Still here! Or..somewhere!

I'm still here and this blog is too!

Fast link to places I am teaching photo for makers coming up SOON maybe you'll join me???

Columbus OHIO 4/27/24 and Chicago IL 5/4/24

 

 Here's a little behind the scenes from a Berroco photo shoot we did in late fall.  It's a really wonderful fresh crochet collection, the theme was Summer Festival wear --and it being way beyond the summer festival season IRL, we created this kitschy set .  And yes I want her boots!

 We purposefully lit it to be as bright and pop as the astro turf and fake backdrop. I really love the collection.

Wait till you see the next season of collections  we shot for Berroco that will be out soon for the Fall 24. All shot  on location in amazing places, fab moels and styling and such good designs and yarns.

Some fun trends: more and more good crochet design made with good yarns. And more and more shades of yellow greens! And more attention paid to yarn sources and sustainability.

These three are from a photo shoot for the Hudson Valley Textile Project, showing off member products. 

I'm even finding myself drawn to a bright almost not-quite  yellow green!  What colors are you falling for lately?

Why Not WEDNESDAY!

 Why not post ?Sharing this article from the Wonderful Machine blog

https://wonderfulmachine.com/article/close-knit-gale-zucker-for-berroco-inc/

Last spring I did this colorful crazy maximalist photo shoot as part of the lineup for Berroco, my dear client.   I won't go on and on about the backstory for it because I already did! It's linked in this spotlight.

Here's a photo from my Rhinebeck weekend- it says it all!Accidentally twinning with Beverly Army Williams  

A few more details about this

- I became friends with Beverly through blogging waaaaay back ! We both had very dark brown hair. Since then we've crafted, traveled, worked and taught together.and most years we meet up and do the sheep and wool festivals together. We live on opposite ends of our small state so I love that we have these...threads...to keep us connected.

-The twinning was 100% unintentional. We'd both acquired this gorgeous marled yarn from Starcroft Fiber when helping with a shearing years ago.  Beverly knit her sweater not long after. I knit a sweater that was too large . I frogged it and did nothing till this year, when I knit this Felix , shown here unblocked hot off the needles. I am nothing if not consistently 11th hour!

- NY Sheep and Wool remains the one place you feel thrilled to walk around in almost identical outfits with a friend as a grownup, not a tween!

--Hot tip! Do NOT go through all your stash/WIPs the night before attending a sheep and wool fest because your housemates are doing a "bring yarn to swap " table!  It totally killed my interest in getting the sweater quantity of yarn I thought I was going to shop for. OTOH here are just a few of the minis I brought home to make into stripey hats for my littles, from the swap table.

What are you up to? And what are you reading/ recommend to read?

18 and counting: Not Over Yet!

 

I am still alive and kicking and having fun and making things and traveling...and working A LOT!

 This was from a Berroco photo shoot on a farm. The horizon is never where I want it so I stand on my trusty step ladder.

 

Here's the Honeycomb Scarf I have been knitting off and on most of winter. It's a gem of a process knit. When I started, I figured I'd whip right through it.........I'm about 75% done now and a couple of weeks ago I took a good hard look and realized it doesn't look exactly like the samples in the pattern. Whatever I am doing wrong, I'm consistent so at this point, that's how it is!

 

I've been traveling a lot! Some  trips for fun and some for work. Above was all FUN: we went to the Pacific Northwest and Vancouver. This was at the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park, which is what it sounds like plus walkways in the tree canopy, just on the edge of the city in North Vancouver. 10/10 recommend.   I am normally not a fan of heights and walkways over sheer drops but it was so astoundingly beautiful I couldn't be bothered to freak out. 

Some of that trip became a Knitters Weekend: Olympic Peninsula on Modern Daily Knitting.

This was a photo shoot for Madeline Tosh yarn, I love the styling on this. If you wonder whether I am constantly ohhing and ahhhing and saying "oh oh I want to knit this" while I am working for this client , the answer is YES. 

I am glad to be back for this rare post, let me know if you saw this! This blog celebrated its 18th birthday in February, the least I can do is say hi.

This week: teaching Chicago in person!

As much as I enjoyed teaching virtually these past two years, I am thrilled I'll be in front of a room of living breathing people teaching iPhonography in just a few days  in Chicago!

 

If you'll be at H+H Americas, the trade show for handmade business  please join me !

THURSDAY JUNE 23,  9:45-11:15 am     Smartphone/IPhone Photo Confidence 

FRIDAY  JUNE 24,  9:45-11:15 am  10 +  Tips for Product Photography

These will be fun, helpful, talks filled with actionable tips and time for Q&A.  Not to mention so many images to look at!

And then if you're in the area, visiting or a local,  I am so excited to be teaching hands-on Fabulous Phone Photography for Knitters and Makers                                      SATURDAY JUNE 25, at STRING THEORY YARN COMPANY                            Chicago (Glen Ellyn)    9:30-Noon

If you're thinking about this one , don't wait too long, there were just a couple seats left when I checked in on Friday! I have wanted to visit this shop for ages, having met Janet Avila, the owner at past events and long admired her mission, attitude, events and style.  Oh, and yarn selections! Going to be some new projects cast on here, I can pretty much promise that.

 

3 things on thursday: good things

 with photos, of course!

1) It's lamb season ! and the sheep and wool festivals are getting underway!  I'm going to swing by the tiny  Connecticut Sheep Wool & Fiber Fest this Saturday. It's just a one day event, and  makes my She Shoots Sheep Shots soul so happy.

The photo is from a quick visit last month to my LSF (Local Sheep Farm), Olympia Farm . Love that the little trio posed for me like that!  If you have a local farm that welcomes visitors, I highly recommend making it a stop from time to time. I'm going to be popping in again soon cause cheesemaking season just started. As if I need a reason beyond lambs and local wool.....

2) A long overdue new website is underway.  I am my own worst editor.  It's a truth that's led to many months years delay on this project.  I have help. It is pretty amazing to have a completely different set of eyes culling my work . I am super proud of myself for letting go of attachments to  the images and let them just be seen.  The website is still in process. Reveal soon!  This image is Fine Lines by Lori Versaci , pattern includes longer version.

3) Work has been bustling, including a big corporate project. For every day out photographing there are at least two solid days of desk work at my computer....which means lots of book listening while I edit. A recent favorite : The Final Revival of Opal & Nev by Dawnie Walton.  Fun, great characters, includes serious issues from various points of view, from the 70's and in the present --the kind of book that you think about the characters a couple of weeks later and wonder how they are doing. And then remember....wait, they are fictional ...Does that happen to you, too? I always feel that's the sign of a good writer.  

Here are some other 3 on Thursday posts

https://fresh.inlinkz.com/party/f37e7d0bf6a9416aa2ea723a841733c4

show and tell -with cookies!

Show and tell! Click and order and treat yo'self:

My beloved cookie bakery client--the ONLY cookie bakery URL you need- AUNT COOKIE  is doing a fundraiser for feeding Ukrainian refugees. For every 1 pound order of her NYC Confetti Cookies (rainbow or special blue and yellow) she is donating $15. to World Central Kitchen.  Treat yo'self . And send some to a friend!

 As Aunt Cookie says: Taste the Love--and Share the Love".

Answers to questions you didn't ask:

 • the cookies are elevated sugar cookies with a sprinkly crust. You will not be disappointed.

 

• you can put them in the freezer to slow down eating the whole package in one day. Except they taste delicious frozen too. I mean it, these are really good cookies.

 

• there was some sprinkly exuberance at the photo shoot that could not be contained to the tabletop set up. A week later I am still finding the runaway sprinkles !

 

• in case you wondered about sprinkles and their place in history and global cuisine, I gotcha covered

 

• sunflowers are a symbol of Ukraine and pretty much SOLD OUT everywhere. It took an exhaustive search to get this lonely one in the photo, found in a bouquet.  I couldn't persuade the florist to switch out a few from the other small bouquets she had.  Every place I tried said they are selling out of sunflowers as fast as they get them in.  And it turns out there is already a sunflower seed shortage so....

• • • MORE SWEETNESS• • • • • • 

The finished Baby Fern Lake has the most important part: the baby! meet Raina Rose, born last Tuesday night. We are all in love. 

(more about this excellent blankie here)

 

 

three things: random

 1) Baby Fern Lake Blanket

Done! As far as blanket knitting goes, this is a good one.  The Remix yarn is all recycled, mostly cotton with a hand that even an animal-fiber-only type person like me can love. Even though knitting a small blanket is the same amount of stitches-or maybe even less stitches- than knitting a sweater, it has a bigger slog factor.  It's a good knit and blab project though!

2) A Place to Knit and Blab (and Swim Outside in Winter in New England)

 Heated pool in winter in the Berkshires.  Heaven! I spent two days at the Red Lion Inn with a dear old friend (my college room mate ) last week.  I feel like the luckiest person ever that after all these years, she and I are happy  to spend a couple  days hanging out together with this  schedule:  knitting in a suspended-in-time old inn sitting room followed by  swimming laps in wool hats under a bluest of blue skies in 20 degrees F with steam rising from the pool.  Followed by the hot tub.  Blabbing the whole time. I know it's not everyone's idea of good times but it works for both of us and we may have been grinning like fools. 

3) Patterns and Patterns 

In our room at the inn.