post 9: talking yarn still lifes (and talking and talking...)

One of several balls I wound off my Jill Draper Makes Stuff Empire yarnbaby, sitting in for a lighting and prop test. I really like this off-the-cuff image. I also really like this yarn and what I am knitting with it--but that is another blogpost. 

I've had occasion to think about still life photos lately. I mean, I make still life photos for the blog and instagram, and in my commercial work as called for. I usually stack things and create three dimensional setups.

 Some happy handspun I was gifted last spring, with out of focus little pompom props. Love this yarn, too.

 I hadn't ever stopped to formalize my thoughts and preferences on shooting still lifes. Photographing people is what I'm most often hired for and lucky for me, many are people wearing knits or holding yarny things.  But in teaching and interviews, I'm often speaking on  how to make better still life photos. If you'd like to hear what I have to say on the subject, Leanne of Stitchcraft Marketing podcast had me as her guest, and the episode just released.

Listen to the StitchCraft Marketing  Business of Craft Podcast episode 20 and show notes here.*

I found myself with a lot to say, particularly on the subject of flat lay photos.

Spoiler, on the topic of flat lays: They are a great way to compose still life, especially for social media. Plus it is a style that is accessible and a style that works well if using a smartphone for photos. And, fun to shoot.   BUT...they are all starting to look alike!  If you don't believe me, go on Pinterest, search How to Make Good Flat Lay photos, and see how they all look the same despite coming from multiple sources.   So little incentive to click on any of them!

My advice is, from there, click on something like  " 50 Best Props for Making Flat Lay Photos".  Read the list of suggestions and then DON"T use any of those items!  That puts you on the way to making something that will get noticed.

I'm shooting yarn still lifes of some gorgeous yarn for a client on Friday, and looking forward to pushing us a little. Probably not too many will be flat lays. The chair, up top, passed the audition, but we'll  light it a little more dramatically. I raided an artist friend's studio for partially painted background canvas......and I'll go poke around Ikea's kitchen stuff, that's a place I find inexpensive things to throw in a composition and hopefully not too many holiday shoppers yet.  And in a couple of months--I'll show it as a Behind the Scenes here. 

*  In real life I promise I am not gasping for air between sentences.  My new earphone microphone kinda makes it sound that way at times in the podcast. Or, just mayyybe I'm being oversensitive!  yikes it is hard to listen to yourself, isn't it?

pompano tank: louet euroflax yarn giveaway!

Read down to enter our  giveaway of  Euroflax Sport Linen yarn plus Kollage Needles to knit a Pompano Tank for yourself !

When knitting a Pompano Tank
Designer Kapur is to thank
It's quick and it's easy
The eyelet border's breezy
And it barely takes more than a hank.
Yup back at you with a limerick* introducing a spotlight on the Pompano Tank from Drop Dead Easy Knits. With bonus give away, thanks to Louet North America.

As I've mentioned here and here,  and many times before that, I'm all for knitting on the beach and wearing knits at the beach. Linen is pretty much the perfect fiber for both actions. When Kirsten Kapur designed the Pompano Tank for our book, I was all heck, yeah!  It's the kind of piece you can throw on over a bathing suit, over a camisole  or as a layer over a shirt. The simple A line shape and scoop neck is exactly my style. 

Is it yours, too? Enter our Pompano Tank GIVEAWAY by leaving a comment below, by midnight Sunday August 13th to win 5 skeins of Euroflax Sport in Eggplant (same colorway as our model Katrina is wearing here) and a 24 " size5 US Kollage Needle. Shipping included in US,  if winner is from outside US, you have to pay your own shipping (sorry)**

Last September, at the book launch party, I impulsively cast on a Pompano Tank for myself in wool.  Although I made a gauge swatch,  I (red flag!) didn't check the measurements of the size I chose to knit, against the measurements of my, ummm, body.  I know, idiotic...but I was basking in the glow of celebrating the book.  Long story short, I adored the knit, it practically flew off the needles in 3 busy weeks, but it doesn't fit me. Totally owning the error--I am considerably shorter than a size L waist to shoulder measurement. Not to mention wider in the hips. It is in my do-overs pile.

photo courtesy of Jani Estell...love her garden!

In more inspiring news, my wiser and immensely talented friend Jani Estell, over at Starcroft Wool and Yarns, knit herself this fabulous version of a Pompano Tank in her Fog yarn.  She lengthened the eyelet section and the stockinette above it, before the small amount of shaping toward the waist, creating a tunic out of the tank. Since it is a bottom up knit, you can slip it on, and decide exactly when to start the shape as you go.  I plan to copy her as soon as I can, because this tank/tunic could be a real staple for autumn outfits. or...dare I say it...a Rhinebeck debut?  We've got like 10 weeks, which is more than enough for this truly Drop Dead Easy knit...maybe you and I both should be casting on a Pompano for success?

*More Drop Dead Easy Knits spotlights can be found at these links, we're presenting them every 2 weeks. We joked about introducing them in limerick, I'm the one taking the joke too far....
Short Beach Shawl
Kiawah Pullover
Galworthy Gift Bag Parley Cardigan  
Abide Shawl Searsport Market Bag Glama Wrap Polliwog Baby Sweater 

**Kollage Needles are square and have super flexible soft cables, and nicely pointy tips. I personally love knitting with them. I hope you'll like them too. 

at altman's needlearts in mattituck ny

Did this amazingness catch your attention? It got mine.  More about it follows.

A couple of Sundays ago I boarded a ferry bright and early to go teach at Altman's Needlearts in Mattituck, NY.  I was happy. Any gig that includes ferry travel turns out fabulously, in my experience.

The shop is delightful. It's full of great yarn, interesting materials for other maker/needlarty pursuits, fun displays, tools, patterns and handmade gifts and cards. (Really great cards, among other snobbery, I am a card snob)..... Kate Altman fills her shop well.

She invited my co-author Kirsten Kapur and I to teach, and booksign Drop Dead Easy Knits. The only thing missing was Mary Lou Egan our third partner, who lives way off in Minnesota. (we wave, sadly).

Kirsten taught the Glama Wrap project. I caught part of the class and wish I could have sat through it all. Kirsten brought swatches showing ways to think about modifying the pattern, how it would look in different yarns.....seriously, I have been living with this pattern since we started the book three years ago, you'd think I'd know all this, yet I still saw it in new ways. I love how she teaches. 

I taught a 10 Tips for Photographing Your Knits class.  This is Rachel, who works at the shop, sitting in as a gorgeous model for us when we did a little shooting. We did the class on our smartphones, allowing  me to crunch in some iphone-ography editing tips as well. Totally fun! My only regret (cringing to admit this)--I forgot to turn on the  bluetooth in my phone, so my selfie-stick missed the group class shots. Rookie error! 

This was my first trip to Mattituck, on the western edge of the North Fork of Long Island. It is so worth a  trip to this shop and charming little village--the block with Altmans also has  a winetasting room for a vineyard, a cheese shop, a chocolate shop and a really good sandwich and salad deli. There was coffee too. Like...couldn't you just live there? The beach isn't far away so..let's see, yarn, coffee, wine swimming..yeah. I'm good.

 Then I noticed these stunning crocheted blankets in the shop.They remind me a bit of the gazillion pieces I've pinned by French artist Sophie Digard..,,but these were different and wholly original. Kate pulled out more and more. They're the work of Evy Leonard, a crochet artist in Brooklyn who really has brilliant color & design instincts and a lot of fingering weight yarn. Let me blow your mind with a few more, OK?

I mean...even if you had a pattern that showed you the motifs for the squares, and suggested the yarns, you still couldn't replicate the blending mixtures of solid, hand dyed, variegated and speckled yarns and scraps she uses to make these. Did I mention they are fingering weight?

I almost overlooked this one, which is more neutrals and duller shades. It might be my favorite. 

All of them are a  good argument for never throwing away a scrap. And also for buying someone else's handmade brilliance when you find it. (contact Kate at Altman's if you feel the same way). 

Sailing home. A brilliant day. My theory about ferry travel gigs held up.

granny squares with doc mason's edge

Four days and a long round trip drive to Chicago later.  It turns out that I only needed to bring this one project along, it held my attention and was a perfect companion.

Over the first seven hours of the trip, when I wasn't driving, I made the last five squares, to bring my total to 42. ThenI ripped out the first three squares and made them more interesting. Followed by having a stern talk with myself to prevent ripping out and re-doing any more.  Somewhere around Ohio, with just one painfully expensive speeding ticket in the glove compartment, and just as we finished the last chapter of S-Town *(recommend!), I grabbed the Doc Mason's yarn and started crocheting the outer edges, through to Indiana and then Illinois.

I seriously love this yarn. It's totally working to bring the squares together tonally. Some are relatively muted, like these two, some have, let's say, more punch than I really would like.

Yarn with that farm-y sheepy glow. Don't you want to huff the lanolin fumes? I'm dreaming a whole sweater of it now. I was lucky to get the last of the 2016 Doc Mason's but keep an eye out, Ellen is poised for  another trip to the mill, you can see the clip ready to roll from the link. 

My favorite sight from the trip was these three together again, if only for a few hours. Two of us drove out to Chicago, two flew. The four of us not in the Navy drove back together. Quality togetherness.

* We were completely absorbed by the S-Town podcast, to the point that Dave doesn't even remember seeing most of Pennsylvania, which  let me tell you, is a long long section of the trip. I found it the best kind of reporting and storytelling, and so brilliantly edited. We failed to latch on to any other podcast after it---but did discover that there's a Pandora station called Road Trippin' that was good for three hours of punchy-tired  singalong to mostly early 70's hits and got us home by 2am on Sunday.

spontaneity & the snazzy cowl photo shoot

Knitwear designer Laura Nelkin asked me to shoot  for her while we were both in NYC for Vogue Knitting Live a couple of weeks ago. But of course! Look what happened :
Are you singing Its Raining Men yet? Go to that link.  Dare you to sit still- and not smile.
It's the Snazzy Cowl.  Pretty fabulous, right?

We'd decided on Times Square for the photo shoot, using out of focus bright lights big city as the background, and Laura's adorable daughter Bella modeling.

There are only so many ways to pose with a light weight cowl: let it hang around your neck, hold it up covering your smile to show off the full stitch work, lay it out flat, look down and gaze into  it wistfully holding an empty coffee mug...(JUST KIDDING, WE DON'T DO THAT POSE HERE)...or hold it up towards the camera. Done, done and done.Then we saw a group of young guys do handstands in unison on the steps.

As the handstand dudes were walking away, I scurried over to ask what the deal was. College gymnasts from Arizona, just competed at West Point, tourists for the morning.  Q: Would they mind doing handstands around a knitwear model?  A: Enthusiastic yes!

They choreographed doing flips on the steps all around Bella before we knew what was happening. Laura's heart may have stopped for a few minutes seeing feet flying near Bella's head...but they nailed it.

Next up...can I get the Rockettes to do a kickline in handknit socks? Why not?

the pussyhat project

 1:30 am on January 1st,  I cast on a PussyHat, in support of the Pussy Hat Project .  I wanted to start 2017 right.

Even though I had to rip it and start over at 9 am (thanks bourbon drinks by the bonfire at midnight! love ya too!), it felt good. I can't attend the Womens March on Washington  January 21st  but I am thrilled that my sister Marla will be wearing it there. 

Also thrilled that this act of Craft Activism is spreading across the country. HuffPo coverage here, and lots more links and info roundup over on the MDK website today.  

Through knitting a hat, we can support the bodies and cold heads, and the efforts of those marching in Washington. It's a way to connect physically and concretely.

The original free pattern by Kat Coyle is simple and knit flat. An evening's easy effort if you knit it in a chunky* alpaca, as I did.  It doesn't take much googling around to find versions knit in the round, crocheted, ribbed all over, roll brim etc. Kat is a fabulous artist and designer, profiled in CraftActivism, a connection I loved making when I photographed her for the book. (I know! I get to meet the best people, I am very lucky).

On Facebook, source of false info daily (seriously, can that be their motto?) I read some  knitters whining that "they had to buy a kit" to make the Pussy Hat- FALSE. Free patterns plus whatever yarn you want to MacGyver together.  Don't have pink? use another color. Or get some pink Kiwi Koolaid and make it pink. 

Lastly, I read a popular knitpodcaster asking if it trivializes the Womens March. NO. It does not.  If you click on over to the original project pattern PDF there's some info about why the color pink and the pussycat ears.  Aside from the symbolism, The Pussy Hat Project offers knitters a way to contribute in the way we love best. By the work of our hands.  A feeling of unity and a visible symbol that will be quite media friendly are not trivial. That is what large assemblies in Washington are all about. A sea of pink pussy hats on the national mall ? yes.

My sister Marla sent this selfie when she received hers in the mail, last night.  If you see her, say hi. (she's @marlaatelierista on Instagram, if you like Reggio-inspired art education, public activist art, lots of color and joyful photos)

Are you knitting one? If so , which pattern and any mods how did it turn out? While typing this I agreed to make a fuschia one for a stylish friend. I need to do it right!

* for my chunky alpaca pussyhat, I cast on 38 stitches, on size US9 needles, more details here