fiber college coming soon, new workshops this year!

I can't ignore that September is rolling around soon. A couple of events I've been looking forward to are just around the bend. The first?

FIBER COLLEGE OF MAINE Sept 7-11, 2016

I'm teaching two new workshops. I'm pretty excited about them.They're also, I think, very much in the spirit of Fiber College.  Which is to say inspiring, fun, a chance to break away from the norm with no pressure. The photo above promotes a photography class aimed at anyone wanting to stretch their image making muscles: Creative Vision Challenge.  We'll be talking about ways to get out of imagery ruts, and provoke new ways of seeing. We'll be shooting challenges to make sure that happens. I am a firm believer in cross-pollinating your making experiences, it helps you grow.  This class should be amazing for anyone looking for a little jolt.

This image promotes a workshop called Haiku Postcards, co-taught with friend and frequent partner-in-workshop-crime, Beverly Army Williams.  We've come up with a project based class, one that lets you walk away with something in hand. We will be thinking about single shot imagery, photographing (with our phones-or cameras if you insist) on the beautiful grounds. We'll be printing images, placing them on  on postcard paper and then under Beverly's guidance, writing haiku to go with them. We can't wait to roll this one out. Sign up from the link on top or here.

(From the Oh, Natural Tahki Yarns collection I shot, just releasing. Love, love , love this hat.)

There's an interview with me on Fiber College blog. I keep returning to teach at Fiber College. It never fails to inspire, create community, and send me into the shortening days time of year with a good attitude. I leave Searsport full of ideas and the beauty I take in on  Penobscot Bay.  Also, full of lobsters, and wine and blueberry pie...but that is not strictly  required :-)
I've posted raved about Fiber College here, here, here and here, too. One important aspect: unlike other creative retreats and events, you do not need to pay one big fee. You can come and take just one class, or just pay to enter and stroll the grounds and try the mentored dye tent or other "pop=up" experiences, and shop, or you can take classes every minute you are there. 
So...next post..a big something else coming in September, too.

more trip mitts and a year end knit reconciliation

It struck me that a pair of Trip Mitts would be just the thing for a gift I needed to give last week.

There aren't many patterns I feel sure I 'll finish within 2 days. Have to admit, while I was publishing and writing about the Trip Mitts pattern here, I got a jones to knit more of them, just for funs this time.  My eyes lit on a skein of handspun I've been hoarding   saving. I had me a plan.

These are knit in a springy handspun BFL wool  in a denim colorway. The construction suits the lovely handspun colors, and the fit is pretty fab. It was a frenetic few days, last week, so I cast on early in the morning, left them on the table and whenever I had a couple of minutes or was cruising by,  I knit a few rows. Poof, by the end of the evening, the first one was done. I hadn't even thought through the contrast color /yarn for the three needle bindoff finish.

I'm  pretty suggestible when it comes to color. I walked out the front door and saw these last golden leaves fallen on a row of stones on the porch railing. I have goldy yarn leftovers aplenty here. Contrast color solved!

For a hot minute, I considered joining 12 Days of Casting On.  It appeals in that throw caution to the wind, say Yes, go wild, just do it way... but I have a pretty good amount of, let's say, abandon, in my life already.  I'm turning my attention to other projects that I'm pretty psyched about: a partially finished shawl that'll be a gift, and more yarn for a second shawl I'll keep, a lopapeysa  I am twitchy to swatch, and then maybe a lopapeysa for Dave, a partially finished bulky scarf from last winter that's got some appeal again, and I'll confess, I need some new mitts with fingers 'cause you just know it really will turn into winter one of these days.  Zoe's agitating for a new sweater too, and how can I resist that? All worthy and interesting , all knitting I am looking forward to.   

But then I was contemplating the fabulous Noro Silk Garden Solo Trip Mitts that Mason Dixon Knitting Kay Gardiner whisked out...and I thought of a dear friend who I want to gift at the New Years Eve bonfire, and I thought of at least one partial skeins of Noro Sillk Garden in my tote bags of mysterious leftovers,  ...and I know I can knit these Trip Mitts in a couple days, I have proof..so I'm casting on for them last thing tonight, and probably my last cast on for 2015.

Happy New Year to all.  What're your knitting  plans as the year flips over?

summer 2015 making report

I was making many things this summer. Except for, obviously, blogposts.

Sweet rowboat that carried us ashore on Nash Island at the start of summer. Waaaay overdue blogpost about that weekend.

A great deal of my making this summer surrounded a very special book project. It's a beautiful knitting book, from Clarkson Potter, but it won't be out for a year (tap.tap.tap. i'mma gonna wear a hole in the table drumming my fingers in anticipation).

 Here's a photo from the wrap of the book shoot, at the end of some very long steamy photo days. We cleverly ended on the beach...and we also unconsciously dressed as if we planned it. Cute group, right? You're probably recognizing my co-authors Kirsten Kapur  and Mary Lou Egan and the rest of the crew and models who all worked their tushes off.

Aaaannnd a super dorky BTS moment. There are wonderful shots of us working but all show too much, I can't spill the beans on the knits. Very  frustrating!  I have been proud of every book I've worked on but this one is going to be so freakin' good and you will want to knit everything in it. I already am.... That's all I am saying on it for now.

A quick report on the general activities, making and more:
- knitting-- yup yup. Finished two hats, a shawl, a cowl or two- that right there is a couple of blogposts of material, right? and now I'm  on a sweater--in my mind I've lined up my next 4 projects. I don't have enough knitting time lately but I am so in the mood. There's a new Fringe Hat a-long, and yarn from last autumn...and and and and...

The aforementioned yarn, from Rhinebeck last year. With Bobo's paws, just because.

-stitching- major fail. No progress on the Alabama Chanin projects, and despite swearing I'd crack out the ol' Singer, and make at least one Sonya Philip tunic, and some cute little frocks for Zoe, who couldn't be more appreciative and excited to have me make things for her...nope. The weather has been way too good for weeks, I can't bear to be inside. Plus, see making a book, above.

- books -most recently A Constellation of Vital Phenomenona by Anthony Marra , one of the best I've read...period. Fiction, brilliant, moving. Go get it.

- swimming- every day at the beach, still. Fingers crossed to make it into October this year. 

- reconnecting with old friends- yup. In June,with dear but farflung college friends , then in July,  my high school reunion-- a really down to earth and fun one, where the kids I hung with in 3rd and 4th grade and I all wondered why we lost touch in high school and  became our old selves again. It was eye and heart opening.  Highly recommend making the leap.

- traveling-- not so much! which let me hang around the 'hood and enjoy all the beach days, get to pick all the fruits as they come into season and cook and picnic and host visitors  and attend summery events like weekly outdoor music . I'm off ot Maine next week though, and looking forward to teaching Making Digital Photo Collages at  Fiber College.*

- shooting more knits and yarn and people -- yup. It's my job but I never get tired of it. Wait'll you see some of the new designs I've shot lately, and some amazingly talented new clients.

- blogging--well, as I said at the top, definitely failing. I 'm on Instagram a lot, and it's just too easy to neglect blogging...time to get back in the habit.

- teaching-- the Photo Editing webinar from Interweave is at last available reliably from the link. I teach it live too, in person, whenever you want me to...just give a shout.  And, I'm going to be at Fibre Space in November. yay!

So what have you been making? What's next on your list?

*still room in my class. C'mon up and join me!

hello, literally, from ohio

and, bye bye Columbus.*

Door to the sweet airbnb house I stayed at  in Columbus for TNNA this past weekend.  TNNA is the annual summer trade show for the yarn & knitting industry, this year in Ohio. Rest assured that the knitting world is alive and well...and wow there's some nice yarn coming to a LYS near you.

 

For example the gorgeous new Swans Island All American sportweight yarn.  Maybe I am biased, I photographed the  new pattern grouping that debuted for the yarn - I (jokingly) call it  MY LINE.  I love seeing images almost life size in the booth, from a freezing cold shoot up in Maine last January. Really excellent patterns and colors- so new they are not even on Ravelry yet. I'll add links as they appear because you will love them.

The wonderful Clara Parkes caught me looking happy with them.

Goofy smile but authentic.

More loveliness from Feederbrook Farm, in northern Maryland. They do gradients. striping skeins that look handspun--and have a yarn & fiber  CSA. Nice folks. Can you tell she is a former science teacher?  They offer some cool classes, too. So many good people in this industry.

It was fun to see friends & clients and of course to be immersed in materials I love to work with-but it wasn't a vacation. We did a small photo shoot, many meetings, some work with co-authors on a book that is moving along at a trot. And there's the long established irony of working at a knitting event that leaves you precious little time to actually knit! I brought along what I think of as my slo-mo Cladonia shawl. One of these days I'll finish it.

I kind of like how it fit into our airbnb's living room seating though. 


* out of nowhere this movie popped into my brain. I bet it would be a hoot to watch.

smartphone photo workshops in NJ this weekend

 MAKING THE WORLD PRETTIER- ONE SMARTPHONE PHOTO AT A TIME !!
JOIN ME in a workshop this weekend- click on the shop name to register

Saturday at Pins & Needles in Princeton NJ   1:30-4:30 pm    almost full

Sunday at Trillium Yarns in Morristown NJ  1-4 pm   just 2 spaces left

If you follow my Instagram feed, you know I use my iPhone camera a lot.

No need to feel guilty if you're using a phonecam instead of a "real" camera. These days our smartphone cameras are  crazy good quality, and almost always handy.

above, my recent  IG feed, all iPhone photos with the exception of the reposted malabrigo yarn photo in the middle left column, , which I shot for Kirsten's book

That's why I'll be teaching hands on smartphone photography workshops this weekend.

both of these were quick phone photo grab shots to show some yarn-y projects on the blog

They are fun classes. Whether you shoot your knits, your travels, your sunnyside up eggs (oh come on who doesn't?), I promise you'll learn new tricks to make your phone cam images soar.  We'll use  free or inexpensive apps to quickly make your good photos great, right in the phone. Small adjustments, little shifts, controlling the cropping  and adding depth of field are my favorites, but we'll run the gamut--and then have a group slideshow at the end.

Click on the shops at the top of the post to grab your seats, space is limited.  This is a workshop a knitter can share with a non-knitting friend. We know that doesn't happen often, ina yarn shop.  Who knows, once there, they might could succumb to wool fumes.

An iPhone photo Befre and After, taken at my peak sheep moment at the Ct Sheep & Wool Fest last weekend.
Before, on the left , courtesy of an 8 year old   and After, on the right. We'll cover adding type on the image, during the workshops.

_______________________________________

I'll gladly teach this Smartphone Photo workshop  in your community--at a yarn shop, workplace, retreat, whatever--shoot me an email.

with icing on top

I hope you had the sweetest of holiday seasons. It's been an unusually- even for me, who doesn't sit still easily-  bustling month.  My blogging habit evap-o-rated!

Above, a sneak peek* from yesterday's photo shoot in Portland, Maine for Swans Island yarns. Such lovely clients, such to-die-for designs, and oh yes, the donuts are awesome, too. So good we are swinging by the shop to get some before we leave town today.  If I am allowed one teeny tiny kvetch, the temperature is -8F degrees...and it wasn't too much warmer while we were shooting outside yesterday. Although it was above zero.  The warmth of squeezing in visits with friends Mary Jane Mucklestone and Samantha at A Gathering of Stitches made this work trip all the sweeter.

See you in NY next week, between January 13-18? ? I'll be at VK Live for funs  and am so excited to be helping Jani from Starcroft Fiber at her pop=up Nash Island yarn  in the City shop at lf8elevate at 80 east 7th street in NYC. If you'll be in town, come down! Jani's yarn and island wool, some knit and chats with designers you know and love, it is a charming, artful shop..  I'll have a limited edition set of Nash Island photographs mounted and cards just for the occasion. The special events  are on Thursday evening 6-9 (with Mary Jane Mucklestone there)  and Saturuday afternoon. 4-6 with Kay Gardiner knitting along .details tomorrow!
Stay warm, wherever you are!

* ok if you know me, you know how I can go on and on about how there's one main story per photo, and how wrong a photo shoot can go when you can't keep it straight. That, my friends, is definitely a photo about donuts.

not so random

stones on Nash Island in Maine , with Trig, a hat pattern by Mary Lou Egan

This started as a Random Stuff post, blabbing about work, what I've been making and knitting and I'm traveling this weekend and what I'm teaching, and what I'll knit on the train and bus, and oh, you know, the weather and how I want to knit all the hats. And CRAFT FRIDAY .....
But it's never really random, just like there aren't really coincidences. Enough time or enough thought always reveals the connection.
Example: I've been putting together presentations. I was listening to a webinar about vision-based portfolios. Love the concept. I trained and worked as a photojournalist. Man oh man do I adore a narrative, so I tend to default to one as I present images.  It is so hard to edit my own work.  I tried letting my brain go loose-y goose-y and guess what? Seemingly random images went together.

This pairing is dyed fiber at a farm in 2006, and on the right, my own Decibella Cowl pattern. 
I'll probably demo making these photo pairings, and how to embellish them further,  and of course,  collages with many more images and graphics, even circular images, when I teach the Making Collages with PicMonkey  Interweave webinar on Monday, 11/24/14  at 1pm eastern live. Join me, please?  Or get it recorded to listen to on-demand. I am telling you, the above show restraint, you can go CRAZY with the tools on that free software.  I think we'll start all buttoned down and simple like this,  and then just continue on and on with loads of options.

spinzilla blog tour: photo tips here

Welcome Spinzilla blog tourists! I'm here with a little pep talk and some tips for photographing yarn for the Spinzilla Photo Contest.

 Kirsten Kapur  assembled this lovely basket of yarn.

Spinzilla is a global event where teams and individuals challenge each other to see who can spin the most yarn during Spinning and Weaving Week October 6 - 12.  Team registration closes in six days. They still need 300 team spinners to reach full team status of 1,400 spinners! Click here to register today.
You have SIX DAYS to get on board and join in the monster week of spinning, to support the Needle Arts Mentoring Program.

At the end of the week spinners will submit their yardage along with a photo of their yarn to get credit for their yardage.  The photo is to document what you have spun, but Spinzilla has also announced a photo contest where you could win up to $100 in fiber.

I'm going to reference the photo above, with surefire tips to make your photos fabulous. You are photographing handspun yarn, a lovely subject, so you are already ahead of the game, right?  There are mountains of info about improving photography online*, these are just some quick and easy things you can try,  regardless of what kind of camera you own, and where you live.

1) Turn off that flash. Never. Never. Never use a direct flash on yarn. There is always a better way. If nothing else, in a low light situation, steady your camera on a tripod or  on a table , and hold your breath while you release that shutter. Make many exposures. You'll get some that are sharp. I promise.Pixels are free**, so keep trying.

2) Find some nice open shade-like the north side of a building, or on a covered patio or  an overcast day, or create some shade yourself using a white piece of cloth or umbrella or tent or even a white board to block the direct light. (Colored materials will cast the color onto your yarn. Don't want to do that!)

getting close also works for travel photos, like this porch in Maine

3) Get close! I know you are proud of your yarn and want to show it from ten paces away, but getting close will make us want to touch it.  Try shooting it from a few feet away and then keep shooting , getting closer and closer and closer (no worries, pixels are free, there's no such thing as wasting the shots).

4) Use some geometry to please us. We humans like circles--a complete circular shape is lovely as a graphic element in a photo. It is why looking down on that basket of yarn is making me happy. Try putting your yarn in a basket, or on a shallow plate (try to find one that's not shiny, reflections aren't an asset), or a tray, in a bowl...play around with using shapes to frame your yarn.

Not as Good as the top photo: dead center, handle not on diagonal, direct light on scrarf distracts

 5) Another compositional tip: try composing using assymmetry instead of plunking your yarn dead-center bulleye in the frame. There's the popular  Rule of Thirds you hear thrown around in online photo forums (it helps, try it), and I like to use diagonals to lead the eye around the image. Again, shoot your yarn how you might normally, and then keep moving around the subject, tilting you camera--those pixels are free, after all--and see if you don't come up with a nice dynamic photo.

 

Circles also effective at Kai Ranch and an angora kid.

Good luck! Get signed up and spin spin spin.

_______________________________

* I'd be  slacking off if I didn't mention my  Photography webinar for knitters/fiber artists, on the Interweave website (on sale right now, too)

 

 **No matter where I teach my mantra is Pixels are Free. Seriously, why skimp on the exposures when you are right there?

countdown: get some class this weekend at Gathering of Stitches

Gathering of Stitches in Portland Maine--here I come!  Take one class or take 3.

Only 2 seats left for Saturday, but  room in each of the Photo editing and iphone Masterpiece classes on Sunday. Samantha offers a discount if you take any 2 or 3 offerings.

I have a special treat, too: discounts from PhotoJojo and BlogStomp for all participants! Thanks to both companies for their support.

A few words about the iPhone Masterpiece class: There are 2 remarkable things about this image, above. One is...OMG I posted a full body bathing suit view of myself online. If you follow me on Instagram ( I am galezucker there) you may have already seen this. Have I lost my mind??!!! Maybe. But I adore this photo, from Saturday. I was in one of my favorite places in the world, the beach in Delaware, with my most favorite people. I literally tossed my phone to Dave and said- get a photo of us, please.

He got the moment.  (Isn't Dave amazing? He takes maybe 10 photos a year and he nailed it). But as you can see, the shadows are in front of us, which means he was shooting into the sun, and the photo came out of my iPhone (a 4S-not even up to date) looking like this:

Which is typical, right? A few clicks with apps on my phone to convert it to better colors, with shadow details revealed, a color shift, and then cropped just the way I wanted it.  Knowing that Instagram is better squared, I edged it in off white to retain all the image info. Less than 5 minutes, you have to love that!

That's what we'll do in the iPhone masterpiece class. Keeping it all in our trusty little phones. The phonecam quality blows me away, and it's wonderful to have it always on hand, stuck into a pocket and no worries about thousands of dollars of optics getting wet or sandy (in my case). Works just as well if you're shooting knits or yarn or handcrafts, or whatever subjects float your boat. Join me for some phonecam fun. 

We can float our boats together. (iPhone image enroute to Nash Island earlier this month)

ps if you've been visiting my blog for a while, how do you like my new look? . This quick random update looks better than my old Blogger template, I am sure you agree.  More to come.

gravity of color: lulu cowl

Happy 2014! Instead of  waiting for the  "start as you mean to go on" thing , I got a jump on my resolutions- if you insist on calling them that- in December.  Like, finishing projects.  It has been a march down FO Boulevard, a road that keeps on going.  My other intentions are to put things away as I use them, and keep the kitchen table clear. * Oh yeah , and keep moving** . And do more yoga.  .

One of the finished:  my sister Lulu's cowl, gifted to her last month.A a field trip to the New Britain Museum of American Art, to see the Maruice Sendak exhibit  gave us a chance to shoot it.

Also, gave us this perfect backdrop, an installation entitled The Gravity of Color made entirely of paper and plastic cups , by Lisa Hoke. It's breathtaking in person, so unexpected. I wouldn't normally choose an intensely colored and textured background but we both felt it the minute we saw it.

This cowl is my own design--to the extent that I can say that --I mean,  it's basically granny square stripes in the round, with big picot edges. Lulu dropped by the day I was blocking the last Big Ass Granny blanket and  wanted something granny too, but to wear around her neck at work. Further, she wanted it to be very colorful, in her colors,  to make a conservative blue jacket she'd just bought more handcrafty and artsy/funky looking.

Specific enough?  Anyhoo, she loves it.   And I love when someone loves what I make for them, don't you?  It came out about 6 1/2 " wide (including the edging) and about 72" in circumference. Lulu is even shorter than I am--she's a bit over 5 feet-- if that gives you  some perspective for the photo on top.

I used mostly worsted weight yarns, partial skeins: Cascade 220, Cascade Eco wool,  Brown Sheep Lambs Pride,  Berroco Ultra Alpaca , Berroco Peruvia and  some Aruacania that I seem to never ever ever ever run out of. And finally some handspun that Rebecca Hatcher gave me in a yarn swap.  All told it weighs about 600 grams, which is (I think , I'm a little sketchy at this) is about 1000-1100 yards.

It totally does the job of de-preppifying the blue jacket. Goal met.

Next I hope I'll be show you my finished Shellseeker. I have been wearing it so much that it already looks like a legacy sweater,. You would think a  professional photographer would have someone to help her get a decent sweater shot, wouldn't you? 

Meanwhile will I see you at Vogue Knititng live in NYC on the 17th or 18th? My Friday morning class is getting pretty full (if not full up) but the noon lecture, which is a fun one hour romp through  tips & tricks to your photos, is still open ( unlimited in size).
...and now the footnotes>>>>>>>>>
*keeping my kitchen table clear sounds like a metaphor but I mean it literally. It is in the dead center of the first floor of our house, in an open space, and everyone including me drops stuff on it as they pass by. Drives me nuts.
** Fitbit. My little friend/tyrant.  Recommended.

I am going to start replying to comments in the comments--after all these years, a little change for the new year!

book reviews & giveaway #5

So...you think I'm spending the month blabbing & mailing books? Nuh-uh.  Here's shorthand for "yes I am still making stuff and even finishing them." 

A sweet little pile o'ends.

I'd show you the actual piece but the giftee visits here sometimes.

Ahem back to the Giveawayathon! There's still time for Wear With All, ebook version, and for Knitting Yarns: Writers on Knitting  essay collection. Clickk the links to enter at the end of those posts.  Not to mention the new added giveaway below. Enter 'em all, once each. Today's addtion is

 

Uncommon Cards: Stationery Made with Found Treasures, Recycled Objects, and a Little Imagination by Jeanne Williamson

Though I haven't mentioned it here, I love paper arts, bookarts, and mixed media crafting. I guess that’s not too far a stretch for a photographer, especially one who started out in black and white pape fiberbased prints. As we used to call'em. Many years I make my own cards for the holidays.  The whole scrapbooking phenomemenon, though?  Not so much--way too preformatted, and mostly too cutesy.

This book is neither of those. It is full of cardmaking ideas of simple beauty, with straightforward instructions, that yield sophisticated, and very special handmade stationery.

Most involve the use of a sewing machine on paper (adore!) and many involve natural materials, or found elements. The instructions are varied enough that you may learn a new skill, like printmaking using onions, or erasers, or recycling materials to use as decorative ingredients, or mixing nature with paper . The book definitely appeals to the CraftActivism side of me, thanks to those approaches. 

The layout is simple and clean. Each card design is featured on a two page spread,  with easy-to-see  details in the photos of the finished cards.  It feels quite jump -in and doable. At the back of the book are several pages of cardstock in the colors the author shows for her examples, so you can get crafting right away. Isn’t that a lovely lagniappe?

To enter the giveaway for a copy  of Unusual Cards, leave a comment below telling me what craft you play around with or might like to try , along with knitting/crochet.I'm giving away this book by mail , leave a comment below, by midnight Sunday night December 15th , with  your email address* or your Ravelry name.  I’ll choose a winner by random number generator.  
If you are a last minute person, maybe you’ll have it in time to do your holiday cards! 

___Stop by again soon, I'm going to keep reviewing and giveaway-ing all month.__________   *my blogging platform doesn’t reveal your email address with your replies normally, so I need it. if you are worried about it attracting a ‘bot scanning for addresses, feel free to leave it as JaneSewAThotstuffDOTCom  ok?  ___________________________ 
Another  plug for classes I am teaching at Vogue Knitting Live in NYC on January 17th! A hands-on workshop,  Photography for Your Ravelry Page (limited seats left) and a fast, fun and functional slide lecture,  10 Tips and Tricks to Fabulous Photography , from noon-1. Sign up now.