3 things on my thumbs up list

1. New sweater, done!

The Little Sock Arms Sweater is done and went to school shortly after this image was grabbed early this morning. Everyone, meaning Zoe and me, is very happy with it.

What? Were you expecting a professional looking photo shoot of the FO  from me? I laugh!  30 seconds with the phone before a quick run to the bus stop. Cobblers children all the way here!

Love this pattern and loved knitting it in Julia Vesper's Knitterly Things yarns. Super soft and great
colors. I knit it a little big on purpose to try to get two winters out of it. I mean, fingering weight sweaters do not grow on trees, right?  The pattern is also available as Sock Arms in adult sizes and, even more temptingly, in worsted weight. I love how the designer uses a picked up from the shoulder short row construction on the sleeves so you get stripes alllll the way down. 

2. More colors !

This scarf tube from the Mason Dixon Knitting Field Guide 13 Kaffe Fassett-palooza continues to get me through this season --along with nightly watching of The Spy.   Sometimes I get caught up inthe espionage and forget to keep knitting. 

No overarching plan for the colors- I am using up leftovers and scraps in Starcroft Fog. I accidentally hit the gray tone button filter in my phone and was amused to see that having strong contrast is not all that important to the success of the stripes--I like these color values. Sometimes it just works.   

I don't have enough knitting time to satisfy my addiction to this exercise- I am thinking  45 stripes of 1.5" will do it, I am on the number twelve.  If I do a stripe a night I'll have a new scarf in the beginning of March.  When we usually get slammed with a couple of snowstorms and ice so maybe that's my plan.

3. International Ice Cream for Breakfast Day is this Saturday Feb 1

 Three rules. Eat ice cream for breakfast. Before noon. On the first Saturday in February.
More info here.

I've been traveling for work for the last two years on this holiday but in 2020 we're setting out the ice cream topping buffet and honoring the day with friends the way we should be--I covered it some earlier years on this blog--like here and here. 

Don't say I didn't give you an advanced warning this year ==go  grab a pint.

3 things I've found this week

1) More wristrulers.  I've been the wristruler's biggest fan since spying one a few years ago. I may also be the wristruler's biggest loser (heh). They disappear! I go through periods when things, not just bracelets, vanish at an alarming rate. It's usually a sign I'm on overload. Or the planets are askew. But then I go through periods when lost items start reappearing in unexpected places. I accept this as the ebb and flow of my life (and belongings).*

I thought I was down to just one simple brown one. Then, last weekend at Vogue Knitting Live**, I was thrilled to see a denim blue wristruler, handstained by Catherine Clark for her Brooklyn General Store. It looks indigo and improved my wrist jewelry game by 100%.

On Monday while prepping for a photo shoot that required going through a lot of equipment storage bags, my orange wrist ruler reappeared! I was sure this souvenir from Portland OR was gone for good.  The photo above is  from when I bought it at  Twisted ,where I found the full monty of wristrulers on display. Metallics too-just not in this shot. 

2.  The  yarn I'd been seeking  to go with the variegated Once Upon a Corgi ***skein you see uptop.  I had a single yarn goal VKL: find a handdyed, semi solid coordinating skein . The stunning blue is Neighborhood Fiber Company . Magaly of Heart and Spirit in Atlanta was at the booth and led me to the right choice. If she's your LYS in Georgia you are one lucky peach. I plan to make a fun cowl  that has both bobbles in solid and garter stitch fuzzy variegated yarn, something different to amuse me this winter.

3. My feminist outrage . Ok, it was never lost but I rarely need to express it on a job these days. Tuesday, setting up for a corporate photoshoot, my crew and I needed to move a large airplane propeller mounted on wheels.****  I had free rein to set up the space. I also carry excellent business insurance should a mishap occur.  Let's also go with the premise that  I am competent as a location photographer and wouldn't choose to move something that I thought we couldn't handle. 
We realized we needed just one extra set of hands to steer it.  We being myself and my two assistants. They are both strong younger women.  Carla is a former Army sargent who has done things much tougher than rolling a propeller on wheels across a flat cement floor.  We summoned the man in charge of the building, who looked at us and said "well I need help to roll this."  
I replied " Yup! There  are three of us here, let's go". 
He looked back at us and said--"no, I won't move this with you, go get a couple of guys "

WHAT?
 The three of us stared at him in silence for a beat or two. Both assistants needed to take in what they were hearing. I heard it loud and clear. There's absolutely NO WAY I was going to interrupt the film crew dudes setting up in another space to ask for unnecessary help -- and there was also no way I was going to shrug and walk away.  I very very badly wanted to simper " Oh my! Are our vaginas getting in the way of rolling this???" .
 But this is an important gig to me-- I kept my mouth shut. 

Behind the scenes photoshoot  view (not with propeller)-photo by Carla McElroy

I left and explained the problem to the man representing the department I was working for.  He was with the all male film crew.  THEY WERE AS APPALLED AS I WAS!   My client joined us and we ladies all moved the propeller. And cracked jokes on it all day. That is a sea change from when I started working as a photographer so...all good. Allies!
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* I still use and recommend  knot tying to find a lost item (tie a knot in something you are wearing, is how I was taught)  and I borrow St Anthony from my friends' faith when needed.

** VKL was packed!  Thrilled to report the knitters economy seem to be holding strong. Real wool and farm sourced yarns showed up big--and while lots of gorgeous hand dying was there, in all hues, I saw less super contrasty magenta and citron with black speckles than in the past couple of years. The sweater I saw in droves was Felix, followed by Love Note and then Ranunculus. 

***Once Upon a Corgi is my LHD (local hand dyer) and a lovely person. Check her out if you haven't come across her yarn at a show or shop.

****This wasn't a handknit or yarn photo shoot. You may have already guessed that ;-).

3 things on my mind (work related)

 Berries in a Box by Lori Versaci

Hadley by Veronik Avery  as seen on Mason Dixon Knitting (their gorgeous Winterburn Aran yarn!)

1) I photograph many knits on jobs,  that I'd like to (make and) wear --but wouldn't connect on my own.  The two above are just the tip of the iceberg.  Go check out the link for the top one, Berries in a Box. It looks good on so many different body types. Including mine!   Yes--of course I try on samples while they are here with me for photo shoots. Wouldn't you?  I thought this shape would be too much for a shortie but it was so good.

The second one, Hadley, is no surprise style-wise for me . However, I'd only seen the original pattern that was multicolored--and it's a whole'nother  look in dark red and oatmeal. , like this sample I was sent to photograph.

2. Why why why why why am I dragging my feet on getting my new website up?  Even a good sheep shot can only hold a place for so long!  The funny thing is, I had my professional website very early on--in 1999, when relatively few photographers had websites, and most internet activity was still dial up or slow connections. The images on it were tiny!  I've had many webites since then...and a new one has been half designed for months now.
Do you drive yourself crazy not getting things done too? 

Thanks to Nancy of Getting Purly With It, for this photo , she was in the class :-) and caught me making namaste hands without knowing it.

3.  I love teaching iPhonography workshops. Yesterday's in New York at HereNowSpace was especially enjoyable. The participants were so talented and engaged.  It didn't hurt that the venue is stylish, had state of the art projection (love) and we were  surrounded by samples of mYak yarn, as it is also their showroom
At the end I was asked if I have an online video instruction version of my workshop. Nope. I almost always get this question when I teach....usually I just say nope and move on. This time I started pondering. Maybe I should produce one? On the things-to-look-into list! 

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Maybe a better title for this is 3 random things...but hey look at me, three blogposts already for 2020! See you next week. or, maybe this weekend wandering around VKL in NY ?
 

3 things: I'm working on Today

1)The Little Sock Arms Sweater *for my favorite almost-eight-just -twelve days-can you-believe it-really-do -you-know--ONLY-TWELVE-MORE-DAYS-TILL-I'm....8 year old.    This is such a clever and fun knit. 
Zoe spied this pattern on  Ravelry in  July.  Her Rainbow Sweater was outgrown after two years, and I offered to knit a new fave.  I warned her it might take a while for me to find the right yarn.  At the time I hadn't realized that self-striping fingering weight yarn is alive and well and found at any event or festival with lots of indie dyer vendors. 
It was my good luck to be teaching at Knitting At the Estate in rural Illinois in September-and there was Julia Vesper from Knitterly Things-- with this exact sweater on display at her vendor booth next to all her gorgeous striping yarns.  And the  designer, Stephanie Lotven of  Tellybeans was there too, and  taking my class, and I was enjoying her company, so boom, I came home ready to knit it up.Talk about kismet.

2) More color!  I was compelled to cast on for this scarf knit in the round the day I peeped the latest Mason Dixon Knitting Field Guide 13, full of Kaffe Fasset wild abandon. I have a bunch of Starcoft Fiber partial skeins that I've been hoarding saving for I-don't-know-what. So this is it!  -- and it is just pure joy. Also-- two handed colorwork just makes me feel so...balanced. No plan on the colors--I have lots of greens and some yellows too.  It's fingering weight so this may take a while but I do not care. Process,  it's all about process on this on. 

3) Business Untangled -- January 15 in NYC at HereNowSpace.  STILL A FEW SEATS LEFT! I am  honored to be part of this professional development day for Indie Makers of the fiber world. It's going to be fun, it's going to be helpful, it's going to be focused. I am teaching an Iphoneography class with a lot of in-phone photo editing.  I can't wait.   If you are at all tempted, I urge you to join us. I am also excited to learn about newsletters and hear the roundtable discussion. Plus lunch and snacks so... see you there?

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* If you're thinking that this pattern would be fun to knit for an adult but, ummm, maybe not in fingering weight yarn because all those stitches...good news she also published Worsted Sock Arms  it for a full range of adult sizes in worsted weight yarn. I am tempted, are you?

3 things for a new year

1) Blogging, I've missed you!  Start as you mean to go on, etc!   This is a favorite image from last year, from a Berroco yarn photoshoot for Providence yarn, a tweedy soft wool/alpaca/silk  I really loved shooting. We did all the photographs in Providence, RI at an old manufacturing building that's now Hope Artiste Village-- which is a nice touch, right?  

2) I still shoot sheep shots. Any chance I can! These ladies, above, are some of the wild island sheep I return to every year, on Nash Island Maine, to help my friend Jani Estell of Starcroft Yarn with her roundup and shearing. I play a very small role in the annual event, but it holds a large space in my heart.  

Parade on Nash Island.  It's a little misleading-- you only see this kind of scene at roundup for a split second as they are finally brought in by our human chain around the island, and walk briskly into the corral -- usually this tiny island appears to have no sheep at all - they are shy and good at hiding in the hillocks. The only other time is right at dawn, if you are lucky enough to make camp for the night.

I photographed many sheep and goats and farmers and shepherds in 2019, working with the Hudson Valley Textile Project in New York state. I'm looking forward to more adventures with them, and in anything I can do to support  the fibershed movement. This sweet beastie lives on the very wonderful Wing and a Prayer Farm.

3) More open-mindedness. To experiences, ideas and ...anything..even if I think I've already made an informed decision on whatever it is. More on this topic another time. Happy 2020!

fab interview link+ knitting cruise!

I am so honored to be interviewed on Kym's blog Away from The Edge this week! Go take a read.

Me, working in June, on a shoot for the Hudson Valley Textile Project. Photocredit to Catherine Clark from Brooklyn General.

Kym asked such good questions.  I've been following her blog and occasionally messaging back and forth with her for ..years..so I feel like we know each other in real life . After reading the interview, I have to remind myself we weren't sitting in the same room.  Doing these interviews is a lot of work so I truly appreciate it . And  hope she does mor.e of them   Maybe her other subjects won't be such Blabby McBlabsters :-)

In other news:

2019 Knitting Cruise Thimble Islands

Tuesday July 16th, 6-8 pm

sails from Stony Creek in Branford CT 

 there are a handful of seats left! 

  your ticket $ 30. via Paypal to galezucker@gmail.com

Feel free to bring a non-knitting friend!

board from the Stony Creek Docks at 5:45pm, rain or shine, the boat is covered by a canopy- we sail on the Volsunga with Captain Anna

It's the annual knitting cruise in the Thimbles  = a  night of cool salty breezes, knitastic company, snacking and drinking, peeping at the island homes and knitting as we tootle along the Connecticut shoreline

last year--or maybe the year before?

 • • • • • •

we always sell out -  don't lollygag or you'll be left ashore!

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Can we just glide over the fact that I rarely blog any more? I hope to return but meanwhile, you can find me on Instagram !

Headshots at TNNA in PDX

LINK TO SIGNUP FOR HEADSHOT PHOTO SHOOT SESSION AT TNNA IN PORTLAND, OREGON

So, how's your headshot situation?
I'll be making fresh narrative headshots by appointment at TNNA in Portland on February 1, 2 & 3.

Thanks to support from TNNA in setting up a temporary studio at the trade show venue, I'll be able to offer a rate much lower than I usually do--and we can work together to make a portrait that really is you.
 There are a limited number of time slots, please sign up in advance!  Sign up here

Bring /wear a project or product or prop. I'll have lighting and a choice of backdrops. And we will have fun. And I promise, you won't look like you are posing in a hotel room!

Artist/Modern Quilter Denyse Schmidt

iPHONEOGRAPHY / PHOTO WORKSHOPS-- Rhode Island and Portland Oregon!

Sign up online! iPhoneogrpahy for Knitters & Makers at the Slater Mill Knitting Weekend Saturday January 19 in Pawtucket /Providence Rhode Island. Info here . Space limited but it'll be hands on, fun AND  in a fantastic setting. Such good light inside and great backgrounds too.

This is from a photo shoot I did with Slater Mill in the background, for Berroco Pixel yarn. 

and also---  PORTLAND OREGON  at TNNA workshops & making headshot portraits

and also, super excited about

Puddletown Knitting Guild Saturday February 2

Product Photography for Knitters Dyers & Makers

I'll share shooting tips and in-phone editing tricks to make your images pop. Above , one of my fave hat tricks: shoot from above to keep the story about the knitting--and get rid of a horizon line though the head.
See you soon?

3 projects from Saturate/Desaturate

I've been on a work bender since late summer, photographing a ton of projects that I am crazy about. Like, I'm busting to show and tell.  Most of them won't surface for months or even a year...but happily Saturate/Desaturate , a collection and ebook from Kirsten Kapur/Through the Loops was released a couple of weeks ago.

It's probably not news that I love collaborating with Kirsten, considering that I shot her Shawl Book One and we co-authored Drop Dead Easy Knits with Mary Lou Egan. Among other adventures.

This book is extra special to me. The concept came up when we were on a long drive and I was saying how her designs are so strong that she could show them in both her signature color combos AND as natural, neutral solids that let the textures and geometry shine, showing each piece two ways. A while went by (we come up with a lot of schemes that never reach action). Then she told me she'd partnered with Malabrigo Yarn and the idea became real! Next we had to figure out a way to photograph the collection.

Naturally we came up with fantastic visual solutions that far outstripped the budget. Like going to a wonderful location where there were houses painted all kinds of colors and shooting in front of them, or shooting by street murals all over NYC , standing somewhere different for each set up. Logistically a budget buster for all the extra model and shooting  time needed to travel all over.

In the end, I decided that each project was plenty strong on its own.  No need to get crazy with the backgrounds! We'd show Saturated (in multi colors) against a plain white studio wall, and then the Desaturated (monochrome neutral or natural color version) would be photographed against a multi colored backdrop of fabric and styled with more neutral / naturals.

There are five patterns in the collection--I left off a bulky hat that I love, and a gorgeous wrap that looks crocheted but is infact some beautiful knitting stitch. You can purchase them singly if you are able to make those kind of choices ;-)  Go look!

3 things: knits I am looking at

I invite you to follow my hashtag above over on Instagram, please!  I had a lightbulb go off over there last month.  (you are going to say...ummmDUH..in your best middle school voice).

1)  Westminster Shawl by Toby Roxane Barna, from her book Design Doubles. That's Toby herself, modeling. We started planning this photo shoot in 2015, shot it in 2017 and it just came out!  (the book pairs sweater and shawl designs that use the same motifs or stitch patterns but in different ways). This one is knit in bulky yarn--I'd wear it as a scarf.

I spend a majority of my work hours photographing, planning/prepping/proposing to photograph (or post production editing ) handmade knits. or related subjects.  I'm immersed in knits and images and yarns I am dying to show you but can't till they are released, months or even years later.

 2) Legwarmers in Berroco Millifiori Big. These were shot in spring 2017.  At the time, all I wanted to think about was the end of winter! But this week? So fresh and YES! 

I realized I should just post what is newly released, or whatever calls to me seasonally or by mood or style.  More often than not  I love revisiting the photographs separate from the context of the work day we shot it in. .
3) and here's my 3rd thing in knit photos: more legwarmers! I adore these bootcut shaped ones from Jill Draper Makes Stuff new collection Here. It's all in her wonderful Kingston yarn, photographed in her hometown of Kingston NY. This was shot in a combination bar & bookstore (seriously why do I not live near one???)

I'm not making the blog a priority these days  but I'm not giving up--just showing up when I can. Meanwhile I hope you'll say hi on Instagram or wherever you find me.

* I'm going to be a sheep peep helping my friend Anne Lahners at her Olympia Farm booth at the NE Fiber Festival of New England  in Massachusetts this weekend on Saturday Nov 3 (it continue son Sunday Nov 4) . Please swing by and say hi if you attend!  I am looking forward to it like crazy.

3 things about Mucklmarl yarn

3 Things on Thursday gives me a manageable way to jump back here with yarn that is on my mind. Mucklmarl from Starcroft Fiber Mill in Maine
#1 the yarn is spun only from sheep that live on islands off the coast of Maine

 In June I was Downeast helping with the annual island sheep roundup with my friend Jani Estell and her Nash Island sheep. Their fleeces are what she uses for  beautiful fiber and yarn at her mill.

 Along with Nash Island, which is her all-white largest flock (100+), she keeps a mixed colored smaller flock even further from shore,  on tiny Flat Island.  I usually travel up for the larger shearing but this year I was lucky enough to make the Flat Island outing  on a wild and woolly early June day.

 You can see ,from this view of the crew setting up the temporary corral, that there were what Mainers call "seas". Which means, wind and plenty of waves and whitecaps. It was an exciting ride out to the island.

Part of the flock decided to go for a swim to avoid roundup (!), which was also exciting-- and frustrating. They had to be left unsheared till they dried off.  More than half of the population made it into the fencing.

 Looking down on the skirting table. That's normally my station but I was shirking my duties at that moment. Flat Island has a rocky outcropping, so I could get these views looking down on the action. This made me ridiculously happy.

 

Beverly Army Williams skirting in great style. Look at that  gorgeous fleece. Also at her Elizabeth Shannon apron she made from an Ellen Mason pattern.

#2 the yarn is marled,  plied with one strand of colored sheep and one natural white

 Jani  released a new yarn called Mucklmarl that's spun from the fleeces of these colored Flat Island sheep plied with her white Nash Island. It is bouncy and soft but also woolly and just exactly what I want a sweater of! I came home with an SQ (sweater quantity) and am  spending waaaaay too much time considering my options of what to cast on.  

 Sarah Hunt, aka Fibertrek, and the leader of the Wool Scout retreat along with Jani, knit a Dreyma pullover  in the lighter shade of Mucklmarl with a solid for the colorwork. Love this!

Right??!!!

Our little secret. heh. 

#3 sometimes it's hard to decide what to knit when you have an SQ of yarn that is special to you I want to knit a pullover, something slouchy to wear every day. Top contenders at the moment are The Weekender,  LouLou , Circe or maybe Such a Winters Day...  but I am open to pullover suggestions! What have you seen?

Mucklmarl is worsted weight with a little bit of halo so it could be knit on a 7-9 needle. If you want some, it's a limited release, sold  by ClementineMaine online or if you happen to be in Rockland Maine, stop in.

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whew, it feels good to be back! what are your knitting plans for the cooler weather ahead?

July 17th we sail! Thimble Islands Knitting Cruise Night 2018!

Ahoy knitting mateys, we are doing it again ! 

Cruise the Thimble Islands on our knitting charter out of Stony Creek in Branford CT.

TUESDAY  JULY 17TH  6-8 pm

TUESDAY JULY 24th 6-8 PM

(rescheduled due to intensely bad weather)

$30.

• please send me  your ticket $ via Paypal to gzucker@snet.net •

board from the Stony Creek Docks at 5:45pm

• • • • • •

we always sell out -  don't lollygag or you'll be left ashore

Our (almost) annual knitting cruise in the Thimbles  = a  night of cool salty breezes, knitastic company, snacking and drinking, peeping at the island homes and knitting as we tootle along the Connecticut shoreline.

There are no bad views from the Volsunga
Post-cruise smiley dock shot from last summer.  

ADDITIONAL INFO

• we sail rain or shine- the boat is awning covered

• yes, non-knitting friends welcome too

• bring drinks for yourself and snacks to share if you wish

• or bring along your dinner, anything goes

• not affiliated with any shop or knitting group

• parking in Stony Creek can be tricky- leave plenty of time to find a spot and walk down to the docks

 

A snippet of knitting action before we even left dock last July.