casey knits

One of the things I’ve really enjoyed about this photography class is the darkroom.  I like monkeying around with chemicals. (Surprise!)  I like taking imperfect negatives and producing interesting prints.  It’s a lo-fi old-school Photoshop in black-and-white film, and I’m loving every second of it.

I decided, in the midst of my class assignments, that I could spare one of my rolls of film to try out my Lomo Action Sampler camera, a Christmas present from many moons ago that - until today - had gone completely unused, mostly because I didn’t want to pay for film developing.  With all the materials now on hand… what the heck, right?

And lo, I’m completely in love with the insane levels of low-tech going on here.  If you’ve never used one of these things, it’s basically a glorified pinhole camera - within a shiny plastic casing, a spinning wheel shutter exposes 4 different fixed lenses on a single exposure of film.  There’s a (crappy) flash, but no focus, no adjusting, no macro, nothing but point, click, and see what happens.

So, from top to bottom, I have (1) an indoor shot in bright light but no flash, (2) an outdoor shot on a cloudy day, and (3) an outdoor close-up shot, flash fired.  Every single shot was horribly exposed, which makes me very glad that I’m making my own prints, because I know how to work around that by now.  I will definitely be playing with this more, in better weather, and seeing what sort of fun images I can get from it, before I don’t have access to the darkroom anymore.

And now I TOTALLY understand the cult following these little cameras have, because the unpredictability of them is wicked crazy cool.

And you’d also be dead wrong. 

Somehow, I’m still just as obsessed with shawls as I was a year ago.  After some hedging between a simple shawl in a striking yarn, or a complicated shawl in a plain yarn, the fancy yarn won and I cast on a Revontuli, using the Zauberball that’s been taunting me since I blogged about it last week.  Totally smart choice.  This yarn is rocking my socks.  The pattern is monotonous, but the yarn is so freaking cool that it makes me want to knit more rows just to watch the magical transitioning of colors.  (Yes, I AM easily amused.)

I predict this will be a quick knit… though not as quick as the last couple (yes, couple - there’s a project I haven’t blogged about because it’s a gift!), because Spring Break has, sadly, come to a close, and tomorrow it’s back to the academic grind.  Boo!

FACT: this little kerchief/neckwarmer was, hands down, the most fun I’ve ever had with a knitting project. Period.

Calamity Jane by Kirsten Hipsky :: Blue Sky Alpacas Alpaca & Silk

See, I kinda have knitting ADD.  I know… what knitter doesn’t, right?  But seriously, it’s extremely difficult for me to finish what I start, even if we’re talking something as basic as a cowl or a hat or a pair of mittens.  Once I start to get bored, I’m done for, and it really doesn’t matter how small the project is.  (I’ve had Christmas-ornament UFOs before, okay?  ‘Nuff said.)

This?  Never gave me a chance to get bored.  The body is symmetrical, and builds logically, but never repeats.  The border is knitted on sideways, binding off the stitches as you go.  You cast on 7 stitches;  you bind off 5 stitches.  It’s great!  I started on March 1 and finished on March 4.  Throw in that I knit the entire thing with one little 146-yard skein of Alpaca & Silk (with 5 yards left over), and you have one nifty little project.  I seriously can’t say enough good things about it.

My only fault with the finished object is one that’s my own damn fault:  I did a halfassed job with the blocking.  I was too lazy to go back downstairs and get a second piece of my blocking board, which would have let me block it out a few inches wider (and, um, STRAIGHT - sigh!).  So the finished width is 32″, when it really should have been at least 36″, if not even a bit bigger than that.  But I’m not going to quibble.  I’m going to make another one!

Kirsten, if you ever read this, thanks for such a fun little pattern - it was perfect spring-break knitting!

I finally got around to adding my Christmas yarn to my stash on Ravelry.  And it’s only March 1! Go me! But seriously, I’ve come to realize that I’m never going to have MY ENTIRE STASH listed on the Rav.  I mean, I have 6 huge Rubbermaid tubs full of yarn.  Who has time to take pictures of all that stuff?!  Not me.  Not even me-when-I’m-on-spring-break, like right now.

(And yeah, I know - you could tell.  Two updates in a week?! OMG, WTF? Heh.)

So I spent the first 3 days of break asleep, pretty much.  I was literally awake for about 6 hours total on Saturday.  Despite this start to the week, I do have a few plans for my time off.   My big goal for the week is to reorganize and rearrange my office space downstairs, to hopefully make it more conducive to actually working.  I also need to mercilessly purge my closet and dresser and get rid of things that don’t fit me anymore.  Plus, you know, there’s homework to be done - like I was going to get away with having no homework!

In between naps over the weekend, I also managed to knock out a piece of commissioned knitting.  Even though I have several WIPS on the needles, I feel compelled to start something else.  I think part of my problem this semester is that I’ve been so focused on “mindless knitting” as a counterpart to my more overwhelming classes, and I’m starting to think that maybe I should change my strategy and start some complicated lace.  You know, to keep my brain from getting too mushy.  I’m not sure this plan will make any sense to anyone but me, and maybe a couple other diehard lace knitters.  Ah well.  Time to dig through the Rav-queue and see what speaks to me.