I do love Malabrigo yarns, and I have bins and bins of stash to prove it. FOs too; last October Amy asked me to whip up a banner for the Malabrigo Junkies on Ravelry during the October Stockpile event. No problem; pile of sweaters on the deck – check.
The banner pretty much said it all.
Anyway, thanks to Alex for letting me talk about my favorite yarn and my designs. And now you know what that new headshot was all about!
I’ve been thinking for a while that I really need a decent head shot for published things and various avatars. My other half has recently been linking himself in and got all motivated to take a new self portrait – which lead to the discussion in which he expressed the opinion that my previous default picture was a hair shot, not a head shot. He has a point.
So in a synergistic moment, the spousal ridicule, acknowledgement that I need to stop changing my Ravelry ravatar all the time, and my continuing exploration of Lightroom all came together in this.
Maybe the hair’s not as good, but the overall is nice PLUS I got to practice my photo editing mad skillz with my new Lightroom software. Ever since Picnik announced they would be shutting down, I’ve been stressing out about how to do my editing; not that I do tons of it, but a little bit of tone curving for lights and darks, some airbrush and color correction can make a huge difference. One of my being a serious designer goals is to improve my photography, which means not only staging and styling the pictures, but also the digital editing. Recently an art teacher friend told me she didn’t like digital pictures because it was like cheating on the artistry of taking photos; however, I think it makes more opportunity for creativity. Not that one can make a silk purse from a sow’s ear, of course; the initial picture has to be good at least. But then the possibility exists for it to become great, in so many ways.
Anyway, the abyss of Photoshop is something I prefer to avoid unless I need it for certain specific things; all that functionality is great (hey, I just painted out a distracting background on something yesterday), but for general editing and managing of photos, Lightroom is fabulous. It does everything I need to make publishable pictures AND its management and catalog features mean I never have to use iPhoto again, just sayin’.
So I like my software, and I like my new headshot, and now I know how to use vignette and split toning. I can have a headshot library.
An elongated, asymmetrical wrap that combines the warmth and style of a shawl with the wearability of a scarf, Sundry means various or diverse, and this wrap features two colors, two stitch patterns and endless styling options. Cast on at the long, pointed end, Sundry has shaping at each end of rows that grow ever wider. Two colors contrast yet harmonize in solid garter stitch and houndstooth slipstitch sections; the slipstitch is easily worked using just one color per row. A simple picot bind off finishes the long straight end.
Techniques & Skills Used: cable CO, knit, increasing/decreasing, slipstitch colorwork, picot BO; the slipstitch pattern is both written and charted, with a link to my video tutorial included for the picot BO.
Size: 112” length and 24” depth, customizable.
Yarn: String Theory Hand Dyed Yarn Selku (50% Silk, 50% Merino; 375 yards/113g); 1 skein MC & 1 skein CC, shown in Pewter (MC) & Alexandrite (CC). Any amount of yarn in two colors may be used. As written, the sample required almost every bit of yarn; see Designer’s Notes for suggestions on easily adjusting for different yardage.
Other Materials: US 7 (4.5mm) 40” circular needle; Yarn needle.
Gauge: 15 st and 30 rows/4” in garter stitch, after blocking. Gauge is not critical for this project, however a different gauge may result in a smaller or larger finished wrap, and different yardage requirements.
See it on Ravelry or on Payhip, to read more or purchase the pattern.
I do love Malabrigo yarns, and I have bins and bins of stash to prove it. FOs too; last October Amy asked me to whip up a banner for the Malabrigo Junkies on Ravelry during the October Stockpile event. No problem; pile of sweaters on the deck – check.
