This week I talk about possibilities for Valentine's Day, including more uses for gauge swatches, and photographing your work.
It's easy for gift knitting to get out of hand, especially at the end of the year, when you might have holiday gifts to make and a long list of giftees. One solution to this is to shift some of that load onto other days of the year - birthdays, Valentine's Day, even St. Patrick's Day can lighten your load if you save your "big" knitting project gifts for those days. If you want to wow all six of your sisters with a sweater, it might help you keep your sanity if you spread it out. Then, you won't feel guilty about giving gift cards to them at the end of the year.
If you have a sentimental person on your list, Valentine's Day can be a wonderful time to knit a sweet little gift. If you don't feel ready to knit in the new year, you can always use your craftiness in another way.
I'm going to keep track, starting this year, of how many uses I have given you for gauge swatches. In the last show, I told you about using your swatch to check that your yarn + needle + you equation works well.
This is use number 2 - repurposing for other crafty delights.
Felted Shape Project
For this project, you will need:
- Some knit gauge swatches, in colors fitting whatever mood you want to convey, in a fiber that will felt. Natural fibers, and even some natural fibers blended with synthetics, will felt, but you may have to experiment to discover exactly what will work.
- A washing machine
- A dryer
- A pillowcase that zips
- A safety pin
- Paper to use as a stencil
- A permanent marker
- A pair of sharp scissors
Place the swatches in the zippered pillowcase, zip, and secure with a safety pin.
Wash on the hottest wash cycle you have with the coldest rinse cycle you have. If you have an old towel or old pair of jeans to add in, all the better, but the dye from the yarn might bleed, so be prepared for the idea that anything sharing the wash water could end up streaky. Throw the whole mess in the dryer on high while you sit down with your feet up. When it is almost all-of-the-way dry, pull it out and lay the swatches out, flat, to finish drying. Draw the shape you want on a piece of paper and cut it out. When the swatches are completely dry, trace the paper stencil on them with your marker. Cut out. Voila.
These cut-out shapes could be used on their own as decorations or coasters. You could also make two of the same size, and needle-felt the edges together to make a little pocket for a love note. Or, you could needle-felt the pieces together and include stuffing to make a little felted pillow. If you don't know what needle-felting is, stay tuned. I have a couple of shows planned on that topic later this year.
More Valentine's Day Ideas
For those of you who prefer to knit up a little surprise for Valentine's Day, your options are almost endless. I like to turn to The AntiCraft at these moments.
You could knit a heart-shaped box out of wire with this design by Zabet Stewart.
Also, if you are thoroughly sick of Valentine's Day, and all of its trappings, you could always whip up a voodoo doll, also by Zabet, and also from the very first issue of that online magazine.
Section 2: Photographing Crafts
Last week, our interviewee mentioned that good, clear photos are important to the process of getting a grant. I would say they are important for everything you do, especially if you give away a lot of your crafts as gifts. When I'm super-organized, I've even used a photo of the gift on the cover of a card, which doubles as a care-tag for it. For example, a photo of a sweater could have care instructions printed on the back. That way, your recipient has a fighting chance of not destroying your hand-knit gift. So, this week, I'm going to walk through some of the most common pitfalls of at-home photography, and hopefully get you on your way to amazing photographs.
I'm going to assume you are using a digital camera here. If you are using film, I suggest you talk with you local, friendly camera shop about the best settings for your particular camera.
For good-quality photos of your work, you must achieve tack-sharp focus and good color reproduction. Craft objects are often somewhat small, and most point-and-shoot cameras don't have a great close-up focus feature. If the object you are photographing looks blurry, but something behind it looks sharp, chances are you are too close to the object, and need to back up (and probably crop the photo later, so choose the largest file size possible with your camera). If everything looks blurry, you might not have enough light to get good results with your camera.
Shooting outdoors, or near a window, on a bright, overcast day is the best way to get good color results. When in doubt, try some shots with, and then without, your flash. Compare and move forward from there.
If you absolutely can't seem to get enough light (everything looks blurry and/or dark), a tripod might be the least expensive, easiest option for you, if your camera has the threading for one. Here, I've included a photo of the bottom of a point-and-shoot camera that has tripod threads. This method will not work if you have your heart set on using a model, unless your model is very, very good at standing very, very still.
The main thing is to practice and stick to it. Photography is a craft like any other, and if you expect perfection right away, well, you might be disappointed.
Links and Final Notes
Yummy, yummy Baby Alpaca Grande Tweed
Next week: An any gauge, any size hat pattern and free-form designing using knitter's graph paper.
Uses for Swatches Count in 2010 - 4
