colors and cameras and filet crochet

I thought I'd give you some insight into how cameras react to different colors - MY camera anyway. LOL

I've said this before, but my camera, and all the cameras in my house, dislike the color purple. Not ALL purples. They are mostly against the darker purples, like amethyst. Case in point. I just finished an amethyst scarf. Below are two photos. One is the original photo taken with my camera. The second, which shows the truer color, was done with Paint Shop Pro X.

Left: camera photo as taken

Right: Paint Shop Pro X adjusted photo

The blue of the one on the left is just gorgeous. Unfortunately, it is not the color of the scarf. LOL

Other colors don't play well with my camera. Some reds come out just as blobs which show no stitch definition. In order to show the patterns properly, I have to change the colors in the photo. This doesn't happen often, but just often enough.

Since I like the colors red and purple, I continue to make things using these colors, but you might like to check out your camera and see if it doesn't play as well with some colors. Particularly for items you might want to sell in your online shop since you'll need to take photos of those. Or you might have a better camera than I do. I have tried my camera, my husband's camera, and my cell phone. They all come up with blue.

I did, however, discover that my camera allows me to adjust some things. For example, I can take a photo in "sepia" to make it look old. ;-)

The color matters don't really mean a lot in the blog world, except that I don't like to be dishonest and say this is a picture I took when it has been adjusted. But then again, isn't it dishonest to post a photo of a blue scarf when it is actually purple? Hmmm. Why can't things just be simple?

In any case, besides the scarf - which is dc worked in BLO (double crochet worked in back loops only) - I continue to make saltines (2 round granny squares) and double yo-yos (first round 16, second round 32). I figure you all are tired of seeing photos of them, so I'll just quietly jot the numbers down for my records. LOL

The book I had ordered a while back came in and I thought I'd share. It is
Filet Crochet: More than 70 Designs with Easy-to-Follow Charts (Stitch Collection). I have not tried any of the patterns in it, but I'm anxious to. There are a lot of different pictures in it that interest me.

 

I have to say the fleur de lis (which is spelled fleur de lys in the book - my daughter says that is also a correct spelling), does not look like my vision of such. Since that is the symbol of New Orleans, the area where I live, and the Saints (yay Saints) football team, I'm a little picky about that. Of course, a fleur de lis is basically a lily. See wikipedia. You can google fleur de lis images and see what they look like in "real life". The black and gold is our local image.

Other than that tiny point, there are a number of pages of basic instructions which are useful to someone just starting out in filet. There is also an index if you are looking particularly for say a bunny motif or an elephant motif. The motifs are various sizes but she does include with each design a number of designs that could be put together easily. That's a handy tip.

There's a washing chart (as in how to wash your project), and also a chart listing American/English stitch designations. There can't be a standard. That would be too easy. LOL American sc is English dc etc. You know the drill. There's also a complete alphabet (capital letters only) and numbers 0 to 9 as well as a few extras.

I've now talked myself into trying one of these motifs! Pictures if I actually finish it. :-)

Happy crocheting!

Just a little bit of this and that today. Many of you have heard of Priscilla's famous flat braid joining. I thought I had lost Priscilla, but I eventually found her again. I was thinking today that some of you may have also lost some links when AOL, Geocities, Hometown dropped their hosting services. So if you had, here is Priscilla's site, including the flat braid join and many other wonderful patterns, both free and for sale.

When I think of the flat braid join, I also think of Chris Simon, who has a joining method for yo-yos which is wonderful.

Another thing I thought was important to pass along is that CGOA will be having two conferences in 2011. You can read all about it on the CGOA blog. One will be in Minneapolis and the other in Greensboro NC. Both are a good distance from me, but should be close to those on the eastern half of the country anyway.

I was looking through the Talking Crochet newsletter recently and saw this afghan which I thought was really interesting. Sort of a "yo-yo" look which is so popular these days. The afghan is called Rings and Things Afghan in case the link doesn't work when you try to find it. Of course, they have all sorts of good things there, so pop around the site and check it out.

In my never ending quest for unique and wonderful crochet tools, I ran across this Lacis Ergonomic Handle. I saw it several places, but the link (scroll down) shows you how it is used, which is handy to know. This seems to work similarly to the set I recently purchased (but haven't used yet) at Ebay. (I have other suggestions for folks who have hand trouble here.)

If you haven't been over to the Craftown forums, you might like to stroll over there. There's a new giveaway going on and the prize is The Sewing Answer Book. You can also see a few of my crochet projects in my photo album there. They're all at the Cabana, but these are a few of my favorites. I'm a moderator there so I pop in quite often. If you see sandiewhocrochets, that's me.

I visited Ravelry briefly the other day and realized I'd not been there in some time. There are just so many things to do that I can't make the rounds and still keep crocheting. LOL I went back there tonight to check for messages and ended up staying longer than I intended. As I was typing what was "on my hook" I realized I have more things waiting than I thought. Isn't that always how it is? I need to get moving on a few of those projects and call them complete.

I'm also on a group over at Eons. It's pretty quiet there right now, but we welcome newcomers. Sometimes new blood can get things moving. My daughter created the banner for the Eons group and I love it. All of the things you see in it are photos of my stuff. :-)

Well, if I stay here I won't get those projects done, so off I go. I have a scarf to finish first, then tackling those WIPs which will shortly become UFO's!

Oh, no word yet on the Master's Course. Still waiting for an address.

Happy crocheting!

Royal squares :-)

I've done a lot of crocheting lately on double yo-yos and saltines, but I'm about ready to hang up my hat on those for a while. :-) I am thinking I'll go back to squares for a while.

To that end, I worked a square last night using the Royal Sisters tutorial. I didn't actually READ the tutorial, but just looked at the pictures. Note that the text shows English terminology with American in parentheses.

I also worked in one color because you know how I hate to sew those ends in. :-) Her multi-colored squares are much prettier than mine and she also shows you how to join them with the join-as-you-go-method. The square design, however, is easy peasy. Fun to do and comes out 6" for me with my trusty H hook.

If you're working on squares for Share a Square (ghans to be made for kids with cancer) this might be a nice one to try.

I also want to mention Dee's annual scarf challenge. She has a Ravelry group set up for this and I'm sure it will be on her blog as well when September rolls around. Since I love to make scarves, I'm sure I will be participating this year again.

That's all for now.

Happy crocheting!

Printer Friendly

Just a quick note to let you know I've added a Print Friendly button at the end of the posts. I saw this at The Hook and I blog. She often has interesting things on there and I thought this would be good.

If I have a pattern, for example, and you want to print it out without the other stuff that appears on a web site - ads and such - just click the link. You have the choice of just printing it as is or making a pdf file of it. It doesn't catch all the photos, but does save you pages of stuff you don't need. Hope it's useful.

I've been making saltines and double yo-yos. Will have pics soon. 

Happy crocheting!