However, it never occurred to me that I would be losing some other important things when I moved. For example, I don’t have a front yard or a back yard anymore. So I have no place to take outdoor photos. I don’t even have a driveway in which to take cheesy hey-look-at-my-cute-car photos. AND I don’t have a photographer anymore. Peter has been taken away by an alien species that calls themselves a “law firm.” He’s allowed to visit me briefly in the evenings before it’s time for bed, but by then there isn’t any good light for photographs.
So bear with me with my finished object photos. I’m still trying to locate a good location to take photo and I’m trying to master the art of using a tripod and the camera’s timer.
Pattern: Starsky from Knitty, size small
Yarn: Berroco Pleasure, 66% angora, 29% merino wool, 5% nylon, 130 yards per ball, 10-ish balls
Needles: US size 10.5 (6.5 mm) for the body and US size 9 (5.5 mm) for the belt and the belt loops
Comments:
1) I was between sizes for the sweater and I knew that I should probably size up, but I was my usual ultra-paranoid self and worried about running out of yarn. Technically, I had enough yarn for the medium size, but I still worried. I worried even more when I realized that I wasn’t even close to getting the right row gauge. Instead of 18 rows in 4 inches I was getting 23-ish rows in 4 inches. So, I reasoned, I would need to knit more rows than the original sweater. More rows = more yarn used. Did I make the right decision? I think so, I have less than a ball left and I don’t think it’s enough to make up the size difference.
2) As a result of my size choice, the sweater doesn’t fit quite the way I thought it would. I thought it would be longer and more jacket-like. But, oh well, it still fits and I still like it.
3) I must have incredibly short arms. I had to reverse-seam much more of the cuffs than the pattern said to.
4) Because my row gauge was so different from the original row gauge I had to rework the armcyes, sleeve increases, and sleeve caps. I started using math and being a good girl, but then I ended up winging all the shaping in the sleeves. Luckily it all worked out.
5) I made this sweater in 12 days, beating my previous record of 14-ish days for Grace.
6) My new lack of a driveway made it impossible for me to do the traditional shooting with the finger gun from behind an open car-door pose. (Yes I suppose I COULD do this pose in my townhome complex's common drive, but I'm not ready for my new neighbors to think I'm crazy. Yet.)
7) I put on this sweater today despite the 75-degree weather to be long-distance sweater twins with Rachel—even for just a few minutes. Hi Rachel!BTW--does anyone know why the leading (i.e. the space between the lines) in my posts always gets smaller after I place a centered photo? How do I stop that from happening? I don't like scrunched up text.
Yay fixed! Thank you SuzannaBanana and Joanna!
29 comments:
Hey, I'd say you've mastered the indoor-photo-with-tripod thing already -- that's a beautiful picture! The lighting is wonderful. It almost makes up for your wimping out on giving us a finger-gun action shot. (I'm confident that you'll eventually give in and reveal your craziness to the neighbors, though.)
The sweater looks great, and I know that when I get home tonight, shed my work clothes, and throw on Starsky, it'll have extra significance. Hi sweater twin!
I don't think we have short arms; I think Jordana Paige has long arms. My sleeves were too long for me too.
Hmm. Now that you've finally made Starsky, what am I going to pester you about?
Your neighbors don't know you're crazy yet? You've lived there for longer than 24 hours, right?
The sweater looks great! You can wear it when you come visit me. It's still cold here!
It is absolutely beautiful. The color is very flattering on you!
Gorgeous sweater!!! And the photos are great, too... I think you've mastered the tripod and timer just fine. Hope it cools down a bit so you can wear it in comfort :).
The picture looks great, but I'm sure we could rustle up a letter-writing campaign. I mean, c'mon! Who *are* these people that they think working for them is more important than photography during light hours???
your starsky looks great! i saw your pic up on the fall cable kal and thought I'd stop by. :)it's going on my to do list..it looks like the sleeves are going to be too long for me too!
Starsky looks great! I wonder if you and Rachel can work out a photo with the two of you doing the requisite shot? And then Scout also modeling as sidekick. There is potential for a knitting TV show here, with the two of you modeling the new knits while you combat crime (maybe only of the knitting kind). Then you can get some cute car shots too. :)
Oh, it's beautiful! How in the world did you finish it so quickly? I feel like mine's going to take about fifteen YEARS to complete.
I have the answer to your text formatting question. It used to drive me crazy, too. Blogger's replacing your double carriage returns with div tags, and they're screwing with your spacing. If you work through the Edit HTML tab instead of the GUI window, you'll avoid the problem. Alternatively, if you compose your whole post, then go into the Edit HTML tab, you can delete the div tags.
Damn you're fast! The sweater looks great, and I think your pictures really show off the stitch definition.
I looked at your HTML and I'm not sure that Blogger is putting in extra div tags like Suzanna said... I think the problem might be from putting the picture in the middle of a paragraph. Immediately before your "center" tag (with no line breaks in between), put a closing "p" tag, and then put an opening "p" tag immediately after the closing "center" tag. That should solve the problem.
Great work, and I love your self-portrait. (It's even better than some of your posed photos with Peter doing the honors, but you don't need to tell him that!)
I think you guys will need to take a vacation to someplace with winter so you can wear the sweater. But not for anything arduous like climbing mountains in Alaska. Angora is a leisure fiber!
Nicely made, I love the color.
You are great with the self timer/tripod - a beautiful photo and sumptuous sweater!
Looks gorgeous! And you don't even have a balcony or anything? That's sad. :(
I'm struggling with the same thing--my apartment in Philly was overflowing with great western exposure sunlight, and the current one is lacking in light plus I work such later hours I'm not around in daylight anyway, and it's really the city, so setting up the timer is potentially risky outdoors!
Anyway, Starsky looks great!! 12 days; quite impressive.
You are one fast knitter! Once again I love your work. You have great taste with patterns and colors!
Gorgeous job and picture. I had to do a double take...it is not pink! Who are you and what did you do with Laura?!
;)
It looks great! You know, I ran into the exact same problems with Starsky...I needed way more yarn than the pattern called for, and the sleeves ended up being too long. (Strange, I have long arms.)
And I think it is jacket-like...at least for Houston. :)
BeeYOOteeful! You are an amazing knitter!!
Wow! That looks great!
Yay!
So nice.
I think you're doing great with the tripod and self-portraits. Keep it up!
Much better than my pics...heh.
No Scout model? *pouts*
Gorgeous! It looks fantastic.
OOOOooooo....Pleasure. Love that yarn. The color is delish too.
We are about ready for some spring shop knitting. We've received all of our Nashua and Classic Elite. We still do not have all of our RYC and Rowan.
Amy
Gasp! That's gorgeous! I love looking at your work, it's inspiring.
Loving your Starsky. Well done, Laura!
Wow! 12 days? You're a knitting machine! That turned out 10 shades of awesome. Love the color on you. I can't believe you had to do so much math and tweaking. I'da gone nuts. Beautiful job.
No Scout in the piccie?
JUST KIDDING!
Starsky looks beautiful - I'm envious as usual of your exquisite knitting talent.
Wooo!
Many hugs,
Anne
your Starsky looks lovely!
I had been debating what size to make as well... but I think that the small looks great on you! I haven't done a swatch yet, so it will probably depend on what happens there (I am notorious for weird gauge issues)!
Also, I cannot believe you knit this is less than two weeks. You are now my knitting hero!
Another gorgeous knit, Laura! Great photo, too.
pretty cool patterns,keep it up laura
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