Socks are done!!
Category: Photography
Today on Instagram….
So this was Sunday – a trip to the botanical gardens in Clifton (I had no idea they were there!) followed by a picnic and some knitting in the park. It feels like summer might be on it’s way!
5kcbwday3 | Photography
5kcbwday3
A few years ago I used to be really excited about photography. I even went as far as doing a 365 project for 18 months – the first year can be seen here. Recently I’ve noticed however that my photos seem to be rushed – and I’ve given up my camera for my phone. I do like the convenience with this but the photos are never as good, which is why I’m sad I left this post until the last minute. After I had decided what to do, I was left with half an hour and an iPhone, which can’t cope with the strong colours presented here half as well as my trusty Lumix!
This is a WIP I’ve been working on for sometime – I bought the yarn at Ally Pally last October. The pattern is Saxifrage by Rachel Coopey. I started the sock in November in preparation for my holiday to Sri Lanka. I thought it would be fun knitting yellow socks in the sunshine, but it turned out it was far too hot for knitting, so this has been sat in a bag ever since.
For this photo I decided to take a different approach than I normally would and look into using some more colour. I raided the Simply Knitting props area on my lunch-break and found these lovely fabrics and tin that complimented the yarn colour so well. It has made me think I ought to put some more effort into my photos, I used to be so particular about them when I started this blog and I feel my standards have dropped somewhat.
It’s fun arranging a shot, even if it is time consuming!
Click here to read more of the posts from Knitting and Crochet Blog Week 2014 5kcbwday3
Just a little bit of spring for you!
Holiday!
We went on holiday to Sri Lanka over Christmas and New Year and I managed to not only completely stop knitting (it was too hot) but I don’t think I even talked about knitting or work either. To those of you that don’t know me, or the office I work in, that may not seem like such a big deal, but the subject and the craft itself probably take up around 85% of my waking life. Youch!
I didn’t expect it to happen but it was actually really lovely. I rediscovered books, lying in the sun doing nothing and did a lot of people watching as everything was just so different. Who would have thought that relaxing could be so enjoyable!
Here are a few holiday snaps in case you’re not jealous yet:
Tuk-tuking..
A baby water buffalo! I love this pic. We went on a safari around Uda Walawe National Park and I couldn’t stop snapping away. There are so many photos, just getting down to these few was tough!
Our paradise beach in Polhena – that’s our balcony looking over the sea on the top right. We stayed here for 5 nights over Christmas and New Year.
Probably the best sunset I’ve ever seen, from the beach at Polhena
Coconuts! We found this stand at a moment of dehydration, like it had just popped up just for us. The guy who sold them to us took this picture of us – one of the first ones we have in the four years we’ve been together that we actually both like!
We stayed on an old tea estate called Samakanda, in the old tea planters cottage. These tea pluckers were out every Wednesday collecting bags of tea leaves. Later we went for a visit visit to the tea factory and saw the whole process from start to finish, which was really informative (and delicious!)
Monkeys at Rawana Falls! We stopped here on the way up to Ella to look at the waterfall, but I was a little over-excited to see monkeys so tame. I know it’s a bad thing, as they’re fed by the tourists and will start to rely on it, but it was still a novelty to see them with their corn on the cobs!
The train journey to Kandy – this is supposed to be one of the best train journeys in the world, and I took about 100 photos to prove it. Crammed in like sardines, we were lucky to get a window seat, where I proceeded to snap for the entire 7 hours. Tea plantations, mountains, rivers, the views were amazing.
Dambulla Buddha Caves
Beautiful original batiks at Jayamali Batiks, Kandy. I should have
asked him to pose with the one we bought!
Just before climbing Siguriya
Breakfast by the sea!
Three weeks after our return, life is very much back to normal. Except of course the things I need to catch up on at work and the designs I need to actually start working on.. That will be another post!
* There are another 490 photos over at flickr.com/fayetuesday!
Location Location Location…
Gosh how did we get to March already? I really had intended to blog more often than I have been this year, and considering all the exciting things that have been going on it’s not like I’m short of content.
Last week I went on my first location shoot for The Knitter. Exciting!
It was set in an amazing place in Bristol that gave me quite severe house envy. Although if I’m honest, I’d mess this place up quite quickly and it wouldn’t look quite the same. It would have yarn coming out of every crevice for starters.
As this was my first shoot, most of the day was spent watching how things were done and helping to get garments ready to be photographed, although in future I will have some direction in the way things are presented. So I sewed some buttons onto a cardigan and did some little knit touch-up jobs. The best thing was, it was actually warm enough to sit and do this outside! Someone even offered suncream.
I began taking lots of photos of what was going on, thinking it would make a great blog post, but then it dawned on me that I can’t really share them as the patterns are obviously secret. So I am posting these behind the scenes shots instead to give an idea of the feel of the day.
This photo isn’t all that exciting, however the sofa was the most gorgeous thing ever, beautifully covered in wool and made me wish I could do upholstery, or just pay someone something to own such a thing. Maybe I’ll add it to my Pinterest wishlist – I’m trying to make it like a vision board to try and attract those things into my life – you never know!
Being a bit of a photography geek anyway, this day was right up my street. In the past I have worked with photographers as a studio assistant and photo editor, so I like to think I’ve got an eye for it. Note these photos aren’t the best example of that!
It was a little odd to be there and not be the one holding the reflectors and setting up lights, but it was nice to understand that side of things and see it all happening from a different perspective.
Our model Caitlin was beautiful and completely lovely, and the whole team were really great to spend the day with.
This is my finished bunting all set up ready for our photographer Jesse to get a professional shot of it. I’m really pleased I get to keep it! So it will be hanging around my desk as of next week 🙂
We will be doing workshops at the Spring Knitting and Stitching show at London Olympia on on the 14-17th March teaching people how to make this and some crochet flowers. I will be there on Thursday, so if you’re there come and say hello!
In other news I am now a bit more active on Instagram, and Flickr, having finally got myself a phone with a decent camera. So if I’m not here, follow me there for a quick visual knitty/crafty diary.
January So Far..
How has your year been so far? I decided I’d take a bit of time out of designing for a couple of weeks and have been finishing the socks I posted last week and knitting a hat for myself. There will be pictures soon!
I thought for now I’d share what I’ve been up to so far this year, I have decided to do the 365 project again in 2013 which you can follow here, if you are interested. I won’t be making a habit of posting photos to the blog as I’d like to try and stick to the knitting and making theme, but as a lot of my pictures seem to feature this I’m sure they will creep in now and again!
Day One – A walk around Blaise Castle was a lovely way to welcome the first day of the year.
Day Two – Putting away the Christmas decorations.
Day Three – Doing the dreaded tax return
Day Four – Just some yarnporn!
Day Five – Giving in to procrastination and starting my Christmas jigsaw.
Day Six – A cheeky game of backgammon with my buddy Steph.
Day Seven – Knit Night
Day Eight – Shopping
Day Nine – My Bookshelf. I was sock knitting today but I liked these colours calling from the other side of the room!
What have you been up to this week? Do you have any exciting plans for January or resolutions for the year ahead?
Happy New Year!
Apologies for my lack of blog posts of late, I have been super busy over the festive period; planning new patterns, making socks and a hat, and I seem to have neglected them a bit!
Sadly the socks didn’t get finished in time for Christmas but I thought I would put up a couple of photos of my progress. I’ll point out that these are a gift for my other half, hence the reason they look a bit on the large side on my little feet!
The pattern is Strings Colourwork Socks by Tanja Fleischer. They are knit from the toe up – using the Fair Isle technique to knit the guitar pattern on the top of the foot and the fretboard (so cool!) underneath. Then after the heel the pattern is set so they guitars flow neatly around the whole sock to the cuff. All in all it was a really fun pattern to knit!
Here is the silly beard hat I made for my brother (he’s going to kill me for posting this!) I had some fun fur yarn leftover from years ago and after looking at beards for half a day, had a go at crocheting something that fitted nicely around the neck. It’s actually really practical, but the beard unclips as I imagine he’ll probably wear the hat more without it.
And here’s something I wanted to share with you before Christmas, but just didn’t get the time! When I was out doing my gift shopping, I popped into the “Knitted Supermarket” for a nose around.
The supermarket was in Bristol for a few days around Christmas, and everything inside was for sale. The proceeds went to Knitiffi – the Bristol based folk responsible for the project. Their aim is to make the world a “brighter, happier place” through exhibitions, projects and installations created with yarn.
It was so cute I couldn’t resist these snaps!
And finally…
Throughout 2012 I took part in the 366 photography project – one photo per day for a year. To start with it was hard, remembering everyday to take a picture of something, but after a few months it became a habit. I missed a few (8 to be exact) but I’m really pleased now to have a collection of photos looking back over the whole year. So much so, that I’ve started the project again for 2013!
You can view the photo collection here, or click the play button below to watch a slideshow of the year in pictures.
Coming soon to a cafe near you!
Hello lovelies, I hope you’ve all had a good week!
I thought I would share first a few photos from the last seven days, nothing too exciting, just out and about! The first is from the beach at Burton Bradstock, which we visited last week to drop in on a friend on the way home from Brighton. I got over enthusiastic about the weaving book in my last post and neglected to find this little gem hidden in my camera.
I also popped down to Exeter last week to wish my Dad a happy birthday, and we enjoyed a cultural couple of days checking out the RAMM and A La Ronde. Both I have visited before, however the museum has been closed for what seems like years, and has since won awards so we were eager to check it out. In all honesty I think I preferred it before, but I seem to be the only one thinking that so I will keep schtum! I miss the clocks gallery, and I’m not so keen on stuffed animals stacked up to the ceiling.
A La Ronde is an 18th century ’round house’ built for two spinster cousins after their trip around Europe. It is full of souvenirs from their travels, including shells, feathers and pottery, as well as many crafts they have made themselves. I was unable to take photographs, however was particularly taken by the teeny tiny knitted gloves, a caddy made from quilling, feather freize and a picture made entirely from cut out paper. There is also a shell gallery, which I remember going into when I was small but it has since been closed – the wall from top to bottom, all the way around the top floor of the building is completely covered in shells.
I’ve been working on a couple of things since my last post, the Autumn Gold Hat I posted about a couple of weeks ago, and a fair isle cup cosy design for a zillion takeaway cups.
I’m not going to say any more in case I get into trouble, all I can say is that this lovely little snowflake design will be printed onto the cups, along with my label, which will be available in a cafe near you over the colder months!
And I’m quite excited! 🙂
Upfest – A Bristol Festival of Street Art
This weekend saw our first ‘Upfest‘ – an urban street art festival based just around the corner from us in Southville, Bristol. I got a little bit snap happy with all the colour surrounding us, and thought I’d share some of the pictures here.
Upfest is an annual festival, which has taken place every year on the first weekend of June since 2008. Boards are erected especially for the paint jam, which also takes place on shop shutters and the sides of buildings, and attracts hundreds of graffiti artists from all over.
After working our way down North Street we ended up at the Tobacco Factory, which hosted DJ’s, beatboxers, bands and market stalls.
However as much as we all appreciated the paintings, the party atmosphere was a tad on the loud side for us and we retreated to The Hare, where we could sit and chat quietly, and relax!