3KCBWDAY2 - Photography Challenge Day

Photography Challenge Day

Today challenges you to be creative with your photography, and get yourself in with the chance to win the photography prize. Taking interesting photographs in this instance isn't about flashy cameras or a great deal of technical know-how, it's about setting up a story or scene in a photograph and capturing something imaginative. Your photograph(s) should feature something related to your craft, so that might be either a knitted or crocheted item, yarn, or one of your craft tools. One example of setting a scene would be to photograph a girl in a knitted red cape walking through the woodlands with a basket of goodies, as in the Red Riding Hood tale, or you might photograph a knitted gnome hiding among the flowers in your garden. Photo editing is permitted for competition photos. 

So... I'm new here and little did I know that the week's challenges were all posted on Eskimimi Makes' blog. 
Duh and Blarg!
But don't worry folks. I'm catching on and can now prepare ahead of time. However, I only noticed this on Day 2 so here I am, scrambling to complete the challenge!


All day at work I was thinking about what my photography story could be. But I really had a hard time. My mind kept getting distracted by a few facts. 
One is that most things I've knitted have been gifts and no longer live in my home. 
The second was that the two items in my house I did knit were for my 1 year old daughter who does not sit still for the camera.
Thirdly, was that I would have about 2 hours of natural light before the kids had to go to bed, in the room where the last rays of light hit best in our house. And the first hour and a half of that is taken up by dinner and clean up. None of this would be a problem if I hadn't returned to work until next week but we can't be too picky I guess. 


Now have you had enough of listening to my excuses?
Here's my photo.
I started knitting for my kids so I wanted to show a picture linking the two.

How To Wind a Ball of Yarn

You know that moment when you've run out of the ball of yarn you're working with and don't have a new one wound and ready to go to continue?

Blarg!

My Coachella for the luvinthemommyhood KAL is coming along now. *happy dance* And yesterday in the middle of a great run (baby is napping) BAM. I came to the end of the ball.

My thoughts. "What? How the? oh right. Ach. I don't have time to hand wind a new ball the baby is going to wake by then!"

But what else are you going to do but get winding. Is that the proper term? I could Google™ it but I'm too lazy.

So I quickly wound one with my fancy 'spinner' and 'winder'.
Here's the set up.

You're jealous, aren't you?

Yarn Balloon Decorations Tutorial

There's a few tutorials out there on this and I had to do my own. Why? Because there were flaws or missing helpful info on the ones I found! And there's nothing more frustrating than being covered with wet glue and yarn and thinking "ooooooooh, THAT's what I should have done..."

You may remember that I had a DIY Sunday a couple weekends ago. I talked about making yarn balloons.
Here's the completed set and some Do's, Don'ts and how to apply good old Common Sense.

Basic list of what you need:
Yarn; worsted/medium/#4 is best (thinner than that and you'll be wrapping forever)
Glue; white craft
Balloons
Newspaper or other surface paper
Stirring device you don't mind getting gluey
Container to put glue in
Clothespins
Somewhere to hang them dry (have this ready to go!)

Have lots of glue. Don't plan on doing this with a small craft glue bottle. Unless you only want to do one. YES. I tried this. Because I'm slow like that eh?
So, have lots of glue. You will water it down slightly and this will help it get farther at least.
Prepare your surface and prepare to get messy and be cool about it.
I do not recommend doing this as a craft with your child. OR when they are around to be honest.


Because its so messy you might as well tackle them all in one go. But if you don't, just start by putting your glue/water mix in a container so that you can just pop a lid on it and use for the next round.

-Get your balloons blown up. Whatever size suits your fancy.
-Line up your yarns.
-Put paper down on surface. Lots of layers.
-Put a healthy amount of glue in the container and add some water. Not much. Enough to water it down but not take over. I probably used an eighth of the amount of glue I had.
-Again, I used a plastic container that had a lid so I could cover it later.
-Stir it up. I used a popsicle stick.
-Knot your yarn about 1/4 down from balloon knot. This allowed me to later cut a wee hole between the two knots in the balloon to allow a gradual drain.

Now for the yummy part!

-Get a good amount (but not too much that you cause yourself knot hell) of yarn out of the ball. I put it all in the glue in reverse. Yarn closest to the ball first so that once I pulled it out of the glue that was the part on the bottom. So get your yarn in the glue. And push it down so it gets good and wet. Don't forget to get glue all the way up to the the balloon!

Dipping the yarn a few yards at a time.

 -What I found best was to have a few yards ready and gluey to start wrapping. So from the above stage I would pull lengths of the yarn out of the glue with one hand while using my other hand squeeze the extra glue off the yarn. I have no images or video. Its tough when you're gluey. So hopefully your common sense can figure this out! Go slow. You can cause the yarn to twist on itself and knot. Boo. It really sucks when that happens.
-You see all that gluey wet mess to the left in the above photo? That's from previous yards of wet yarn. Anyway, start wrapping! Its wet, its messy, just GIVE'R. Hold the balloon knot and wrap wrap wrap. Go in the same direction while rotating the balloon. Then switch directions. At some point soon you will have to stop and get another few yards of yarn all gluey. If you have two people this would be a lot faster but otherwise just stop, put down your balloon carefully and get more yarn ready. Then get wrapping again! Wrap as much as you see fit. I found that I had not wrapped two of my balloons enough so I added more the next day since the balloon was still intact.
-Once you've wrapped a good amount around the balloon cut off your yarn and tie it off at the top again.
-Go directly to your drying station and hang it. If you haven't prepped it you're going to swear at yourself right about now!

Do not rush the drying. At least 24hrs.

 -Allow the balloons about 24hrs to dry. Touch all sides, especially the bottom, to see if its all dry. Trust me. You do not want to deflate the balloon prematurely! I found out the hard way after thinking it was dry.
-To deflate the balloon cut a slit in a slack part of the balloon neck. You remember when I told you to leave a spot between the balloon knot and the yarn knot? That's a perfect place. 
-Allow the balloon to deflate slowly. A big hole will cause the balloon to deflate fast and pull in the edges of your perfectly molded yarn! *sad face*
-This is a wonderful sound effects moment. As the balloon pulls away from the glued yarn the sound is a bit like popping corn!
-Once all deflated cut the balloon neck free completely. Pull the two pieces of balloon out gently. It'll fit out tiny crevices, just be gentle.
-Voila! 
-I hung mine with white thread as I didn't have any fishing line about.


I don't recommend wrapping the balloon with dry yarn and then brushing the glue on after, as some tutorials suggest. 

I did one like this and there was so much glue that when I let the air out of the balloon it pulled the yarn with it! I got a concave balloon. I've fixed it a bit but will have to redo. 

So here is our finished product.

See the lumpy green one on the left? Yup. Needs a redo.

I wanted something to dress up this plain wall.
I could also imagine doing a lot of mini ones and hanging them randomly around the room.
This was the paint colour of the room when we moved in. I ended up leaving it as it turned out a good colour for my son. And now my daughter shares the room. It works for them both and I think the colours I chose help bring some life to it all and keep it unisex!

 I was also trying to incorporate the print and hot air balloon on that wall. Both I just love.

I hope this was helpful!
I know I'll be doing more. For parties or Christmas Decos. 
Let me know if you attempt this!

My New 'Stash

After finishing the Yoke Sweater I really wanted to go out and get some new yarns. I have dishcloth yarn now so when I'm down a project I can at least get my fix off dishcloths... watch out friends and family!

But I needed a new project because I love knitting in the evenings while I/we watch a show and kids are in bed, very romantic.

 
Example:
The other night my fiance and I did the Harry Potter Deathly Hallows double bill. We were catching up on Part I just as a refresher, but I'd caught it on the movie network lately so didn't really need it. I asked him if he'd mind if I knit while we watched. He totally hesitated! Hahaha! Its the first time he's ever displayed any kind of opinion on the matter. Wow. In the end I think I knit a bit but then put it away. I think its the clicking of the needles... who wants that in a moment of suspense? Fine.

Back to the main plot here. I headed out to Michaels to get some yarn. We have amazing yarn stores downtown here but some days I just want some new action. And what I found this time, without chasing kids or the pressure of them waiting in the car with fiance, were some really gorgeous yarns. I had a hard time not going crazy.

Useful Information!
As Zellers disappears and Target comes in Michaels will be building their yarn selection to fill the gap. Target doesn't stock yarns so this is good news for Michaels shoppers! Plus I find the selection at Zellers weak anyway (sorry Zellers but its true). I got this info from an employee. And I'm spreading the good word of the Yarn Goddesses!

Here's what I got.
Never mind the dusty stairs. If I'd known that my camera would pick it up I'd have pledged but who has time for that when squeezing in photos with children underfoot?

75% wool, 25% nylon  LionBrand Sock-Ease - Rock Candy

I had no plans to make socks yet, but had to grab this anyway. Plus it was on sale.
I fell in love with the colour combo. These are the colours I love. All mixed together. If it includes the word description Avocado or Eggplant, I love it.

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Bernat Alpaca Natural Blends  70% Acrylic, 30% Alpaca - Lavender

 To clarify, yes its acrylic and I said no more, but its not 100% acrylic. And the colour and texture was too good to not grab. I have no idea what I'm going to knit with it so I grabbed 4 skeins because I roll like that.

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Lion Brand Nature's Choice 100% Organic Cotton - Olive

 This is the yarn I want to the new Yoke sweater in. Its so gorgeous. And more mustard than olive.

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Patons Silk Bamboo 70% Viscose from Bamboo 30% Silk - Coral

This is not as pink as it looks. Its really a fantastic soft coral, apparently THE colour of spring 2012. And I had a hard time not buying this up in every colour-way there! It was 40% off. And this is more of what you'll start seeing at Michaels. Natural fibres. I picked up 4 skeins, its Light/3, and so so soft. Ahhh... Again, no idea what I'll knit with it, but had to have it.

Don't worry I won't hit you with new stash every time but this is really my first lot. So I had to share the love.

Ravelry

As I'm a total nerd when it comes to... uhm... anything, I could not believe my New Knitting Nerd Goddess Luck when I came upon Ravelry.

Its a web site for those who enjoy the ancient art of knitting or crochet. Oh yes, I said it. Ancient Art! I mean, think about it, someone sat down, expanded on weaving, and started making cool stuff with their bare hands and looms. Then moving to sticks. Who did this? Maybe a community of women? One woman who wanted something more? Maybe she forced all the pre-teens to sit and fiddle until they came up with something close to what we know as knitting today? Maybe one of those kids came up with new and amazing ways to weave and twine on sticks and... and the matriarch took the credit! Oh the scandal.

And then, who said lets shave a sheep for wool and card it and rove it. Did I miss a huge step in there? It really is amazing that these ideas came from some creative and curious mind!

Anyway, I digress and you could probably just look it up on Wikipedia.
Ravelry is a way for knitters to join around the globe with their favourite patterns and yarns. To discuss problems and solutions. But what I like the best is it is a way to Catalogue your projects. You can Queue up projects that you plan on making. Or you can add Favourites just to oggle. Maybe those favourites will make it to your queue in the future. Add photos to your projects and a comment.

Maybe you have a ridiculous amount of yarn that you've collected from sales or it was just too yummy to pass up. But what do you do with it? You can look up all sorts of patterns to use up your yarn! I hope I get there one day. A stash of yarn all dying to be used. = )

In the meantime, visit my Ravelry page to see my one and only project listed there so far.

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