A Photographic Journey.

Product photography for the nonprofessional is a challenge. Mastering the camera, the lighting, and the setting are all part of the process.

All year I've been pondering with what to do to change the look of my Etsy shop a bit. It was getting tiresome trying to always shoot against a plain white background. Since I am not a professional photographer, it was hard to control the lightening, for one thing, and it felt a little too sterile, for another.

So I decided to mix it up a bit. Yesterday I started taking some product shots in a more natural setting in one of our rooms. Here is an example:

This pink, pale yellow and cream scarf looks better against the pale salmon color of these walls than it did against pure white. Also, it's nice to have a few props in the photo.

Here's one of the previous photos that I just removed from the shop listing:

And here, to my embarrassment, is one of the first photos I took of this scarf:

What do you think. Is this progress? Got any good tips?

Fall Finished Goods & Last Chance for the Giveaway!

If you have not entered the drawing for the giveaway of two knit wraps, be sure to enter today before 9 p.m. PST (midnight on the East Coast.) I'll draw names and post a winner tomorrow.

You were promised some photos of the finished items from the last post, and here they are:

These bangles are the first batch of Autumn ones to come off my crochet hook. Fall colors are my favorites because they are intense and sensual. Can't wait to make more!

One can not rave enough about baby llama roving! It is way softer than a baby's butt. Most spinners would probably spin this up thinner, but I really wanted a super bulky yarn from it. The finished yarn is about 6 wraps per inch with only 85 yards from 7 ounces of  fiber. Although you cannot tell from the photo, it's thick and ropey--but unbelievably soft. It is destined to be paired with a lace weight yarn (yep, you heard right) in a luxurious winter scarf.

And finally, the Sangria Chevron Scarf:

If Missoni worked with bulky yarn, would they create something like this? I am not sure, but this scarf was inspired by them. It has eleven different yarns, six of which are my own bulky hand-spun color-twist yarns and five are solid-colored bulky commercial yarns. It's wildly bohemian, but super warm and cozy. 

Valerie just got back from her summer in Europe and had to try this scarf on immediately. There will be some photos of her next week. Boy did she have some adventures!

Summer Giveaway: Vegan Knitted Wraps

What do you say--better late than never? Finally, the summer giveaway is happening.

(The giveaway rules are at the end of the post. As usual, the more you help spread the word, the more entries you get in the drawing.)

This year the annual summer giveaway features the first two of a series of wraps I made last month with the assistance of a trusty knitting machine. The knitting machine can be meditative and stress reducing only after you spend countless stressful hours learning how to use it. Underscore the word countless! Thankfully I took those classes last winter. They really helped.

This first wrap is knit from a 100% acrylic bouclé thread. It was a straightforward project which only required hand manipulation in creating the long columns of dropped stitches.

Since each column of stitches is formed by a different latch hook, you can go across a row and release the stitches from your selected hooks and then tug on the fabric to drop the stitches in that column. You want to do this every 10-20 rows to make it easier to unravel the column.

This wrap is six feet long and 16 inches wide. It is light and breezy. Perfect for a late summer or early autumn evening.

The next wrap in the giveaway was my second project in the series. Having previously hand knit a fine silk bouclé Clapotis and having spent an ungodly number of hours at it, I was wondering if I could make a passably similar item on the machine in less time.

This is the result:

This is a bias-knit dropped stitch wrap created out of a loose 3-ply 100% rayon yarn. It has crêpe texture and beautiful drape. It is 70 inches long and 13 inches wide. It works well both as a wrap and as an oversized scarf.

This yummy wrap took more hand manipulation on the machine because it required you to not only drop stitches, but also to increase and/or decrease on each edge every other row. (EOR in machine knitting parlance.)

A difference between this item and a hand-knit Clapotis is that in the original design by Kate Gilbert, you twist the knit stitches on either side of the dropped stitch. This helps keep the stitches on either side of the drop column from migrating into the drop space. One would never ever twist all those stitches by hand on the machine because it would defeat the whole purpose of making it in this time-saving way.

I was able to make this in 7-8 hours--a 90% savings of invested time, so the heck with those twisted stitches. Oh, and I blocked it, which I might not have done with wool, but the rayon cried for it.

One of these vegan wraps could be yours if you:

• Leave a comment below. Be sure to say which of the two items is your favorite in case your name is drawn first. If your name is drawn second, you might receive the other one.
• Tell me in your comment that you are a blog follower for a second entry in the drawing.
• Tweet about the giveaway, post about it on Facebook, or do a blog post about it and link back to this post and tell me in the comments for additional entries.

I'll draw the winning entries on Labor Day. Good luck!

Bring on the Cold Weather!

This time of year it's fun to bring out all your lovely knit goodies from storage. I just love feeling all snugly in a special scarf, sweater or winter hat.

Coming to the shop soon is this extra snugly scarf, called "Wine Bars". It is knit up from two different yarns in a traditional pattern done in a modern way. The wine bars are knit from a soft commercial yarn that is a wool/acrylic blend. The lighter garnet stripes are of my own handspun bulky 2-ply yarn. This particular scarf has a lot of heft and will really keep you warm.

Press! ... and Roses

All the staff, Valerie, Amelie, Samba, and the midgets, were so excited that they threw a big old party last night to celebrate. They were all wandering around bleary-eyed this morning. 


The occasion? Knot-Cha-Chá!™ has received some press over at the Lillyella blog because Brenda, of Phydeaux Designs fame, interviewed me for the blog's regular feature, "On Top of Your Day Job." In the interview I reveal so much more about my nefarious past than I do here on this blog. 


The Lillyella blog is a great spot to read about fashion, food, home decor, and handmade goodies. Be sure to go check it out.


Meanwhile, I'm still busy reshooting photos of inventory in the shop, like this hand-knit OOAK art scarf that I knit from my own handspun yarn.

The Rose Trellis Scarf

Yam Blossom Special

Yummy yammy color on my new blossoming scarf for fall:

More photos and info

New in the Shop for Fall

Lightweight, colorful, and flirty crocheted scarves from my hands, hooks, and spinning wheel:

Flirty Wine and Blueberry Crocheted Scarf

Sunset Homespun Crochet Scarf

Flirty Gems Crocheted Scarf

Flowers on the Bias Scarf

Who said you couldn't wear flowers in the fall? This crocheted raspberry scarf has a bunch of them on both edges of both ends and on both sides. The patch of wild flowers outside my window inspired me.

Flirty Little Lynx Scarf

It's crunch time. Fall and winter swiftly approach. Customers will need hats, scarves, and neckwarmers, so my fingers have been busy.

I've been producing some lighter-weight crocheted scarves for Fall. This soft and drapey one is in the colors of a lynx.

A New Take on Thread Crochet

I've been working on a series of thread crocheted scaves. Here's one I distressed to make a raggedy texture:

There is more to come...stay tuned.


*****

Brown Sugar Scarf

All dry and freed from the blocking table is this rockin' continental rib scarf. Just in time to take to tonight's guild meeting for show and tell!

Sweet Tart Scarf, Berry Cobbler Cowl, and Friend

First, an apology for not blogging as frequently this past month. Things in the studio have gotten intense in preparation for the holiday season on Etsy.

Valerie and I have been working hard to get things finished, priced, photographed, described, tagged, and listed on Etsy. Valerie's part is fairly easy. She just needs to sit around and look pretty while wearing things.

Well, that's not entirely true. She keeps me company and tells good jokes to keep me amused while I work.




Right now some things, like the items in this post, have had their photos taken and await descriptions to be written. I should also credit Valerie here for always having good suggestions about the written copy for product descriptions and being so good at coming up with names for things.

The first scarf is the Sweet Tart Scarf, so named because its colors are reminiscent of those yummy tart candies.

The second item is the Berry Cobbler Cowl. (You saw the commerical eyelash yarn and my hand-spun yarn in the last post.)




Valerie really loved wearing this one because it's so soft and cushy.



The cowl is long enough to wrap around your neck twice for extra warmth.

The final item doesn't have a clever name yet. Neither Valerie nor I can think of a good one because we are almost brain dead right now. It's crocheted from my lavender hand spun.


If you have a name suggestion, we'd love to hear it!

Photo Session Slog

Last week was devoted to hand washing and blocking finished goods that need to be photographed, have their descriptions written, and then listed on Etsy. Why does this take so much time, you may ask. Mostly because I am a total tard when it comes to taking photos.

This weekend has been devoted to photo shoots. My head model, Valerie, and I have been busy at work. Amelie, my inner assistant, could not keep the studio organized amidst the frenzy, and when last I saw her yesterday evening she was sitting in the corner crying.

Have I mentioned how tiresome it is shooting product photos? How frustrating? How time consuming?

Yes, you see some pretty pictures here on the blog. Yes, I have come a long way. But what you don't see, in the hundreds of photos that get deleted, is the sludge. A girl has her pride.

Hats are pretty easy to photograph because Valerie is such an attractive head model. Shawls and scarves are killer difficult, though. We don't really have a great spot in the house for shooting on a dress form. Any places where there is a blank, uncluttered, lighted-colored wall is drenched in yellow light if the sun is out and dreary as crazy when it's raining. When the light has been ideally overcast recently, I've been hard at work at my day job.

My dream is to eventually set up an actual photo-shoot spot in the daylight basement using a backdrop with a better dress form or a mannequin. But that will involve cleaning out a truly gross storage room and will have to wait until after the holidays.

During the day on Friday and yesterday, I shot lots of photos of scarves, almost all of which were useless with bad draping and horrible color quality even though I have learned how to adjust the white balance meter in my camera.

Where I do have luck is in using my light box, but the dress form won't fit in it, of course.

Valerie is the one who thought of letting her model some scarfs. The idea had some limitations, but we tried it.


The photos in the first batch were mostly pretty good. So we tried some more. The next photo is actually a cowl. You should see how bad the photos had been on the dress form.


This cowl was made from some mohair/wool/acrylic/rayon bouclé that was rescued from a wrap with a rip in it. I'm guessing at the fiber content.

Here is the finished rose lattice scarf which you saw in progress here.



Valerie really had fun with this scarf, and had to try it ever so many ways.


When we got to the point of shooting this last photo, though, I knew it was time to quit.



It was late and we were both pretty rummy. I waited until today to photograph purses. Don't get me started on what a challenge that is!

Finished Scarves

There's nothing like a new scarf to keep your neck warm when you have a sore throat. The first two scarves are for me and were samples for ideas for next fall.

This first scarf is a combination of some sock yarn, some strands of fingering weight wool/rayon, and some nylon eyelash yarn. Mostly what I was going for was depth of color and the working out of a ribbed self-tying pattern. It is very warm and sensual to wear. I'm going to explore the eyelash yarn some more, even though some would probably think its novelty is passé.

The next scarf was an exploration of using Socks That Rock for something other than socks because really I may have already knit as many socks as I really want to--other than the ones from the recycled Liz Claiborne sweater.

This scarf was knit with a double strand of medium weight STR in a ridged rib design. Here's another way to wear it:

Finally, there is the ruffled scarf. I had been wanting to try one of these for a while.

This one is made with Lion Brand Ruffles and also a DK weight wool/silk yarn. It is totally fun to wear and is very warm. This one might end up in the shop. Haven't decided. Depends on how long the sore throat lasts.

Scarf it Up! It's Cold Outside!

There's nothing like cold weather to make my fingers twitch to knit scarves!

TEAL

This week has been scarf week around my studio. This teal scarf is one of my favorites because it's so cushy warm and soft. Some great squishiness resulted from the combination of seed stitch bands and ribbing sections along with the airyness created by knitting with unplied multiple strands.

It was knit with 4 strands of fiber held together: two strands of a teal/teal metallic fingering weight rayon/polyester yarn, one strand of a teal 90/10 acrylic/nylon DK weight yarn, and one strand of polyester eyelash yarn in teal and copper.

It feels so yummy, I don't know if I'll sell it in the store or keep it for a pet.

FUSHIA

This next scarf was actually knit out of the last thing you might think of for a scarf: Plymouth Wildflower DK (51% cotton; 49% acrylic). I thought it might be nice for someone who was allergic to wool. It's a 7-foot, skinny, tube scarf and was knit entirely on a Clover 22 cm (8½") plastic mini-circular needle.

Each piece of fringe has hand-knotted beads worked near the end. (Yes, I had a lot more time on my hands before I started this business.)

DIJON

In the blog post from this past Tuesday, there was a photo of the first half of the next scarf. The last half of the scarf was knit in a totally different pattern.

This Dijon-colored scarf was very fun to do because both of the stitch patterns were total improvisations. Creating swatches of dropped stitch and elongated stitch patterns has filled my play time recently, and this scarf shows me getting carried away with texture.

The yarn for this scarf is Jo Sharp's Silk Road Ultra, a wool/silk/cashmere blend. It has a soft hand and produces great stitch definition.

One half of the scarf is a play with a dropped garter stitch pattern and the other half is an elongated seed stitch pattern.

Valerie insisted that her neck was cold so I let her wear it for a while. She liked the softness of the yarn against her composite material.

RUST

Last night, out of the blue, the urge to crochet a scarf hit me. I crochet a lot for bags, but haven't used this technique for a scarf for a very long while. Probably because I crocheted too many scarves "back in the day". Here's last night's swatch:

This stitch pattern is called "Asymmetrical Shell" in Donna Kooler's Encyclopedia of Crochet, which is a great book, (along with her Encyclopedia of Knitting).

The scarf is being crocheted out of

• two strands of "Baby" a lace weight, handpainted, superfine Australian merino yarn in a beautiful cinnamon colorway by Dream in Color, and
  
• one strand of Nashua Handknits "Creative Focus Worsted" a 75/25 wool/alpaca blend in the color rust.

Wow! This color combination looks good against my skin! I may have to sell the teal scarf and keep this one instead.

Free Pattern for Oregon Summer Beach Scarf

This post contains a free pattern for the Oregon Summer Beach Scarf which is based on a stitch pattern described by Barbara Walker, in A Treasury of Knitting Patterns, as the right diagonal version of "Diagonal Faggotting Stripe Pattern." The pattern is suitable for advanced beginners.

The yarn used in the model, from Yarnia in Portland, OR, is a fingering/sock weight yarn composed of three untwisted strands of different fibers. You can order online from their website. You'll want to buy 6 oz. of fingering/sock weight composed of cotton combined with rayon, linen, or silk. For more on the yarn and a close-up photo see my previous post.

Before I provide the link for the free PDF file, I want to say a little bit about knitting pattern instructions and my goal when providing patterns for my designs.

Historically, pattern instructions have been composed primarily of written words which are given in row-by -row instructions. Usually the author or publisher is nice enough to begin the instruction for each row of knitting on a separate line of type so you can follow along using a ruler or a sticky note.

At other times, the row-by-row instructions are all bunched together in paragraphs with little regard for presenting the knitter with a page layout which would aid in following the instructions. For me, a non-auditory learner, this is the printed equivalent of a lecture. All the information is there, but it's difficult, or at least time-consuming, to grasp if your primary learning mode is visual.

Many designers now give a visual chart of the pattern motif that shows one repeat of the stitch pattern and the beginning and end-of-row stitches. This is a better approach to only giving us visual learners written instructions. The Oregon Summer Beach Scarf has a 10-stitch x 20 row repeat and a total of 12 stitches making up the beginning and end stitches. Here is what the single motif graph would like:

What I would really like to see as the knitter trying to make this scarf, though, is more of the pattern graphed. Seeing several motifs side by side would help me to grasp the repeat and how it flows in the finished item. The repeat between the two vertical, colored bars of the stitch pattern can be inserted in the graph any number of times. Below is what the graph looks like when the repeat is duplicated the same the number of times that it is used in the 52-stitch-wide scarf.

Isn't that better? In this graph you can more clearly see where you're headed as the knitter.

Let's go one step further and think about the repeat as it feels to the knitter in action. The repeat is not what appears between the two vertical bars, which in Chart A changes on every row.

The repeat is the sequence of stitches "(K2tog, YO) twice, K6". Looked at this way, the repeat is not vertical, but diagonal. Showing only one "repeat" as in Chart A is barely adequate and asks me to think harder than I want while also watching TV or a baseball game. In the knitting grid which follows, the repeats are color-coded alternately pale green and tan so that you can more easily see the repeating element as you knit the pattern.

In the free PDF pattern for the Oregon Summer Beach Scarf the chart is colored in the same way. I hope you like it.

Two additional pattern notes:

• The knitting graph and all of the written instructions appear on the same page.
  
• There is a progress box in the lower right corner of the page where you can keep track of how far along you are in the pattern by making a check mark every time you complete one 20-row repeat.

If you make this scarf, let me know if you liked the pattern layout or whether you think it could be improved somehow. Your feedback will help me with my goal of providing future instructions in ways that best benefits knitters.