Monday Musings

Today marks the end of third quarter and, as I usually do at the end of the month/quarter/year, I reflected on the things I wanted to accomplish and checked where I was in relationship to them.

One of the things I have been failing at is social media!

So I am dusting off the "editorial" calendar and doing the thing I tell other people to do...Be deliberate, but just do it already!

In today's Mondays Musings...

How deep do you like a cozy cowl?

Do you like it just deep enough to cover your neck, like this one from Lilinette Crochet?

 Or do you prefer on that can  fall into graceful folds and become even more cozy, or give you the option of pulling it up and over your ears?  Like my Just So Stories or even a bit deeper?

Leave me a comment and let me know which you like! 

In the meantime I think I can get two or three more repeats in this one, with the yarn I have!

If I am deliberate, and just do it already...see ya Wednesday for a WIP roundup!

~M

It was Photo Shoot Weekend- Silent Sunday

~M

The Yarn Wants What The Yarn Wants

A few weeks ago I picked up some yarn, with a plan in mind for it. 

Rainbow self striping yarn that would start as a mitered square...

To be paired with some solid tonals to create a scarf..

While I was knitting that first square...the center stitch kept whispering to me.  It whispered of adventures it longed to take, walks along winding paths leading...somewhere.

And the yarn...it flat out refused to be paired with a tonal.

So for once...I am letting the yarn take control...that center stitch is winding its way, from edge to edge and while I was at Wool Gathering I bought a different rainbow yarn to become a large scarf.

I suppose there is a life lesson in there somewhere...no matter how much you might want something to be one way, there is always the possibility that something else will pull and push you in  different directions.

"You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometimes, well, you might findYou get what you need."

 

~M

Wool Gathering

A day in pictures....

I wish I could be silent

But as I can't...and as...what ever I have to say will fall on deaf ears...

I guess we are back to...

Silence....

Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence

In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone
'Neath the halo of a street lamp
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence

And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never share
No one dared
Disturb the sound of silence

"Fools" said I, "You do not know
Silence like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you"
But my words like silent raindrops fell
And echoed in the wells of silence

And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming

And the sign said, "The words of the prophets
Are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls"
And whispered in the sounds of silence

A WIP Friday

While it has been a short work week in my neck of the woods, time is still getting away from me!

It hit me that it is September already and nearly time to do my own quarterly check in on how I am progressing on the goals I set for myself way back in January, and revisited and tweaked in both April and June!

Each year there is one "big" goal on my list.  Like that scrappy, mitered sock yarn blanket that you pick up every now and then, or every Sunday, and put a few more yards into; that goal lurks in the corner, nudging me every now and then to do a little towards it, then it gets shoved back in the corner until the next time I start feeling a bit guilty about it!

I should feel a lot more guilty about it because this goal has been on my list every year for a couple of years now.

So this week I pulled out my camera...

Wait!  You thought my goal was about knitting?

No.

About improving my photography!

I have taken a couple of webinar style classes and read lots of blogs and tips/tricks, even subscribed to some "improve your photography in 7 steps" type email lists.  I got a few tips and tricks from each one but none of them really covered what I wanted/needed...how to take good photos of my knitting!

Luckily for me, and soon for you if you want to take really nice finished object photos to share with your family/friends or on Ravelry...someone came to my rescue!

In January, AbbyeKnits on Ravelry invited me to give input into a course she was developing about taking exactly the kind of pictures I wanted to be better at taking!  With tips and tricks for capturing the texture of cables, the airiness of lace and the true color of my pieces.

Recently Abbye contacted me to say that the course she was developing is ready to be published and offered to let me get a preview before its release on September 10th, 2019.  I jumped at the chance, wouldn't you?

The fully developed course is much more than I expected and includes a members only area that has 6 behind the scenes videos showing how to capture those images and 5 demonstrating how to edit your photos in PhotoShop, Lightroom and Instagram in addition to the superbly written pdf!

Want a preview?

While I am still working on my photography, and I am sure that continuing to improve will be on my goal list again next year...this course has given me lots of techniques to apply to my next photoshoot. (And now I know where the light should be coming from to make those cables pop, the texture stand out and the picture show off what I want it to show off...the knitwear!)

You can sign up now for Abbye's newsletter and  be among the first to know when the course is available for purchase!

Now I am off to take some pictures!

What are your weekend plans?

~M