I'm pleased to announce my triumphant return to photo-taking!

So yesterday I finally snagged my new camera. It was $10 off, and it was the last one they had in stock, too. Everything was coming up Milhouse! I got a Nikon Coolpix S210. Like a good little Capricorn I read the manual last night and played with it a little today. There's a ton of modes and settings and options, but thankfully it's pretty easy to just click-flash-here-have-a-photo. In light of that, I went around my apartment experimenting and taking better pictures of some old projects I've already posted. First, the old stuff:

Here are those photograms I did in my art class and hung on my wall back in September. It was probably a little too hasty - I didn't mount them very well and they're kind of wrinkly and un-smooth. Oh well.







Here's that collage I mentioned that I made out of CD liner notes, currently on my bedroom wall:



And here are some shots of that ink drawing I posted way back at the beginning of the blog, when I had to use the camera on my Macbook. I started it in Gaspé in the August of 2007 and finished it over the next few months. You can probably see the words I based it around.



"Must not sleep,"



"must warn others."



The words are from "Commencement at the Obedience Academy", by Aesop Rock.

And now the new stuff:

This is what Kyle painted when we took my new acrylics for a test run. He very graciously let me hang it on my wall. I particularly like the funny 70s sunset at the top and the little round window-y part underneath it. The colours are more vivid in person, it was just bright in my apartment when I took the photo.



Here's a necklace that I don't think I've posted yet. I bought a bracelet at H&M that had these great little origami crane charms, but I never wore it because the charms were always clinking on my desk while I wrote and it drove me crazy. So I got a length of chain and some jump rings and made this lariat necklace. I still don't really wear it, but it's more because I haven't figured out the best way to put it on. I might turn it into a regular necklace eventually.



This is my first attempt at a tuxedo t-shirt for my brother (see last post). It failed. I guess it's a little punk rock, what with the splatters of bleach and fuzzy design, but, well, eh. I kept it to sleep in. It's huge.



Here's a top I made last summer from an idea in a book on refashioning old clothes. I had this ugly, paint-y Episode I t-shirt that was too big, so I made it into not-quite-halter-ish tank top. It's really comfortable and it looks awesome under a cardigan. I just wish it wasn't Episode I.



And this is a Presidents of the United States of America t-shirt that was also way too big. Again, I followed a pattern (if you can call it that) from the same book, but I'm not really crazy about how it turned out. The front doesn't drape very well, though I like how I tied the straps.



I'm not sure why this shot went all crazy glowing coals red, maybe it was the sun and the combination of red shirt on red sheet. Anyway, if you can't see, I cut the back up the middle, cut strips into both sides, then tied the strips into knots. Neat idea, but I didn't really measure, so the two sides aren't even, and also it looks kind of funny when I put it on. Maybe some wear and tear and lots of washing would soften the shirt up, I don't know.



Anyway, there's a Whole Whack O'Photos. I'm hoping to get the rest of my Noro yarn soon, so maybe I'll have some knitting to show off.

Oh, I almost forgot. This is two of the four balls of Noro Silk Garden that I need for the scarf. It's very pretty.

My first knitted thing - and a drawing

So I neglected this blog pretty consistently since early May, partly because I have no digital camera, and partly because I was waiting for my preciousssss sewing machine (which still isn't fixed). 

But recently I decided to take up knitting, and I've gone hog-wild (in terms of enthusiasm, not productivity). I even joined Ravelry, where I've enthusiastically made up a list of projects that are still way out of my (enthusiastic) league. In any case, today I finished my first knitted thing, a purple scarf. I forget the brand of wool, but it's a pretty basic not-too-chunky kind of thing. I promise to read the labels more in the future. Anyway, because I still have no digital camera I took some photos with my Macbook. They're not going to win any Pulitzers, but since this is ostensibly a blog that's mostly for my own records, that should be okay.

Here it is. It turned out pretty evenly, the only holes, mistakes and general wonkiness came toward the beginning when I was still learning. I did a few accidental yarnovers and added two stitches (I originally intended to have only twenty, but that changed after only a few rows!), but really I'm very pleased. The only thing left is to add fringe, although I'm out of the yarn. 

Interesting note: I taught myself the basic using the videos on knittinghelp.com, where I chose continental over English because it was the easiest for me to follow. This amazed both my grandmothers and my friend, who all knit English. I've gone through the English style quickly now, and it's hard! One of my grandmothers is adamant that I won't be able to follow patterns knitting continental, but I haven't quite reached that point yet.

 

In other knitting related news, my mom dug out this garbage bag full of yarn that was sitting in the attic. The highlights are several balls of these colours, which don't look so crazy on my Macbook camera, but let me assure you, they are of the most DayGlo-ingly neon persuasion. Like the colours we used to wear before we cared about clothes. I'm not sure yet what to do with it... I might use one of the colours for the fringe on my purple scarf... but I have to wait for the perfect idea. These colours are too incredible to be wasted.

The other thing I have to show off is this. Apologies for the reflection. It's an ink drawing that I started last summer while in Gaspe, but put off for awhile. I finally finished it a few weeks ago. I took an art class a couple of semesters ago and a girl there was doing these drawings, really intricate, lots of little shapes and designs, and she just sort of did it and let the final shape form itself. This is inspired by her stuff. The photo is reversed, but if you look closely you might see the words "Must not sleep, must warn others", taken from Commencement at the Obedience Academy by Aesop Rock. The letters formed a sort of framework and I went from there. It was fun, very soothing. Plus, it looks really neat. I hope I can post a nicer photo sometime.

Coming soon, maybe: I really want to get into screen printing. The build-it-yourself tutorials seems pretty daunting, though, and I'm the type of person who really likes to get a preassembled kit for the first time I try something, just so I can get a feel for it. Problem is, screen printing kits run about $60 and I've heard that they're not such good quality anyway. I might make a foray into Omer Deserres and see what they have, but I may end up attempting to build my own screen. Either way, I'll be documenting the results, for better or for worse.