Little bit of fame and alot of changes

Hi everyone, lovely to see you again!  Well,  it's been quite a week for little moi.

First off,  I had to make two purchases a portable light studio  and a tripod  then I had to get to grips with this big boy.
 

I paid a lot of money for the camera above when it first came out but I'm ashamed to say I've  never really grasped how to use it =(  I've always felt frustrated when I've tried to take photos with it, so the majority of the time it has lived in it's camera case.  Bad I know.

Whereas for this little guy:

Never out of my hand.  That was until  Monday of last week when I received not one but three emails about the bags and needle cases that I make. Once I'd picked myself up off the floor, panic set it.   The first email was from was from the lovely Linda who asked if it was okay to feature my bags or her blog here. The second email was from  KNIT magazine  to feature one of my project bags in a forthcoming edition. The third  email was from SEW Hip magazine  they will be featuring my Watermelon Needle Case in Issue 32 of their magazine yahoo!!  The magazines asked if I could send some High Resolution images to them-High Resolution what??????  So after panicking, Googling and sharing the news with the lovely people on the Knitting forum I'm a member of.  The lovely Christine came up with this brilliant blog Eskimimi Knits.  She has a wonderful, wonderful tutorial on how to get the best use out of your camera and of course, the all important lighting and setting up your photo shoot.

So an hour and a half later I was all set up, lighting studio in middle of front bedroom, lighting set up -two lamps from Ikea hahaha!  And my new tripod - which when I set up had one leg shorter than the other two, mmmmm!  And when I placed the camera on it, well it  was at an angle?????  I mean, I don't know much about photography but even I know the cameras meant to sit straight.  So after taking it back and exchanging it we were good to go.

  I'm soooo pleased with the results.  Took me a couple of hours, fiddling around with the settings and not cursing at the Olympus camera and this is what I produced-with the help of a little editing in Photoshop, of course.
 Taaaa-daaaa! 

Owl Pyramid Bag-Olympus Camera shot

Owl Pyramid Bag-Olympus Camera shot

Owl Pyramid Bag-Sony Camera shot

Russian Doll Bag -Olympus Camera

Russian Doll Bag -Olympus Camera

Russian Doll Bag -Sony Camera

Russian Doll Bag -Sony Camera

Russian Doll Abstract Bag-Olympus Camera

Russian Doll Abstract Bag-Sony Camera

Russian Doll Abstract Bag-Olympus Camera

 So my aim now is, to always try and take decent photos for my little blog. Lol!
 
Oh! And all the above bag designs are now available in my Folksy store =D.

Second Change:  The Tutorial-Knitting and Tutorial Crochet tabs at the top of my blog, are now active and 3 new pages are live in this, more will be added over the next couple of weeks. So be sure to check back regularly ;D

You may also have noticed another change- the appearance of my blog.  Whilst composing this post on Saturday I decided to take a step back from it and found it gave me a headache just looking at it.  Hahaha!  I deemed my blog to be too busy, trashy, with a lot of colour clashing, hence the reason I've simplified it.  I'm quite content with the look now, it's easier to manoeuvre around and less sickening to the eye. Lol!
Also, in the future if I want to change the look I plan on just substituting the background colour from blue to whatever takes my fancy-simples- hahaha!

Now for another change- I actually have some knitting to show on my  blog, yes the blog that's meant to be about knitting ;P

I currently have this on the needles:

Sunshine Cardi by Anni Howard

This design asks for 4ply yarn but I've had a pack of Rowan Calmer sitting in my stash forever and I was just itching to use it.

 
The colour I'm using isn't really a sunshine yellow in fact it reminds me of  Angel Delight pudding.  The shade is actually called Delight (489)  so I'm not far off with my description.

Now this  knit is either going to go really well or be a complete and utter disaster.  You see I hate swatching.  I hate it, hate it, hate it,  with a vengeance.  Swatching makes me want to scoop my eyes out with spoons- over the top, I know- but to be honest I've never, ever swatched a garment in my whole knitting life and I'm not about to start now and anyway I've always got away with it.  My Sunshine Cardi will probably be a complete disaster now after my rant. Lol!

Anyway!  I'm progressing along with this knit quite nicely and I'm thoroughly enjoying it.  The yarn is yummy and the pattern is interesting enough to stop me getting bored (I'm an impatient person at heart).
I have already completed the ribbing detail and advancing up the body of the cardi very fast.  I've taken it off the needles once and placed it on spare yarn to try around my body and I'm very pleased with the results so far.

Also off the needles is this:

Molly Ringwald by Michele Rose Orne

 Molly Ringwald knitted in Malabrigo yarn in coral

I love this top so much. It was fun to knit and the detail around the neck is so flattering.