Episode 13 - Bunny Pox

In this episode I talk knitting, favorite "new to me" podcasts, keeping toddlers busy, and posing tips in photography.

• Knitting Butterflies Ravelry Group
• Instagram: butterflyem4
• Ravelry Page: EmilyStraw

Clicking Away:

• Anne's Sweater from Green Gables Knits by Joanna Johnson, knit in Brown Sheep Company Lanaloft Sport
• Mermaid Song Shawl by Susanna IC in the Unofficial Harry Potter Knits, knit in Knitpicks Shadow Tonal in Summer Blossom
• 20% Cooler Socks, Jeck pattern by Regina Satta in Rainbow Dash Yarn from Cuppy Cake Yarnz
• Rainbow Ripples Baby Blanket in I Love This Yarn

I Dream of Knitting

• This episode I play along with the Prairie Girls Knit and Spin podcast and think about what I would do if I won the lottery.

Podcasts I have been listening to:

The Knit Wits Podcast
Must Stash Podcast
ACTually Knitting
Knit.fm


Countdown to 30?
The countdown to 30 is over, but I had a great birthday!

• I treated myself at the Loopy Ewe and purchased some Blue Skies Over Colorado sock yarn and Prism Yarns for a lace shawl.

• I used a Busy Bag to keep my kiddos happy during a trip to the DMV.

Photographing Your Knits:

I recently watched a course on Creative Live by Lindsay Adler called Posing 101. Here are a couple of takeaways I wanted to share with you:

• Objects closer to the camera are larger than objects farther from the camera. Example: hips closer to the camera are going to appear larger than hips farther from the camera.
• When appendages point toward or away from the camera, a phenomenon called foreshortening occurs. This makes your limbs look shorter and thicker, and less flattering.

In this photo, I needed to pull my shoulders forward more and put my limbs out at an angle from the camera. This photo has some critical technical errors in posing which is why it's not terribly flattering. Redoing some posing will help greatly, I hope to demonstrate this soon!

Stressed...

It's 2:30 in the morning. I'm incredibly stressed and can't sleep.

I feel like I'm a terrible artist.

I end up comparing my work with other photographers all the time and keep coming up short.

My town is too small, and circles keep overlapping and I'm not incredibly okay with it sometimes.

After I get frustrated with the above, I want to smack myself because I feel like I'm acting like a 12 year old middle school girl.

I'm finding myself angry and frustrated with people a lot, and I've been cutting off some ends recently. Then I feel like I'm being judgmental and negative and that I just need to get over it and be nice again. Then I have the middle school girl situation all over again.

It's so expensive to run a business legally (location permits, liability insurance, etc.) and I'm getting down hearted trying to figure out how to make those expenses get paid for.

Truthfully, in my circles right now, I feel like the sloppy seconds.

Episode 12 - Frog Pond Birthdays

In this episode, I have frogged and reknit several projects, celebrated my 30th birthday, and given advice on purchasing a new camera.

• Knitting Butterflies Ravelry Group
• Instagram: butterflyem4
• Ravelry Page: EmilyStraw

Clicking Away:

- I am reworking my 20% Cooler socks using the Jeck Pattern instead of the Collywobbles pattern. I had this pattern recommended to me by Lynn at the Loopy Ewe, along with Chiagoo needles. I have started knitting at the gym like Sarah from In a Sknit.

-I'm currently working very hard on my Anne's Sweater by Joanna Johnson in Green Gables Knits, using Brown Sheep Company's Lanaloft Sport. I tried adding back darts a la Amy Herzog's class Knit to Flatter, then decided it was too small. I frogged back to where the decreases begin and started over.

- I'm also working on my Mermaid Song shawl by Susanna IC in the Unofficial Harry Potter Knits, though I restarted it in Knit Picks Shadow and I have decided I love knitting lace.

Countdown to 30

- I celebrated my 30th birthday with friends at a Paint and Sip place in my hometown, it was a blast! Please share your advice and stories from transitioning into your 30's, I have lots of listeners with great experiences I would love to hear all about.

I Dream of Knitting

I have made two ponies by the Nerdy Knitter, if time and practicality were not an issue I would totally crochet ALL of her designs. She is an amazing designer!

Photographing Your Knits

-Tips for this week: What ever camera you have, learn how to use it well.

I love classes from:

Improve Photography website and podcast

Creative Live

Photo Biz X-Posed podcast

What I use:

Nikon D5200 24.1 MP CMOS Digital SLR with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 AF-S DX VR NIKKOR Zoom Lens (Black) (refurbished, purchased at B&H.com)

Adobe Creative Cloud for editing (Photoshop and Lightroom)

Nikon 50mm f/1.8G AF-S NIKKOR FX Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras

I used to use a Nikon D60

-I share my philosophy on investing in high ticket items, specifically about purchasing a new camera. The concepts can easily be applied to any high ticket item though, such as spinning wheels, sewing machines, and even knitting needles. Instead of spending an entire budget on the most expensive piece of equipment you can afford, go one step down and use the rest of the budget on classes to learn to use your equipment properly.

You can find used and refurbished camera equipment from:

KEH.com

B&Hphoto.com

Adorama.com