Paw Prints

My First Hat

Originally uploaded by Elaine with Grey Cats.

Inspired by these Minerva Yarns 1936 directions and the toasty experience of falling asleep with the santa cap on on Christmas Eve. Unfortunately, i added a seventh increase in the round fairly early on. I’ve tucked it in as a pleat in the back — a good technical experiment. The major lesson learned is to use stitch at every increase, not just the beginning of the “row.”

Were i to want to improve this a little more, rereading the instructions i find two rounds of no increases would be welcome as the final band on the beret.

There are a variety of places where my projects hang up. Printing could be one place where i short cut. My previous research is old, and just for postcards. Note, PRICES ROUNDED

vistaprint no longer has the free card offer. Looks like roughly $35 for 100 with color back. Still a nonstandard size: 5.47 x 4.21 Matching envelopes are available with return address imprint (100 @ $22.50, 50 @ $20, 30 @ $12) or blank (100 for $5).

http://www.psprint.com/printing_products/short_run_postcard_printing.asp offers a similar rate to for 4×6 postcards. No envelopes. Looks like A-6 is what they size that would fit 4×6 postcards and an Amazon search for “4×6 envelopes” turns up options.

cafepress.com: note cards 4.25″ X 5.5″ (20 @ $18, 10 @ $10), greeting cards 5″ X 7″ (10 @ $15, 20 @ $24)
6″ x 4″ postcards are .75 for a pack of 8 — vistaprint or cardstore is probably better

cardstore.com: 4¼x6 postcard 60c (100 for $60), 5×7 folded cards $2.50 (1-9), $2.00 (10-19), $1.50 (20-99) + CA tax
Zazzle.com is a little more expensive than cardstore on postcards, but probably more flexible (full color on both sides)

Apple iPhoto greeting cards are $2 each (1-24) which is better than cardstore, but not cafepress…..

printers, pod, print on demand

Crochet Cat "Patches" for DKB

Originally uploaded by Elaine with Grey Cats.

I challenged myself to get this done for my youngest nephew while travelling back east for a Yuletide visit. During take offs and landings, in the car as we drove around, and during some of the chats while visiting, i worked on this toy. He’s understuffed in the bottom, simply carelessness on my part. While inspired by the pattern at Crochet Me, the head and ears are different. The head has a little more shaping in reduction, i left off the legs (running out of time, there), and the ears are just one layer, triangles worked in a base ring. The ears *are* a bit big for the head! Yoda cat?

The two color work on the side turned out well, but i somehow didn’t manage such clear demarcation on the black head top.

Still, fun to get a project done while traveling. And it was a good pattern to work on while visiting with other folks.

Film shot at night

Originally uploaded by Elaine with Grey Cats.

So, the 24 shot roll of 400 speed film, mostly frames of Comet Holmes, was a complete and utter bust. Definitely under exposed. I look forward to trying again tonight with FAR longer exposures.

When i picked up the disappointment today, i also invested in some new toys: a Sima “QuicKonnect” platform to convert the very nice (but heavy) Slik tripod into the same sort of QuicKonnect head that the light (and somewhat short) Quataray tripod uses.

I also splurged and picked up another quick-release platform from Quantaray, with a bubble level. This will be a slight improvement for the Quantaray tripod.

I purchased a 12 exposure roll of Fujifilm Superia X-tra 800 ($2) and a six pack of 24 exposure rolls of Fujifilm Superia X-tra 400 ($10.50). I’ll try the roll of 12 tonight.

One lesson from last night: shoot an interior shot to get a first frame lined up.

Inspiration books arrived yesterday:

• Crochet Me: Designs to Fuel the Crochet Revolution
• Couture Crochet Workshop: Mastering Fit, Fashion, and Finesse
• Everyday Crochet: Wearable Designs Just for You

They’re all encouraging and daunting at the same time. My ambitions aren’t quite reflected in any of the books, but they’ll help, i hope.

Inspired yet conflicted, I ripped out most of one seam of the first dress that i’ll be altering by adding top down shell inserts as additional gores.

Later in the evening i found my acrylic palette that is designed to keep paint moist, found the block of palette paper, and cut a template to make the palette paper insert into the sealable palette. This was the second step in returning to smaller scale work. (Ooh, that sounds so much like i know what i’m doing.) The giant clipboard was the first step, making it easier to work away from the easel.

I did play a bit with tar gel media mixed with the fluid acrylics. I ended up with a strong “primary” color palette, and fiddled for a while. I also discovered that i had bought Colour Shapers a while back, and found those fun to use after smearing pain all over my hand.