What I Did Today

Or - the Real Life of a Knitwear Designer

1. Tried to get a scalloped edge on my new pattern schematic. Yes, it probably would have been ok to just leave it as a curve, but I wanted the edge to be scalloped like the shawl is. I have been using OpenOffice Draw - but apparently scallops aren’t supported.
2. Researched how to do this in paint.net, the other photo editing software I've been learning. By the way, it's slightly less difficult in Paint than in Draw. (i.e. Impossible) 
3. Figured out I’ll have to start working with yet another new program, Inkscape or Gimp - they are less intuitive (at least to start) but more powerful - researched which is best for vector schematics. (Inkscape in case you are wondering). 
4. Figured out how to redraw entire schematic using Inkscape tools. Did find out that there is better tutorials and information available for Inkscape. Cool.
   Also, that when you're creating vector graphics a "line" is too boring so now everything is called a "path."  I'm not sure if this has a purpose yet, or if it's just to be confusing to the new user.
5. Figured out how to get scalloped edge. 
6. Completed schematic for new pattern! 
7. Completed pattern entry in Ravelry database. 
8. Created pdf file of new pattern - oops, noticed weird formatting. 
9. Created pdf file of new pattern - oops, noticed that I forgot to include yarn fiber content. 
   
10. Created pdf file of new pattern - yay! no issues!
11. Created pattern draft entry so it's ready to go when I am.

Actual knitting? 0.

Background Noise

I do have a goal of posting here at least once a week. I actually have a lot of ideas running through my head but then they never seem to get transferred into the blog. Right now, I'm thinking a lot about how I want the site to look, what information I want to include and how to give it the feel that I'd like it to have.

You think this would be easy but it's really a lot to think about - at least for me.

However, even posting once a month is a big step up from where I was so I'll count it as baby steps.

There hasn't been a lot of knitting/designing in the last week. I've been doing a lot of researching on how to photograph knit items so they not only look amazing, but show what a person who might be considering the pattern needs to see to decide if the pattern is what they want.

This pdf, www.conradhoffman.com/photographing_your_knitting.pdf, turned out to be a great piece of information on the nuts and bolts of creating a photographers studio on a budget. The most helpful thing I found in this document was that he included pictures of both the photo set-up and the final polished copy. It was a great look into the process.

This post; www.dull-roar.com/2012/01/7-tacky-sins-of-pattern-photography.html also had some good tips - although be aware there is some swearing and a knit object that was definitely inappropriate although I found it really funny.

So, after my admittedly non-scientific research, I went out yesterday and got a tripod from  (which was less expensive than I was expecting) from Mike's Camera. The guy who helped me was really helpful in talking to me about the different tripods and what options were. What I found out is that it's a lot better to get a ball-joint on the top as then you can swivel your camera around in any configuration you want.  So now you know.

I also purchased some lights from Lowe's and some felt in black, white and gray from Jo-Ann's. I decided on the felt because:
(a) it was non-reflective
(b) it doesn't crease or wrinkle
(c) it was cheap! Which was a nice bonus.

So, if I can get all of this stuff working together, I fully expect that I should be able to produce photos that will stun and amaze the viewer (or at least show clearly what the end result of the pattern should look like).

A Walk at Heather Farms

A couple of years ago I got interested in drought tolerant gardens. I'd just bought a house and it had no sprinkler system. In the Bay Area it rains a lot in the winter and not at all in the summer. I decided that I didn't want a lawn, too much watering, mowing and general work. Besides that, what I had was more than half weeds anyway.

I wanted a garden that was full of plants that didn't need to be watered in the summer. So I found out there's many native plants in California that are really great looking and don't need summer water and, in fact, will die if you water them. My whole front yard has been converted into a garden at this point and right now, since California's growing season is January through April - I'm working on getting rid of the rampant weeds that are trying to take over.

 So, a week or so ago I went to Heather Farms Park to see what was going on in their garden. I guess I was a little impatient, because the garden was still mostly dormant, but I did take a few pictures of the manzanita branches. Manzanita only grows on the west coast and most varieties have twisted branches with smooth red bark.
 
This variety is Vine Hill Manzanita.

Even though most of the garden was still sleeping, the narcissus was in bloom as the earliest flower of spring.

Patterns for Sale

I had a goal of having at least one post on this blog per month but I guess something happened in December. Oh yeah, that little thing called Christmas including visits to family, way too much fattening food (of which I enjoyed every bite) and other holiday things. I actually did a lot of Christmas knitting this year and so I am feeling a bit deprived of personal knitting time.

Anyway. I've been working on getting my patterns available to be purchased from this blog but it has turned out to be a more challenging project than I was planning on. I wanted to be able to announce that my patterns were for sale but instead it appears I will have to announce that I am working on having them for sale through my blog.

However, if you want to purchase one of my patterns they are available on Ravelry . If you go to the site, you will need to create a login name but once you have done that choose patterns from the tabs on top and search for Shellee's Artworks. That should pull up my patterns and you can then purchase with Paypal.

In the meantime, I will continue to work on getting patterns available through direct links on this site as well.