New Lessons in Photography

I got my new lens over a week ago, and it is wonderful! (For the camera enthusiasts out there, it's a Canon EF 24-70mm/2.8L USM lens.) So now I have no reason to blame the equipment for the poor quality of pictures - the culprit can be found in the bathroom mirror. The 24-70mm lens is a very, very good lens, but also not a very forgiving one. You make a mistake in the settings, and it shows. This led to some serious navel-gazing and, eventually, I learned a few new tricks. (Such as, "hey, my camera has an 'M' setting - wonder what that is".) But along the way, I rediscovered some old truths.

One, burgundy is a very tricky color to photograph.


Also, single-ply yarn is always very, very pretty.


And fun to knit with!


The fiber is 70% BFL 30% silk, and it was the February club fiber in the Little Bit of Luxury Fiber Club. I managed to squeeze out some 550 yards or 500m out of the 6 oz (150g) of fiber I had. The top was gradation dyed, one end being darker burgundy than the other. But in between there are tiny specs of burgundy, and I didn't pluck them out, which resulted in a slightly striped yarn. I like the result a lot, and hopefully this'll become a nice shawl (the pattern is Gingko).

The second truth I learned was that dark teal is nearly impossible to photograph correctly. I managed to do it though, with serious tweaking of the settings. (These pictures are SOOC, I've only cropped them and added the copyright notice.)



The pattern is the amazingly cute cap/beret pattern Hedda by the incredibly talented designer, Vilma. I used some 200 yards of Aran weight yarn which will be introduced in the Lair in detail a little bit later. I wanted to test how it takes dye and what it is like to knit with, and the results are very nice. The yarn is 100% wool, has a lovely texture to it, and it's quite soft, too. I'm thinking of a cardigan in this lovely yarn (the only thing holding me back is the fact that it requires quite large needles and they make my hands hurt).


I knitted the slouchy version of Hedda, but didn't block it too vigorously and thus got a snug cap. But I don't mind at all, I think it looks quite lovely!


That's all for now! Stay tuned, the etsy shop update is coming up next.