Toolsday: Substituting Made Easy

I know I'm not the only one who falls in love with a pattern which calls for a hard-to-get yarn or calls out to me in a period of needing to shop the stash, not the store. I also find myself designing patterns with well-aged stashlings that have been discontinued.

In the process of writing what I thought would be today's post, I came across a newish website that takes some of the headache out of substituting yarns:  YarnSub

Run by Wendy Petersen of the muddy sheep blog, this is an extremely easy-to-use resource.  You enter the name of the yarn you want to substitute for and up pops a detailed description of the yarn (fiber, gauge, yardage, etc.) and list of possible subs.  The substitute candidates are listed in the order of how closely they match, and this is spelled out in detail.  If you don't like arithmetic or can't find your calculator, the listing includes the per ball equivalence.

The interface of YarnSub is very clean and features a soothing blue color scheme. As someone with horrible eyesight I appreciate those elements and the large clear font and the lots-of-white space format in which information is displayed.

The big-name yarns are there, but so are a lot of the independent dyers and smaller producers.  In some cases, a link is provided for buying the yarn, particularly useful for some of the less widely available brands.

The site also includes articles on substituting in general, watching, and yarn characteristics.

The science of yarn substitution.

I've bookmarked it for myself, and I know that it will be well-clicked.

Eschew the Zoom

Not the name of my favorite indie rock group.  Not  the garbled translator function at work. Just one more recycled New Year's resolution.

Some previous December or other, I resolved to improve my iPhone picture taking skills.  As anyone who reads this blog regularly or views my projects on ravelry can see, that hasn't happened.  Once in a blue moon, I take a picture that is well-lit, well-composed, in focus, and true in color. Totally random blind luck. Most of the time it's dim, distracting, out of focus and looks like it's been dipped in last night's dishwater.

This resolution never got farther than line item in the inventory of lack.  No courses enrolled in.  No books purchased.  Not even a rudimentary google: better iPhone pics.

Never underestimate the usefulness of being too tired to knit, read, or rehang the clothes on those swell new non-slip hangers.  I wasn't too tired to let my fingers do the walking (and if you get that reference you must be almost as old as I am), and I searched for tips.  The   webby-verse is  chockablock with tips, ten to the nth power of tips.

I stashed a few in Evernote, but I only had time for a quick skim.  Did you know that the digital zoom in that smartphone is not very smart? It isn't really a zoom, but a sloppy facsimile, which leads to fuzzy pics. Clearly, this was news to me.

So no more zooming.  I will follow the advise to just get really close to whatever it is and snap away.

Or rather, I will hold the phone firmly in both hands, and remove my thumb gently from the shutter button because the picture doesn't get taken until the button is released.  Who knew? Probably everyone but me knew this, but now I have something else to try.

The results of my experiments so far, taken in winter window light, no retouching:

Eschewing the Zoom.

Zoom Flop.

Yes, the angle is slightly different--what can I tell you, I'm cockeyed--but yes, indeed, there is way more detail in the first photo.  I took another set of pics, and another light bulb went off in my head.

No zoom.

Zoom.

The amount of detail is different, but, duh, when you zoom you are dealing with the light at the camera position, not at the object's position.  In this case, the second photo is duller, with a much darker exposure.

Stay tuned for more adventures of the Ignoramus with an iPhone.

There are any number of tutorials and tips out there, but for sheer inspiring gorgeousness take a look at this photo gallery:  National Geographic iPhone Photo Tips

Sew and Sew

It's not all about the yarn.  Sometimes the fabric makes me do it and I sew some curtains or pillow covers or tablecloths, or hem some yoga pants.  There was a time when I made most of my clothes.

Looking at the runway shows for Spring 2015 with their 70's vibe, (especially this one, swoon) I now wish I had some of those items, but if I did have everything I've ever worn and tossed my home would resemble a rainbow landfill, and the yarn closet is bad enough.

The only sewing blog I follow is the coletterie.  I enjoy her musings on wardrobe and style and there are loads of tutorials, tips and tricks.  She has just issued an e-book, The Colette Guide to Sewing Hems 100+ pages of excellent tutorials with extremely clear photos and it's free.

Colette Guide to Sewing Hems

I won't be whipping up one of her cute retro dresses or skirts any time soon, but I'm off to try some mitered corners on a linen tablecloth.  

Today is Tools-day

From time to time I post about tools that I find useful for crafting--tools not limited to gizmos and gadgets for crafting, but including materials, websites, books, magazines, tutorials, and apps that I come across and enjoy using. From now on, I'll do it on "Tools-day."

My crafting these days consists of crocheting and knitting, but once in a blue moon I want to go back to kindergarten and create a pile of paper schnitzel for cards, signs, or gift tags.

Enter: The Graphics Fairy. Vintage image overload and crafty decor. I won't be printing up a matched set of Halloween tea towels any time soon, but if I wanted to, I could get the images from TGF's Halloween round-up.

The Graphics Fairy Halloween

If you don't like Halloween, choose 
your theme or season. 

There are 40,000 images to choose from.

Inspiring? Maybe.

Fun? Yes.

Time Suck Extraordinaire? Definitely.

Autumnal Palette

Hydrangea & Coleus

Late August and the colors of early autumn are taking over in the garden and the marsh.

Not the searing yellows, reds, and oranges of October, but muted shades.

Amazing how these hydrangeas were blue, purple and pink earlier in the season.

Fun to create a palette. This one created from Kuler an Adobe app. A somewhat Cool Tool.

New color scheme for the blog?

Cool Tool 4

Pin it up. Pin it down. These Clover bamboo pins are becoming a favorite tool. 

First of all, they are cute. They look knitting needles for gnomes. Little green gnomes who care about renewable resources. Bamboo grows more like a weed than an actual weed.

Exclusive pin holder is an old swatch.

Second, cuteness is not enough. These are very handy for pinning together pieces of work in progress to see how it's coming along.

Best of all, they are excellent for pinning together pieces in preparation for seaming. 

Sneak peek at soon to be FO.

I'm sure they have other uses as well. In a pinch, they could function as a shawl or sweater pin, be used for poking holes in gift tags, serve to decorate a birthday cupcake for a crafter, be  carried to a party to use as an emergency hors d'oeuvre spear or drink stirrer. 

If you can think of anything else, please leave a comment. 

Cool Tool, 3

The Sewing Bird. Seen in a local museum, Pilgrim Monument/Provincetown Museum.

Clamped to a table to hold fabric taut in the days before the sewing machine. Squeezing the bird's tail opened the jaws.

Often given to a bride months before the wedding, so she could sew, sew, sew all those household and personal items she would need to set up house.

Had never seen one before, but found lots of listings on the internet. Quite the collectible.

Cool Tool 2

Why by cutesy short needles for narrow scarves?

DPN's plus flexible stitch markers, tiny o-rings, or elastic bands.  Good stitch holders, too.