My First Cardigan

I have knit many elaborate afghans.  I consider myself a fairly accomplished knitter.  But I have never knit a sweater and I have always wanted to try one.

Now that we have a granddaughter, I thought I could start with a child's sweater.  She would be less critical than an adult and she would outgrow it before too long so wouldn't be stuck wearing a poorly knitted item for a long time.

Rachel is wearing size 3 clothing, but I used a size 4 pattern.  I wasn't sure how long it would take to finish this first project.  I chose to knit a cardigan. That is a sweater that buttons up, rather than a jumper that pulls over the head.

  

The pattern was quite simple.  You knit the back, the two front pieces and the sleeves.

  

Next you sew the front shoulders to the back.  Then the sleeves are sewn in.  After the sleeves are in you sew from the bottom to the armpit, closing the body of the cardigan.  Knit the wrist to the armpit, closing the sleeves.  I used place holders to make sure the pieces lined up correctly.

  

The part that was the scariest was knitting in the front placket.  To do this, you pick up stitches from the edge of the front of the opening in the cardigan and sew up and around until it is an inch wide.  I needed to go back to Yarn Explosion and view YouTube videos to figure out the whole process.

  

I also needed YouTube help to knit in the buttonholes.  The pattern I purchased was woefully inadequate for a novice sweater knitter.

  

The ladies at Yarn Explosion suggested cutting a square of felt to use as a backing when sewing on the buttons.

  

After sewing, I cut the excess away, so there was stability behind the button, but it wasn't visible .

  

I like the finished product. I hope Rachel does.

  

Now I am inspired to do a grown-up version.   Maybe one with cables and a more elaborate pattern.  It is fun and rewarding.

But next I am going to try working with a lathe to learn to make wooden bowls.

Portland

Haven't written anything for a while as I was visiting my niece in Portland.  The Portland in Oregon .  I took my iPad, but no matter what anybody tells me, I can't use it to write on my blog.  Or the ways are too complicated for my wee brain.  So I took a break!

Portland is a foodie paradise!  But Natalie's girls have some allergies, so we spent a lot of time finding gluten free, egg free, dairy free, soy free, corn free things they could eat.  Not easy, but WAY easier in Portland than it would be here in Roanoke.  We found a few recipes to make for kids, by kids and are talking about making a YouTube channel for the girls, starring the girls as chefs.  They like to cook and are VERY smart and cute, so I think it will be fun!  They are coming to visit this summer, so we will try to do something then.
 

Natalie and her girls visiting with my girls.  COUSINS!

The Cooking Channel has a show called Unique Sweets and they have a lot of places in Portland.  We tried Kyra's Bake Shop where EVERYTHING is gluten free.  You can't taste any difference from gluten costly...er, expensive?   Full 'o gluten?  It was so successful that Natalie took the girls there for a treat after I left.

Natalie took me to Powell's Books.  Here is the Yelp link.  They have more than one store, but the one she took me to is an entire city block. At least two floors.  Might have been more but we had already fed the parking meter.  TWICE!

It had new and used books all mixed together.  The staff is knowledgeable and there is also a café.  The main store has over a million books.  Plus gifts and maps and it is fabulous.  I grew up going to Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena, so I KNOW fabulous bookstores.  Powell's is a fabulous bookstore!  Natalie and I bought a lot of books, but I had to leave before I was ready.  Only had one suitcase.

New Camera

I am so excited!  I have been unhappy with my camera for some time.  I even bought one of those fancy, new Samsung phones in the hopes it could replace my not so good camera.  Unfortunately, I can't load any of the beautiful pictures it takes.  I have gone in to Verizon, twice, to get help and even THEY can't get them to load on my blog.

I have been researching various cameras.  Even when it is working well, my camera won't take close ups with any clarity.  The telephoto will zoom in on a subject but there is a loss of clarity there, also.  After seeing some of the beautiful shots from two local bloggers ( http://bluecountrymagic.blogspot.com/ and http://www.theblueridgegal.com/)  I wanted to do better.  My $69 camera from Walmart was no longer good enough.  Granted, when I started this blog I didn't know if I was going to like it and I didn't know whether I would stick with it. Now that it appears to be a new obsession of mine, I want to step up my game, as it were.

I am not extremely proficient with a camera.  Back in my journalism student days, and that is a LOOONG way back, I took a photography class.  Then I dropped out of said photography class, so don't blame Cal Poly for my expertise, or lack thereof.  In fact, I dropped out of Cal Poly all together, so we can neither blame nor credit them with much of anything related to my writing.  And while I regret not finishing there, my move led me to FedEx and my husband so I can't regret that.

The point of this ramble is I don't want a fancy camera with f stops and shutter speeds to worry about.  I want clear close ups and gorgeous landscapes and that is about it.   I want the camera to do the thinking. 

Yesterday we ended up at Target to do a bit of shopping and I stopped by the camera desk.  I wanted to see if I could learn any more in my research on what kind to get so I could let Lee know what I wanted for Christmas. A sales person offered to help me.  Do you hear that???  A SALES person.  Wow.  That doesn't happen very often.

   

But he was personable and more important knowledgeable.  He takes a lot of close ups in his hobby of model building and puts them on YouTube.  He showed me a Sony camera that was similar to his.  He knew how it worked and could explain it to me.  And it was on sale.  Done.  I got me a new camera.

I have only had it for a day.  And part of that day was spent in charging the battery...and sleeping.  I am having fun learning about all the fun things it will do.

   

Crystal clear distance shots. 

   

And still clear when you zoom in.

   
    
Check out these close ups, Mr. Demille

   

 I love this one.


     

 

Panoramas

   

and black and white.

   

 

Don't you just love this effect?

   
   


   

I can't wait to make a new recipe and get some really clear pictures of delicious food.  So that you will drool on your keyboards.

This is going to be so fun!