KnitPicks Plunge

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Related post:
26 Nov 2008 post

I finally took the KnitPicks plunge after wrestling with three 2.75 mm (US2) curly cord 29 to 32 inch circular needles on these mitts I'm trying to make. The long curly cords were driving me nuts as the fingerling yarn got tangled up. So I placed my first KP order today: Metal DPN set, 4.5 mm Harmony DPN, 2 Nancy's KnitKnack's needle gauges, KP Options set. I've never tried their needles before. I hope I like them! It took me some time to decide which DPNs to get, metal vs Harmony wood, and I ultimately chose the metal ones thinking they were safer from breakage while I have a toddler in the house who flops around everywhere. Can't wait for my order to arrive...

I took 7 photos using various camera settings to try to get that DOF working. Still no significant differences. I did manage to get the aperture to come up on one photo as f/4.3 instead of the f/2.8 in all the photos from yesterday. I think it might have something to do with turning on Macro and stepping back and zooming in.



Aperture: f/4.3
Shutter Speed: 1/28 sec
ISO:800
Macro Mode: On
Photo possibly zoomed in

This photo shows the mitts I'm making. Yeah, not much progress, only 6 rounds I think. It's definitely too big around my wrist. I will have to frog and start over and do some K1P1 ribbing to tighten that up. Or maybe I'll cast on 4 fewer stitches, then increase after the wrist section.

Not much knitting going on Chez Smariek. The little one was sick for a while but is recovering now, and of course I caught it too and have been sick for a week. I'm recovering now. What invariably happen when I get sick and have a tendency to use lots of tissues is that I end up washing my hands A LOT (after each tissue use, I'm just anal that way) which results in dry fingers, which leads no less knitting because I hate when yarn snags.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Thanksgiving. It's time to go make some lunch, and then think about getting my little turkey into the oven.

Copyright © Smariek Knits 2005-2008. All full copyright rights are reserved by Smariek Knits



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Depth of Field

Related post:
27 Nov 2008 post

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So I stumbled upon the Yarnographers group on Ravelry and decided to try their 3rd photo assignment: Depth of Field. What you're supposed to do is take two photos of the same subject, where one photo should have a very narrow depth of field and the other photo should have a very deep depth of field. Sounds pretty straight forward, huh?

What I have discovered is that my camera, the Fuji Finepix F10 (PDF manual here), does not have manual settings for aperture. It was suggested that using the Landscape and Portrait mode in P&S cameras should work for this assignment. If I understand it correctly, the Portrait mode should give you a narrow DOF (and blurred background) and the Landscape mode should give you a deep DOF (and clear background). Well, these modes didn't seem to make any difference on my camera. I tried taking photos on a table, and then photos on a white towel. In all cases, the aperture was stuck at f2.8.

The camera would not focus on the yarn when I had it on Portrait or Landscape mode, and I could not enable Macro mode while Portrait/Landscape modes were enabled. So what I ended up doing is moving the camera farther back away from the yarn, and then cropping the photos.


TABLE PHOTOS:

Portrait Mode, f2.8, 1/70 sec.


Landscape Mode, f2.8, 1/102 sec.

I can't say that the first (Portrait Mode) photo has a more out-of-focus background. Both photos look nearly the same to me. The only difference I can tell is that the second (Landscape Mode) photo came out darker.


TOWEL PHOTOS:

Portrait Mode, f2.8, 1/34 sec.


Landscape Mode, f2.8, 1/102 sec.

Does the 2nd photo (Landscape) appear more in-focus than the 1st photo (Portrait)? I can't see the difference.

I feel like a failure at this photography thing. :-(

Copyright © Smariek Knits 2005-2008. All full copyright rights are reserved by Smariek Knits
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