Rogue photography and Squam.

I just got off the phone with my dad and he mentioned that he had had a look at my blog (Hi Dad!). I'm not sure he has ever visited before so that's pretty ace. But then he told me (with his usual cheeky tone) that he had wanted to leave a comment saying "depth of field, depth of field, depth of field" - as in, he is a little horrified by how I use depth of field in my photos.

And it's not like it's the first time he's mentioned it. He worked as a photographer way back in the dark ages and is, y'know, trained at this stuff. He knows what he is talking about. On the other hand, I'm a self-taught* dabbler who breaks quite a few of the photo-taking rules set down in the photo-taking bible. To be totally honest, I know that he is totally right about my depth of field issues, and I'm glad he reminds me to think about it more carefully. I'm still learning. I know I'll get better with practice and mistakes, because mistakes are how you learn right?

When I got off the phone, (because I know he has a valid point and knows what he is talking about) I scrolled back over the last few posts to figure out which photos in particular were really annoying him. And I came across the Aragon photography post. Excitingly eleven of you had clicked on the "Like" button for the post! Eleven of you like my photographs enough to tell me! Made my heart feel very happy - even if some of them would have annoyed my dad's eyes. So in honour of my dad, I'm going to pull the post I was planning for today and give you a few more I took on my trip away!**

Anyway I took these photos at the ever lovely Squam this year. It was my second time going and it really is such a warm, welcoming and renewing experience. Elizabeth is such a gorgeous, generous host. I talked about my experience at Squam in 2013 in this post called The Magic of A Craft Retreat and it was really more of the same magic! I feel very lucky to have got the opportunity to go again.

Photos start out on a grey day in the forest, before moving onto the Boro class run by @agatheringofstitches. They finish with the perfect golden light on the last day of the retreat. Happy days. 

Grey day at dusk.

Some of my lovely cabinmates. 

And some cabinmates on our dock.

I totally agree that this has depth of field issues - BIG ones. But look at the pretty light Dad!! :)

I also have a really dusty filter that is leaving red splodges everywhere. I kinda like them. 

Enjoy x

Felicia 

*  except for a couple of day-long workshops

**  I'm such a juvenile :).

Hand making as the antidote to “having it all”.

This is one of those posts. The rambling, not-quite-clear-in-my-own-head posts which is being written to see if, by the very act of writing it down, I can clear my head. The kind of post where I’m not yet sure the ideas contained in it are able to be wrapped up into a nice post with a bow. Bear with me. 

More than at any time in history, we* have it all. In the not-too-distant-past gadgets and luxury items (eg. mobile phones, 2nd cars and computers) were extras. Things that some people had and most didn’t. These days they are almost a given. In the era of connection, one thing we have become very aware of is what we could consume. Sometimes that leads us to feel that if we don’t have everything then maybe we are missing out. The latest and greatest are visible and available. The marketing of almost every product out there tells us that "we deserve it". And marketing is everywhere.

What scares me most is that my kids have it all. No, they don’t have hundreds of toys or devices or computer games. But in essentials, they are totally sorted. They are healthy, have parents that care about them and actively try to help them become functional satisfied adults, a community that supports them and loves them, a cosy home, great food**, accessible free health care, a calm and safe (if somewhat politically immoral) civil society. They have every chance to lead good lives.

I’m not my kids. I didn’t grow up with it all. I was lucky that I had parents that loved me and generally we had enough. But sometimes we had a little less than we needed, and there was often financial insecurity around where the basics would come from. Even though that is no longer my life, that worry is still part of me and has helped form my relationship to money and things. That understanding of less-than has lead to me being incredibly intrinsically grateful.

And so I get a little worried about my kids sometimes. Worried about what their experience of growing up in today's society is teaching them about having it all.  

Our society is focused on the accumulation of things, things that make you happy, things that fix your pain, things that fill the holes and fight loneliness. Things for the sake of things. Buying and accumulating as the solution to every problem  Bigger, better, best; where enough is never enough?

Birthday Dress.

So what if?? What if my kids are never satisfied? What if they get caught up in the spiral of desire and longing? So much so that they aren’t able to truly see what they have? What if because they have it all they never realise how extraordinarily lucky and privileged they are?

So here is my hope, my dream for the future of my children if you will. I’m passionately hoping that the life that we live will act as an antidote to the societal pressures they will inevitably face. A life where we try to focus on relationships, community and experiences over things. One where we repair rather than throw out. One where we actively prioritise making things with our hands as opposed to buying ready-made. Not always but as often as we can.

I’m hoping that they remember that the things that were really special in their childhood are the things that we have made them, they have made themselves or they have made each other. That their special things were made. And it was the time, the energy and the thought that went into them that made them so.

I’m hoping that the time they witness us spending making cubbies, bedframes, gardens, roast dinners, sweaters and quilts, will be showing them the value that comes from consciously putting effort, time and materials into the things that we surround ourselves with. And that those things embody all the energy, effort and intention that has gone into making them. And that the crux of it is, that the making itself is what makes life rich, and not the things themselves.

Hand making as the antidote?

All thoughts are welcome – so bring them on.

Felicia x

*I understand that "we" is only a sector of society however it is the one I inhabit, and according to the statistics "we" as a broader Australian society have more than we have ever had at any time in history. 

**My personal opinion. My kids often cry when I put dinner in front of them. Make of that what you will :). 

Natural dyeing in the Basque Country.

To ease on back into blogging I thought I would post some photos from a market we happened upon in the Basque country near Bilbao in Spain. I previously showed a photo or two on instagram of a stall of naturally dyed yarn and socks. They were dyeing at the market in these gorgeous massive copper pots. Our language barrier means that I know nothing about them except what you can see from the pictures. Enjoy and I'll see you in this space as normal later in the week. 

Felicia x

That pile of white wool was wet and ready to go.

Nettles one side and onions the other.

And just because they were so pretty, here are some photos of the mushroom stall from the same market.

Waistboob and whatnot.

I was lucky enough to get to the wonderful Squam this year, and even luckier to do two great classes. The first was with Amy Herzog (Fit to Flatter) and the second with Bristol Ivy (Knitting Outside the Box). Things were learnt, and as with all good classes, they were not necessarily the things I expected to learn. 

You see, I have been making things for a long time, and with that has come some confidence that I know what I’m doing. Confidence is a useful thing in making – and it’s been hard won with a lot of practice - so I’m a little attached to it and glad I have it. However, after doing Amy’s class, I’ve realised that that same confidence has lead me to be a little closed-minded.

I went to the Fit to Flatter class  - which was all about how to get your knitted garments to fit properly – with the belief that I already knew how to get sweaters to fit. I had a fair bit of sweater knitting experience up my sleeve (Ha!) and I’ve even written a few (great :)) posts in the past about fit like “How to choose the perfect sweater pattern” and “Getting bottom up sweaters to fit beautifully”. And they are still really useful and relevant, but ……well you get the picture. I’d heard Amy was a great teacher so I was really interested in going, but I really did think I knew most of it.

How wrong I was!!

There were many parts of the Fit to Flatter class that were total genius like “How to swatch”. I mean, if you had of asked me before the class about swatching and whether I could do it, I would have almost chuckled in a dismissive way. “Of course” I would have answered. Turns out that I only kinda knew…..

And there was another 10 of those moments scattered through the class.

Some of these lightbulb moments I think I understood intuitively, but I didn’t understand the reasons behind the decisions I was making. And because this is hard to explain without giving you an example, I’m going to give you an example.

Let’s talk about waist-boob.

What is waist-boob I hear you ask? I’m sure there is a definition on Wikipedia or something, but a simple definition is where your boobs look like they are part of your waist rather than your chest. The class lead me to understand waistboob in a whole new way – a way that already has changed how I make.  Amy covered how and when waistboob occurs for different body types and then how to avoid it.

Let’s look at a specific example, shall we? I’ve always loved the Brooklyn Tweed sweater Stasis – and it’s the kind of love that is lasting and true. It’s been in my queue forever and I have the yarn in stash ready to go. I haven’t made it though – and during the class I started thinking about why. So I went to Ravelry to have a look.

Many of the Stasis projects on Ravelry, while beautiful, clearly demonstrate waistboob. The pattern looks sensational on a hanger but on a person => waistboob. Even the gorgeous Brooklyn Tweed model has waistboob in one of the pictures. And I think that was one of the reasons I’ve been avoiding knitting it.  It doesn’t look great on that many people. 

Amy explained the reason why* – it has to do with where the colourwork finishes. You need to have the colourwork finish somewhere closer to the nipple line, if you have a particular bust size AND high neck like Stasis does, in order to avoid waistboob. Changing the position of where the colourwork starts would elevate your boobs to join your neck region. How ace is that!

James II with the higher neckline and more noticeable waistboob. I've searched for a better picture but can't find you one tonight to show you how this effect is amplified in version II - hopefully you can see it. In the case of this sweater it is because of the neckline.

Amy’s class talked swatching, shape, ease, darts, how to choose a size, how to take your measurements and proportions of sweaters, in a different way to what I knew. And it has given me tools to fix what is unflattering.  Amy told me why I don’t like the things I don’t like – intuition is one thing but there is real joy in understanding my friends.

Then there were the many things in the class that I was convinced I didn’t need due to the style of sweaters I like (which are different to Amy’s – many of her sweater patterns are quite fitted) – but by the end of it I was totally convinced would work for me in various patterns (like back darts).

I was one of the lucky ones I think as it turns out that I was kind-of on track already. Many of the sweaters I’ve made already follow her fit rules. In the past that was based on intuition of what looked best on me. Now it will be based on some understanding which makes me truly thrilled.

Now you are probably wondering why I’m telling you about a class for a retreat, that has already happened, that you can’t take? Well you can!! The point of the post was to suggest that you try either her book Knit to Flatter or her online Craftsy class Knit to Flatter. She also has a HEAP of great info on her blog that will keep you happy with a cup of tea for a good long while.

Finally, I’m pretty sure you guys know this already, but just in case – I wanted to be clear that this blog is totally unsponsored and I am not getting any kickback from anything. I just tell you about stuff I’ve loved, and think you might too. I got so much out of this class that I think I might be a little bit in love with her for how she has changed my knitting. 

Felicia x

*Amy wasn’t specifically talking about Stasis.

Around the traps - Simple Sewing 101

Alrighty then Simple Sewers. I haven't had enough wifi or computer time to do the next alterations post but I did want to show you some pretty pictures from a few weeks ago that I took of my friend Christine wearing a couple of her Simple Sewing 101 - Tops. In the photo above she is wearing her Alice Top which is Step 4 in the post and then in the photo below she is wearing a gorgeous version of the Califaye Basics Tank which is an alternative to the Wiksten Tank which was Step 2. You can get all the details (and loads more gorgeous photos) from the post on her blog about them. 

What is winding me up as I'm writing this is that I really want to try the Cali Faye Tank - and rather than buying the pattern, piecing it together, cutting it out and then trying it on, I could have just tried Christine's on..... rid-ic-ulous that I'm only realising this now. We had the whole weekend together!

Other Simple Sewing 101 superstars you should check out are my lovely friend Karen on Instagram who has been sewing up a storm - a few weeks ago she made the Cali Faye Tank as well as some gorgeous Nani Iro and Linen numbers I know you lot will love.

And while you are wandering the halls of instagram you could also have a look at the other tops with the instagram hastag #simplesewing101. There are so many alterations popping up like this gorgeous number! Or this. Or this.

Hopefully they have inspired you to whip out your scissors and get sewing? 

Felicia x