kmkat and her kneedles

Oh, the cleverness of me.

 

So. I was getting tired of the wallpaper on my computer. It was a lovely closeup of a autumn leaves on the ground that I stole borrowed from Baxterknits, (with her permission), but it was weeks old and it's winter now. folks!

Let me tell you the cleverness of me.

I put all my photos of winter scenes into one folder and had my computer use that folder for the wallpaper, changing every minute.

This was fine for an hour or two, then I noticed that I was seeing the same damned photos over and over and over. Booorrrr-iiinnnngggg.

Okay, here comes the cleverness.

I went to photopin.com, a site for free CreativeCommons photos and searched for various winter-themed photos. Downloaded some I liked and put them into the folder. Rinse and repeat until I had enough photos there that I won't get bored.

 

 

 

 

   

 

Note: when I downloaded the photos I was not thinking about doing a post, so I didn't copy the attributions that are required when using the photos online. My bad, but I'm not going back to search for the exact photos and get the attributions. Sorry, internets...

Amazing images from my email.

Some are clearly 'shopped, some clearly not, some I just don't know...

Things organized neatly.

Things Organized Neatly is a site I look at occasionally. These two photos had to be shared.

Proud photo.

Matthew was quite proud of the depth of field he got in this photo taken with his phone. Subject is a daggar moth caterpillar, which is not nearly as intriguing in moth form.

The magic of photography.

As I was standing in front of our renewable energy table chatting with the vendor next to us, I noticed a fourth-grade girl wearing shoes I would have killed for in fourth grade. I sneaked my camera out of my pocket and Kinneared her as best I could, but this shot... sucks. I could have killed that kid with the red soles for stepping in front of her.

I know that an overexposed photo is more susceptible to computer correction than an underexposed one, but I thought it was worth a try to see what I could do with this dark mess.

Behold!

The photo will never win any prizes, but at least you get to see the awesomeness of knee-high Cons with purple laces.

Wind! Rain! Crash!

As I sat at the computer reading my email this morning I noticed that the sky was getting dark. It kept getting darker. Then the wind started to blow and the black sky started spitting rain. I closed the windows on the windward side of the house and retrieved Lucy The Wonder Dog from her chain outside. 

Soon the rain was coming down in bucket and sheets and the wind was blowing at, I estimate, about 300 mph. The oak trees were leaning and tossing and I could not see the lake 75 feet away. Pretty darned impressive. The electricity flickered very slightly a couple of times and I thought I should shut down the computer, but I didn't.

Eventually I went to check that there was no rain coming in on the leeward side -- none, the wide overhanging eaves prevent that -- and noticed that there was a breeze coming in from the 3-season porch. Where there should NOT be a breeze.

You perhaps cannot tell, but there is a window missing there.

This the second time a window has blown out in that porch. I guess combination windows that big are meant to be used with inner sash windows; they are not strong enough by themselves to withstand sustained 50 mph winds. And we thought we were being so clever and economical back in 2001, using just the storms to create a 3-season porch.

Smokey has a lot of Lionel and other model trains neatly stacked on the ping-pong table just visible in the upper left of the second photo. I moved as much as I could out of the reach of the rain, but some of the boxes definitely got damp. Hard to believe, but sometimes the boxes are worth as much to a collector as the train car that came in it. Damn.

This weekend is the county fair. I am glad I am working there tomorrow and not today. I can only imagine how the tents and booths fared in this storm. Same exact thing happened last year, also on the day before I worked. I guess in some strange way I am lucky...

On a more cheerful note, I found this Shopped photo last week, the image manipulation done by #2 Son when he was in high school. (haslp was the screen name he used then, a combination of Half Life, a video game, and Slipknot, a heavy metal group.)

Reach for the sky!

Saturday was an exciting day. First the awesome yarn bombing, then the future mural, then I got back to our tiny town in Wisconsin and found this.

A new roof on the steeple of the Lutheran church. Excitement!

Yikes. I'm glad it is not me up there...

Photography fails.

I thought I would share with you what I went through to get this photo:

I used my eBay light box because I wanted to get a good shot of it. As you all know, natural light is tough to come by in the winter, especially if you are like me and don't really get started on the day until about 4 pm when the light is already fading.

The first couple shots.

Notice how I forgot to use the background swoop inside the lightbox? But later, much later, I fixed that with the retouch tool in iPhoto. 

#2 Son rags on me because, even if I remember to use the swoop, it is always creased and wrinkled. This time, though, my iron and ironing board were already out and mere inches away, so I decided to fix that.

However, the swoops are nylon and the nylon setting on my iron is too cool for steam. And I needed really steam to get these wrinkles out.

The solution:

The iron is set on 2, even though the nylon setting is 1. From experience I have found that the labeling on the iron is conservative, and that I can iron things with it one setting hotter than the labeling would have me believe. With steam coming out of the soulplate holes I held the iron 1/4-inch above the fabric for a few seconds, then ironed it really fast. No problems.

Your results may vary.

Next, I thought that the yarn would show up best if I used the black swoop. After all, I had held it against every color under the sun to decide what yarn to contrast with it in the scarf I had originally planned, and charcoal was the best choice. So black should really make it pop, right?

Looks good, right?

The results:

This is just a sampling of the shots I took. In retrospect, I see that the contrast between the black background and the subtleties of color in the yarn made it hard for the camera to capture the latter. If you click on any of those you will see how washed out the yarn looks compared to the first photo. Perhaps I could have corrected it in iPhoto, but I didn't even try. While shooting I kept backing the halogen work light (the white triangle at the upper edge of the establishing photo of the light box) farther and farther away from the box, putting another layer of white fabric over the top of the box to filter the light, aiming the light at the ceiling, trying both the regular and the macro setting on the camera -- everything I could think of. 

Eventually I decided to use one of the original shots and to blur the background. At least my swoops got ironed. And stored in such a way to keep them that way.

 

Check this out.

I would title this one, "Icelandic Sweater Hits the Big Time." Found at The Big Picture, its post about Fashion Week.

Street scenes in Buffalo, WY.

 
That mailbox is a model of a Basque sheepherder's wagon.
There was/is a substantial Basque population in Johnson County.

Do  you know the way to...?

WIP Wednesday.

Another UFO destined to be finished this week is the multicolored topdown striped raglan. I finished it -- except for the neckband -- months ago in September, but we had such a mild autumn that lasted well into November, I felt no push to do that last bit of knitting. Then there was a bit of sorta-kinda Christmas knitting, and wowzers, here it is January and cold and I could really, really use a wool sweater.

One tiny problem is that I made the neckline a bit too high, and adding a neckband in the usual way would make the sweater uncomfortably warm and probably scratchy on my delicate neck. I am such a fragile little snowflake, ya know.

My body decided a number of years ago that the way it would regulate its temperature was by the circulation in my neck. If I am cold outside, I don't worry about mittens or a hat or any of the normal things; wrap a scarf around my neck and I am fine. I gave up wearing turtlenecks at least ten years ago because there is no way to regulate my neck thermostat if it is completely encased in clothing. Mock turtles are okay, though, cuz they are not as tight-fitting.

So picking up stitches at the edge of the neck and knitting a neckband that would match the cuffs and hem -- about 1" wide, with a turning row of purl stitches and inner lining of navy blue merino -- was right out. Much thought went into possible solutions. What I finally decided on was to pick up the stitches, not at the edge of the neck, but 1/2" (or more) in from the edge. That should keep the neckband down where it won't annoy me. The gray-blue yarn is a bit scratchy and I worry about that turning row, but the merino lining of the neckband should be fine. In my quest for the right colors for the stripes I managed to acquire several skeins of the merino DK in navy, and that is what I have used to line the hem and cuffs.

 

* * * * *

Smokey gave me a new camera for Christmas, a point-and-shoot Nikon that is easily pocketable, and that is what took the first photo, above. I gave Andrew my old iPod Touch for Christmas (it was what he wanted) and bought a new, 4th generation for myself. That is what took the second photo (the 4th gen iPod Touches have both a front and back camera, plus video -- awesome). The difference in quality is obvious, but this was a difficult photoshoot -- minimal natural light, no flash, taken in a mirror. I cropped them both and adjusted the color and exposure to improve both as much as possible. In better conditions that iPod will be handy. I always have it in my pocket, but I don't always have my camera.

Edited to add: My iPod Touch DIED on me yesterday! I was using it, put it into Sleep mode for a few minutes, then it refused to come back on. Rats, curses, #$%^#$!!! But Erika to the rescue. She sent me a link to a page that tells how to do soft and hard resets on the Touch (which I would have found on my own once I got over the denial, anger, and depression). Success! 

::bowing in Erika's direction::

Thanks!

Random Sunday.

The number of spam e-mail messages circulating on the Internet at the end of December tumbled after the world’s largest spamming operation mysteriously went dark on Christmas Eve.

Study linking childhood vaccinations with autism was complete and utter fraud. (Duh.) In 2008, for the first time in 14 years, measles was declared endemic in England and Wales. I'm pretty sure there is a special place in hell for Andrew Wakefield.

* * * * *

* * * * *

I recently set my computer wallpaper to change every minute to a different photo from my pictures folder, and I copied over a huge bunch of my photos there. It has been quite pleasant to see photos I had forgotten about (if the photo doesn't go onto the blog it slips from my memory). Sharing the fun: gonna post one some of those random photos here occasionally.

Antelope grazing with suburban Buffalo, WY in the background.

 

I went to the November meeting of the MN Knitters' Guild,
where Annie Modesitt was the speaker.
These are her designs that she discussed.
The red bolero-type jacket is actually felted.

.

Temp was -9˚ F. this morning.
This photo, taken at the convention center in Milwaukee in September,
seemed appropriate.

Happy Halloween!

www.google.com

That's where I found a link to this app, which I used to produce these:

                                                                                             
       Have a happy, scary, great Halloween!                                                                                                                  !

So there I was...

...at the laundromat.

 

I turned around and guess what I saw?

 

Somebody decided to have their wedding photos taken on Main Street in Luck. Those photographers you see? Were just a small part of the crew. There were at least six people with cameras and reflectors and makeup kits and director's chairs.

Okay, I'm kidding about the chairs.

I don't know what you think, but that looks to me like a weird wedding photo pose. Groom with his back to the bride, who is leaning casually against a plate glass window. In her elaborate gown. It was a pose, too -- I saw the photogs snapping away while bride and groom held it.

Weird. Both the pose and the fact that it was happening at all.

Show us your wallpaper (redux)!

I did this a couple-three years ago and got a lot of responses. Let's do it again!

The rules are easy-peasy: put the image of your current wallpaper on your blog and put a link to it in the comments below.

I'll show you mine if you'll show me yours ;^)

My current wallpaper:

Don't remember where I found this photo. It is a composite of different photographs taken during a solar eclipse that occurred last summer; iirc, the total eclipse was visible only across a swath of the Pacific Ocean (but my memory is very vague on this last point).

Other recently used wallpapers, many of which you may have already seen here:

(from CuteOverload.com)

(ditto)

(lolcats)

(photo taken and decorated by Heather of lectio.ca)

(from NationalGeographic.com)

(photo taken by Y.T.)

(ditto)

Maybe I'll make this into a contest...

Amazement.

(above) "Double splash. The second droplet is driven by a laser detection and timer delay from the first droplet. I use a droplet controller driven by an audio wave to genarate a second droplet at precise timing after the first droplet."

(below) "Soap bubble and falling marble. The soap bubble is just half burst. A laser detection start the timing into a hardware controller to control the camera and the flashes"

 

See more of this guy's water figure photography here and insect photography here.

Found via Lifehacker.

Eye candy Friday.

Smokey brought me a pot of daffodils last weekend. Love that guy!

* * * * *

I thought y'all should know, if you don't already, one of the joys of photo editing software. Mine is iPhoto, which came installed on my Mac Mini.

Photo from yesterday's post:

Original, cropped as above but before further editing:

Easier to edit away the snarf than to, actually, you know, clean...

Eye candy Friday.

I was driving home yesterday and decided I needed to take some photos.

This is the township road that leads to the gravel road that leads to the dead-end road that leads to our driveway. My favorite time of autumn is when there is still lots of green, so that the occasional burst of color really stands out.

Like this.

Or this.

Or this.

Eye candy Friday, of sorts.

Remind you of anything?

Except, of course, for the clouds missing from the sky, the extra trees on the horizon, and the safety rail in the foreground...

Have a great weekend!

Knee update. North Shore.

First, let's get the medical details out of the way. Many people are bored by medical details; if you are one, just skip ahead to the part after the * * * * *. I find such details fascinating, even when they are not mine own.

Results of the MRI: yes, there is indeed a floater/foreign body in my knee. The nurse practitioner didn't say so, but I am assuming it is a bone chip caused by the second fall, the one directly onto my kneecap.

There is also a bit of torn cartilage. That's probably from the first fall, the face plant onto concrete in front of 100+ people.

And I have prepatellar bursitis, which the link calls "housemaid's knee." That would account for the swelling in the front of my knee and the numbness of that skin. Nurse said it might just be blood from the bruising, and if so, it will be reabsorbed by my body. If not, I may have to have an incision on the front of my knee to drain *it*, whatever *it* is.

In the meantime, I will have arthroscopic surgery to remove the floater and repair/remove the torn cartilage. The staff are working to schedule it the same day as when my ortho doc will remove the screws and bolt and plate from my ankle; that means just one 100-mile round trip and one anesthesia, yay. It will happen on Friday, August 28. Mark your calendars.

The nurse also had me get an ultrasound of that leg from the groin to the ankle to be sure I didn't have any blood clots. Results = no clots. Afterward I asked the tech what would have happened if there had been clots.

"Oh, usually they put you in the hospital and give you blood thinners."

Yikes. I hadn't realized that part could be so serious, although upon reflection I realize of course it is.

Oh, and I seem to have some infection in that knee and shin (the link above mentions that the bursa can get infected when injured). Hot packs and antibiotics are in progress.

::sigh::

All this because I couldn't keep track of my feet...

* * * * *

Now for the more interesting stuff.

The week after the fall we went camping again, this time on the North Shore (of Lake Superior). Weather was a bit damp and cool, but that really didn't bother us -- we tend to nap/read/eat/knit/snuggle dogs when camping. All that can be done in the camper if necessary.

We had dinner one night with Smokey's old boss, who is now retired and who has a cabin near Grand Marais. We ate at the Cascade Restaurant:

 

 

The views from our table by the window:

Even though the weather was not 100% cooperative while we were camping, I think I got some very nice photos, one or two perhaps worthy of entry at the fair next year.

 

Oh, and proof I was knitting: