Tuesday Learn to Knit Day 5 - On Wednesday...

First of all, I sincerely apologize for not posting this yesterday! This week has been and will continue to be, crazy because it is Alpha Sigma Kappa - Women in Technical Studies' recruiting week here at NMT, and I am the recruiting officer so I have been incredibly busy!

This week I'd like to share one of my reader's projects with you, her name is Karin and instead of making dishcloths, she decided to be a little more creative, check out what she made:

Isn't that just adorable? I thought so :) Click on over to her blog to read more about it. (and don't forget to visit her adorable Etsy shop!)

Next week I will be showing you all two more stitches and we will be using these stitches to create a scarf! The scarf should knit up quick and easy and the finished result will have a lacy appearance, aren't you excited? So as far as yarns go, I suggest you simply find a yarn that you love, make sure it is soft enough to around your neck, on your face, etc. You don't *have* to get new needles, but you are more than welcome to (although if you do get new needles for this project, I suggest going up sizes instead of down sizes) if you decide not to get new needles, try to make sure that the yarn you get isn't too large for the needles you already have. Most yarn companies and sellers on Etsy suggest a needle gauge for the yarn, its on the label. So, double check that before you purchase!

Please feel free to send in pictures of your own finished projects (I don't care if you're a little behind, just starting, or keeping up with all of these posts, you can share whenever!) or your questions or comments :D

I'll see you back here next week to learn more knitting techniques!

Tuesday Learn to Knit Day 3 - Binding Off

Ok, now that you have the body of your washcloth knitted up (congratulations!) you must now finish the piece. You can't simply slide it off your needles and call it good, it will unravel and all your hard work will be lost.

This week I am teaching you how to Bind Off (BO). Again, like the cast on method, there are so many different ways to do this but I am teaching you the easiest, most basic method.

First, position your work as if you are about to knit another row (needle with stitches in left hand, empty needle in right).

Knit the first two stitches as you have been, but try to do so as LOOSELY as possible.

When you have just two stitches on the right hand needle, take your left hand needle, slide it into the first stitch (right-most stitch)

and pass this stitch over the second (left-most) stitch keeping sure to leave the second stitch on the needle.

Continue these steps to the last stitch.

Cut the yarn leaving a few inches for tail and pull the tail through the remaining loop.

You can now weave in the ends and start using your very first knitting project! Yay! Congratulations!

And please feel free to send in your photos so I can show them off to all the other "students" and share your questions, problems, successes. I'll try to answer any questions I can and help you all work out the kinks :)

Tuesday Learn Something New Day -How to Fix Your Photos Without Expensive Software

We’ve all seen it, we’ve probably all done it. Those dark, unclear, look-like-they’ve-been-taken-at-home-between-yelling-at-the-dog-and-making-dinner photos. And I’m sure that we all don’t have the luxury or know-how to use software like Photoshop. Here is a little tutorial for helping out those of you who have a basic photo-editing system and learning some new technology just doesn’t seem plausible (for going to a Tech school, I really don’t have much technical knowledge).

First, you have your photo.

See? Its dark, unprofessional and sloppy looking.

If at all possible, take your photos outside or close to a large window where you can get as much natural light as possible. If this isn’t possible, these tips will still help you to improve your photos.

Your computer probably has some kind of photo software already on it, I use Windows Photo Gallery for my initial editing and then perhaps move to Paint or Picnik, usually though, Windows Photo Gallery is all I need.

Open your picture in your editing software, in my case, Windows Photo Gallery. At the top of the page there is a little "Fix" icon, if you click it you will see the options on the right, including Auto Adjust, Adjust Exposure, Adjust Color, Crop Picture and Fix Red Eye.

Next, click on the "Auto Adjust" icon. This will basically lighten up your photo and make it less shadowed looking.

See the difference just that one click makes? Its amazing! And if these photos are taken during the day, with natural lighting, the difference will be even more professional looking. After this, we will probably want to crop the picture some so that we can get a full frame of the product without a whole lot of negative space. If you click on the "Crop Picture" icon a box will appear that you can stretch or shrink to fit around your product. After it is encasing exactly what you want the photo to show, click "Apply"

Here is the finished product:

These pictures were originally taken at night, in poor lighting. I highly highly recommend taking photos during the day, even if you can't take them outside. Whatever you do, no matter what time of day or night you can finally get your shots in, do NOT and I repeat, do NOT use the flash on your camera. This distorts the colors and is very difficult, if not impossible, to edit using these softwares.