7 Quick Takes (Vol 257)

Folks it has been one of those days…and we have guests coming for dinner. I am afraid to think what might happen between now and then. You know what to do. When you have consumed the blather herein you need to click on the picture above to be whisked, at the speed of lawyers lining up to sue Donald Sterling, over to Conversion Diary.

Blather most powerful.

1.
I pulled out the Macro reversing ring this week. I will be honest and say that I haven’t played with it for a while. I love that thing but I was frustrated when I used it. The frustration had nothing to do with the ring itself and how it works. No, the frustration was completely my own fault and solely due to the fact that sometimes….occasionally…OK more than I like to admit, I do things on a too rapid basis.

I see a picture idea, I pick up Big Bertha, I execute said picture.

But you see, with this macro reversing ring, I just have to slow down. I cannot just grab Big Bertha and take a photo because I have found that I really must use a tripod with this set up. No matter how steady my hands might be when holding my camera, they are not steady enough to get a relatively clear picture with the reversing ring.

See what I mean. I worked and worked to steady my breathing and my hands and still, blurriness.

Using this macro reversing ring is much slower. I must be more precise in my focusing and it takes a bit longer to find the right spot to focus on. I MUST use the shutter delay, preferably the 10 second shutter release so that all camera movement has stopped.

Oh that is SO much better.

By the way, these are Hoya blossoms. Look at how the blossom looks like it is made out of velvet! I would never have thought that by just looking at the blossom in the normal way. I love my Hoya with a fierce passion. He/She/It predates HHBL by several years and was a cutting from Parental Unit Mimi’s plant and her plants all originated from a cutting from HER mom’s plant. The thing about a Hoya is that it won’t bloom for a LONG TIME. It took almost 10 years before the first blooms appeared. But now it blooms regularly.

2.
So, so loving finally having things up on the walls here at Chez Knit, even if not everything is up. There are a bunch of “miscellaneous” pieces of art of various sizes that are being held back for something that I want to do in the master bedroom. But I am just going to wait on that installation until after the walls are painted in there.

3.
For a while I have been searching for a new, basic knitting pattern for the charity blankets that I knit over the course of the year. It is ridiculous how frustrating this has been. For the love of PETE it isn’t like I don’t normally knit fairly complicated things like socks and lace. How hard could it be to knit a basic blanket with acrylic yarn.

Evidently more difficult that I thought because I have knit, hated, frogged, started again with another pattern, knit, hated, frogged. Repeat ad infinitum.

But I think that I have finally found the right pattern, so INCREDIBLY simple and interesting looking. I am about half way through the first blanket and it is flying by. The pattern is simple enough, being garter stitch, miles and miles and miles of garter stitch, with increases on the right side row only and a few purl stitches thrown in on the edges. Easy peasy knitting squeezy.

When I am finished I will show you.

And maybe I can cut down a bit on the acrylic stash that is breeding in the basement despite my best efforts at yarn birth control.

4.
The Kentucky Derby is tomorrow! And I will miss it. And we don’t have a DVR so I cannot record it. But there is always YouTube later. I have been contenting myself with watching these….over and over and over and over.

Please excuse the absolutely ENORMOUS video window. Windows Live Writer has been abysmal today and I just do not have the mental bandwidth to rewrite the entire blog post and WLW won’t let me delete this thing.

And this is why I am looking for an alternative to WLW. Any suggestions?

5.
Next week I am hoping to get myself over to the Cedar Lee Theater to see this…..

Finding Vivian Maier

WLW (yuck, patooie!) again will not let me embed the video. Click on the link.

I have been waiting a LONG time (or at least it seems like it) to see this.

I am so excited I can hardly contain myself.

6.
I needed to clear my head yesterday, making some changes to certain aspects of Hidden Moments Photography and I needed thinking time. But it is really hard (read that as impossible) to sit and just think when I am in my house. All the other things that need my attention scream at me, whisper to me and disturb my brain in ways that cannot be ignored.

So I stuck some $$ in my pocket, exited Chez Knit and walked down to Burger Fresh to get myself something to eat for dinner (HHBL was teaching last night). I could walk at a leisurely pace, I could think through some things. It was fabulous.

And there was seared, medium rare dead cow with blue cheese and bacon at the end of it.

Then last night I came across this article on purposeless walking.

The Slow Death of Purposeless Walking.

I think that is what I need to do more of, purposeless walking.

We must not let purposeless walking die!

Work with me people!

Purposeless Walking Revolution!

7.
And here are the usual, end of the week Instagram photos. Because I am a lazy so and so.