Thursday 7 October 2010

Stilwell

I'm sure you all saw it, the launch of Brooklyn Tweed's new yarn collection that is. He is brilliant. What more is there to say really. I find his designs, his photographs, his whole esthetic to be completely mesmerizing. I know I'm not the only one, and I'm certainly not the first to go on about how great he is, but it seemed appropriate to do today since I've got 2 new things to show you, and both are sort of BT related! First, here is my current sweater in progress.


I'm knitting the Stilwell Sweater from the made in Brooklyn booklet using Lismore Sheep Farm wool in Brown Heather as the main colour and Elann Peruvian Highland Wool in colourway Oatmeal Heather for the contrast. I love Lismore Sheep Farm! I bought this yarn on a visit there this summer and am thrilled to have found the perfect project for it. So far, so good. The yarn and pattern are working together beautifully. I very happy with it. I'm also thrilled that this project is knit completely from stash yarn. So satisfying. 

And second, I suppose you could say that Brooklyn Tweed is a constant source of motivation for me to work on stepping up my game when it comes to photography for the blog. I've taken one giant step. I've finally purchased a sweeeeeeeet camera!

Until recently, all my photo's were taken with this little beauty. A cute little Canon Powershot. It did the trick, but certainly had it's limits. 


Then, in the interest of research I borrowed my friend Christine's camera and started experimenting. It didn't take long for me to notice a world of difference, I hope that you all noticed too! I have been trying hard to take better quality, more interesting shots. I think that my photo's have improved, and I was convinced to take the leap and invest in some real quality equipment. 


Here is my new kit. A thing of beauty is it not? I am soooo excited about this. It's a Canon Rebel XTi with 3 lenses, 2 flashes some sort of fliter (and lots of literature for me to read to figure out haw to make it all work!) Best part is, I got it all for a bargain! I stalked ebay and had one of the most adrenaline pumping moments of my life waiting for the last seconds of the count-down to enter my winning bid on this gear. I won the auction and was beside myself. I won't divulge what I paid for it, because my mom wouldn't approve of me talking about money, but I will say that I saved thousands of dollars by buying on ebay vs. buying the whole kit separately in a store. 

It arrived on my doorstep this morning and I just can't wait to play around with it this weekend. My cousin and her two very photogenic kids will be in town for Thanksgiving, so I'll hopefully have lots of opportunity to play paparazzi!