Tuesday, October 04, 2011


If I’m still functioning when the Calcutta Cup next returns to Edinburgh, I’ve decided on generous-fitting Scotland-blue sleeveless v-necks for the Little Boys – who may be grown men by then – with the cup and date in white somewhere. Easy wearing for the non-wool-wearer. And I am determined, with the same proviso, to contrive to see the cup when it next resides north of the border.

The commentators made much, the other day, of how rare it is for Scotland and England to play each other on neutral ground. I find myself wondering if it has ever happened before except in Calcutta. The whole thing started in the 19th century as an annual match between British civil servants there. When the Rugby Club broke up, they used the money remaining in their bank account to have the cup made. It’s got serpents for handles and an elephant on top and wonderful surface patterning – well worth seeing.

Yesterday I had an email from Interweave about their e-magazine ColorKnit. This time, it is available for an iPad, and I got it.

It is a whole new experience, not at all like reading Piecework or the New Yorker on one’s iPad. It’s a genuine interactive magazine full of hyperlinks and audio clips and perhaps even some video ones, although if so I haven’t come across them yet. I find it not entirely congenial –  broken-up and bitty and hard to navigate. And I’ll have to figure out how to get rid of it eventually: it’s very demanding of memory.

Actual knitting

I am now embarked on the blissful uninterrupted st st part of the body of the Brownstone sweater. It will all end too soon, with stitches cast off centre front for the eventual shawl collar. From then on I must work back and forth and excitements will accumulate – some short-row’ing in the back, the incorporation of the sleeves, the raglan shaping.

I am about to attempt a picture of it on the front step, incorporating some of your advice. I got the old, superior camera out and am, at the moment, boosting its battery a bit. I will have to remind myself how to turn the flash off and how to get the results into the computer. I’ll take the pictures on the front step (as is my wont, in the months when it is light at this time in the morning, and not raining) with a pillowcase or something similar from the ironing pile for background. The sun, if available at all, doesn’t reach the step until later.

I had a look at Picnik yesterday, and liked what I saw, although I think it was rather an effort for my not-at-all-new computer. But I couldn’t make any progress with those orange photographs – increasing the saturation made things redder, but obliterated all detail (such as stitches) in the process. I’ll be back. 



Vast improvement. The upper picture was taken, without flash, on the "auto" setting. Too pink, but that's better than orange. The bottom one is getting pretty close to the truth -- for that, I twiddled the controls around to a setting which seemed to suggest night-time. I'll now have to go back to the instruction book and see what I did.

5 comments:

  1. You're getting there :) If you can find something in that instruction book about setting the white balance, all the better :D
    I've not seen the original Calcutta Cup - I'd love to - but I always cringe when I think of the idiots who played football with it back whenever that was!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Jean, It seems all I do is lurk, so I wanted to comment on how much I look forward to reading your blog every morning. You never cease to amaze me.
    A tip on your magazine reading being bitty. Don't forget the two finger enlarge; making it bigger is vital to read a lot of things for me! I use Goodreader for all my patterns, they come up so small I would lose my mind if I couldn't enlarge them.

    ReplyDelete
  3. don't know if you have it on your camera, but sometimes I get a better colour when using the setting for "food photos". doesn't work all the time, but the good thing with digicams is that you don't have to pay for waste:))

    ReplyDelete
  4. The main thing I gleaned from Franklin's class was always adjust the "white balance" to match your light. This has been a huge help.

    The other thing was how to make a light box. It never worked as well as I hoped, but I tried hard.

    You have most of the advice down already.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous5:19 PM

    which have been handsome and long-Re the next set of Cup sweaters: have you tried any of the machine-washable cotton/wool blends from Rowan, Brown Sheep or Debbie Bliss (and perhaps other manufacturers)? They've worked well for me when I needed to please recipients who aren't comfortable wearing (or caring for) wool. I've even made two sweaters for myself from them which have been handsome and long- wearing.

    --Gretchen

    ReplyDelete