Oh, dear – it’s
dark. And it’s going to go on getting darker for a long time. Does anybody have
an opinion about Ott lights?
I had a very nice
time with James and Cathy here. I saw their son Alistair a couple of times.
Indeed, last night we had a jolly take-away with everybody here: all five of
Helen’s family, James and Cathy and Alistair and me.
Not much knitting, in the midst of all this. Not much walking, either, but this morning James and I did a circuit of the garden. Cathy stayed here – she’ll be back at the chalkface tomorrow morning, and was getting as much done as possible to prepare. She took this picture while we were gone:
I think Perdita (here at the door) often waits and worries when I am away. We sometimes find her watching at a window, and sometimes, as today, when she hears our voices returning, she starts meowing under the door.
I have started
Clue Three of the Westknits MKAL. It’s the one with two long, narrow strips
decorated with a travelling stitch pattern. At first I despaired. This was
going to be the pons asinorum and I wasn’t going to be able to get
across. Things have improved somewhat. It would be presumptuous to say that I
have mastered the technique of doing travelling stitches without a cable
needle, but I have made some progress with it, and the work has speeded up
slightly. I am also spending less time on anxious perusal of the pattern,
line-by-line. Here is where the Ott light might come in handy. Now that the
clocks have changed, there’s not going to be much afternoon.
The final clue is
here. It involves a lot of knitting, but it looks straightforward.
Wordle: I’ve been
doing it faithfully, with reasonable scores. I failed today, my fourth failure
in Ootober, despite a truly titanic struggle and a perfectly fair word. Four
was the common score today: Thomas, Ketki, Mark, daughter-Rachel, Theo.
Alexander had a bit of trouble: five for him. Granddaughter-Rachel and
brother-in-law Roger are missing so far.
Lighting. Try looking at the RNIB for lights . Here https://shop.rnib.org.uk/house/lighting
ReplyDeleteI have a few from them. My latest is the Daylight magnificent floor lamp. All LED so cool but bright and a magnifier to help.
I have used Ott Lights happily and even have a pocket sized one in my knitting bag.
ReplyDeleteYou can find LED lightbulbs these days (at least in the US) that are much less expensive than Ottlites and work pretty much as well. The newer Ottlites have built in LED bulbs, so than when the bulb goes (or the transformer that powers it), you need to buy an entire new lamp. I wasn't happy when that happened to me after only a few years.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Joni about the OTT lights and the LED bulbs. The bulbs are available in different colors? spectrum? I can't remember which it is but try Bright White or Daylight. One of those has a nice bright white. Avoid the Soft White, it is too yellow. I am assuming that they use the same terms there. Also, they should fit in whatever lamp you use now.
ReplyDeleteBut this could all be me making great assumptions.
I’ve consulted the family artist, who suggests you look for LED bulbs in the range of 5000 to 6000 Kelvin (a daylight bulb, here). This light should be color balanced. As others have said light gets yellower, orangy, even reddish as the bulb goes lower than 5000K, and above 6000 will have a blue cast.
ReplyDeleteNot sure if you meant for general lighting or just to knit by, but she also suggests for work illumination to get as high a wattage bulb as your lamps can handle; this will give you the strongest illumination to work by. For room lighting, try to have the same spectrum (if not the same wattage) in all the lamps. She finds it disconcerting to have a yellowish light in one room and a daylight in the next. Your mileage may vary.
I have used original Ott lights and newer LED and both are good, but the first Daylight spectrum Ott I used, I never wanted to turn it off, it was just so much better. My various light bulbs, tubes, etc all have lasted for years with daily use. I have both tabletop and free-standing.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Tamar, the earlier ones - plus the lamp designs, personally speaking, were better. It may sound silly but the on/off switch on my older one had such a satisfying and solid click. Oh wait, that might have been a Verilux, also a popular brand. Whichever, it lasted for years. Very helpful to learn about these new LED bulbs. A nice compensation for the loss of the old designs. The bulbs are more important anyway. Chloe
ReplyDeleteYour weekend sounds excellent!
ReplyDeleteSo good to see your family.
Please tell us more about Cathy and the "chalkface". I think I missed a post.
This shawl has so many aspects! I also really like your colour choices.
Lisa RR
In addition to the light itself is the question of whether you want magnification as well. I've started thinking of lamps that will give magnification too. My Holtkoetter lamp gives me all the light anyone could ask for, but I must use pretty strong magnifier lenses to see what I'm doing with the needles.
ReplyDeleteI have gone for a cheap solution for now - a glocusent (sp?) which is a flexible set of lights you wear around your neck.
ReplyDelete