See what I mean?

These are the Arhelon needlepoint yarn colors (minus the yellow, which ran out, and the black, which is on a cone). They're all fingering weight wool, hand dyed (by me, for a former project- this is all leftover yarn).

In person, and in the ball, there are 5 distinct colors- red, brown, white, green and blue (with two shades of blue).

Look what happens when I remove the color- how many shades do we have now? Amazing, isn't it? The red and brown are also very similar, tonally, and if I had been doing a Fair Isle project with just those two colors, the end result would have been a vaguely mottled bit of mud. It wasn't such a big deal for the red and brown on Arhelon because they never touch each other, so their real life coloration is distinct.

Further proof- here's Arhelon, pre-sharpie. If I was to guess how many colors I'd used, based on this photo, I would have said black, white, and 2 shades of something...

When in reality, I used black, white, yellow, brown, red, green, and two shades of blue. What amazes me is that the most distinct color difference is between the two blues, rather than either blue with the green.

Next time, I'll scan the yarns before I start a project (unless subtle is the point, which it may be for the Mucha design).

Someday, I'll learn

There's this Knitting Teacher who always tells her Fair Isle workshop students to test out the yarn for any given project by scanning the skeins (or taking a picture) and then digitally turning the shot into black and white. She says that if you can't tell how many colors there are in the black and white shot, then they're too close tonally to be distinguishable in your finished piece. 

This Knitting Teacher (who teaches all over the country, I might add) makes a point to say this in every workshop. She even has examples to show the students, proof that, yep, if the colors aren't markedly different in b/w, they won't be in real life either, and a whole lot of effort will be expended on not a lot of effect.

I wish I could remember that teacher's name. And even more so, I wish I would follow her damn advice.

Case in point...

I give you Arhelon, with the central motif done. 19000 sts (yeah, I did the calculation).

If you stand real close, you can see that the turtle has green feet, head and tail, and the fishies have green scales... as opposed to the blue shades of the water. But from any distance at all, they look close enough as to be identical. If I'd done the Scan Test before starting, I would have known this. As it was, I knew it well before finishing the piece, but I kept telling myself that the color difference would show up more, the more I got done.

I was wrong.

So I looked at Arhelon, and I contemplated it. And then I remembered this Knitting Teacher who sometimes shocks her students by whipping out a Sharpie to correct small errors in Fair Isle knitting. Sometimes the students are amused, sometimes they gasp in astonishment (and dismay), but always, they're surprised that it actually works.

I looked at Arhelon, and I looked at my Sharpies, and then I looked at both again some more, and then...

 Yep, I like this a lot better. I dotted each green stitch (feeling far more guilty doing it on needlepoint than I ever do on knitting) with a light green Sharpie, and man, am I happy I did. Now we can see that the fishies and turtle are not also made of seawater.

And the colors are still mottled.

But next time, next time dammit, I'm going to do what that teacher said BEFORE I start the project.

Road Trip With Camera

I've mentioned several times that I belong to a group that is doing Fat Mum Slim's Photo a Day Challenge. The group is wonderful- I've formed some pretty amazing friendships, and our conversations range to the moon and back, with new ones started every day as we post our own photos. I've become a better photographer, and I know that I look at my world differently than I used to, discovering photo subjects in the most unlikely places.

Today's prompt is Building. I knew which building I wanted to shoot, but I couldn't remember which little town it was in, so The Hub and I got in the car yesterday and drove country mile after country mile, from little town to little town, in the blazing heat, finding photo ops everywhere.

Though I often post more than one pic on any given day, narrowing them down to even two is sometimes difficult. More so today, because I snapped easily a dozen pics on our little road trip that qualify, and I have the burning need to show them off ...

This is the photo I posted for the challenge- the Pride of Mansfield, SD. The contrast between the crisp shingles and sharp lettering on the signs, with the peeling paint is fascinating. We tend to forget what a Big Deal Lawrence Welk was back in the day.

This is the high school that my husband attended- Northwestern in Mellette, SD. It is now a community center, and if you squint, you might spot a Bud Light sign in the basement window. There is now a restaurant in what used to be the school cafeteria- they serve good midwestern food, in huge portions. And beer.

 This vintage garage has seen better days.

Every town, no matter how small, had its own grain elevator. These old elevators are quickly disappearing from the plains, replaced by shiny, huge, round silos. This one is privately owned, set in the middle of an anemic soybean field.

I don't know what the hexagonal barn was used for, but it goes with the above elevator.

 Also this chicken coop

 and this barn.

 This is the former post office in Ashton, SD. It's the only red building in town. Well, it's the only painted red building. In the distance, you can see that Ashton still has an old-style grain elevator.

 Beautiful detailing on the old PO.

 This grain elevator is also on private property.

My guess is that one good wind storm, and it'll be gone.

 The Hub tells me that this used to be a mechanic's shop.

 I love the detailing over what used to be the entrance. Also the little birdie.

My town still has a grain elevator. It also has many of the new round ones, which are larger, more mordern and more efficient. I don't suppose this one will stand for much longer.

 I actually got out of the car in the 100 degree heat, climbed down through the ditch, onto someone's property, knelt down on the ground and snapped this shot of nearly ripe wheat.  Yes, this is what I've become- a sweaty tresspasser with dirty knees.

 Amber waves...

So Beautiful.

Wordless Arhelon progress

Thursday Tab- Whitman We Are A Family, 1954

I can safely say that this is the most unusual multi-doll set I've ever seen. And one of the coolest!

Thanks Dottie!

p.s. Gotta love Dad's skin tight Western jeans... Also the plaid jodphurs... And the pipe he carries in 4 of the outfits...

Further experimentation

Remember the Mucha transfer and the 14ct needlepoint mesh? I haven't started work on it yet because I'm not done with Arhelon, but I knew when I made the transfer that the image would be better served by using a smaller mesh, like, oh, say, an 18 count. Well, the 18ct canvas that I bought on eBay arrived today, and in the nature of further experimentation, I decided to make an identical transfer and iron it to the 18 ct just to see how it looked (the canvas isn't wasted if I don't use it, I can either use it with a charted design, or I can iron another image on the back side).

The first thing I found out is that printable t-shirt transfer sheets for dark fabric aren't the same as t-shirt transfer sheets for light fabric. For some reason, the image didn't transfer to the canvas at all. I mean, not even a spec. I have no idea what I did wrong, but I'm sure it was something. So mysterious.

I have more light transfer sheets coming, but I'm too impatient to wait, so I used the leftover piece from the first transfer, and ironed that on the 18 ct mesh. There was enough *ink* left to make a transfer. The design was very faint, of course, but still visible.

I positioned the plain paper printout of the image under the new printed mesh...

and used a sharpie to trace the most important outlines. 

 Here are both of the canvasses side by side- the 14ct (on the right) is prettier of course, because it has far more ink. But even at a distance, I can see that I'll get much more detail in the finished piece if I work the 18 ct (with embroidery floss most likely).

And even though the colors aren't perfectly transferred to the canvas, I can refer to the printout for help. I will probably do both faces though, just as a comparison, though I doubt I'll needlepoint both full images- there are far too many other designs I'd like to tackle.

But I'm not starting either one until I finish Arhelon. I'm over half done now. Woohoo!!!

There's a Cold Front coming...

When I was in Closet Cleaning Mode (now thankfully passed), I found this:

My friend Ann had this tee made for me when Cold Front was first published. I wore it proudly. Cold Front is being re-released in a couple of weeks, and I'm wearing it again, though just as a swimsuit cover up.

My son, the Genius Artist, has come up with yet another fantastic eBook cover, and this may be my favorite one yet:

I love everything about this- Curt captured the essence of the book perfectly. But I think that the chrome lettering on the side of the truck is my absolute favorite thing about it.

See? Cool, no?

And seeing the covers all lined up is cooler yet- note the subtle color progression: red/white, dark red/gold, gold/brown, brown/gray, gray/gold.... I can't wait to see what happens with Foreign Body, which is the 6th and final Tory Bauer mystery (at least the last of the stories that have been written and published... maybe there will be more...)

As usual, Curt has posted the evolution of this cover- it's absolutely fascinating to see how each one came to be. Scroll to the bottom for the Cold Front section.

I've finished proofing the files and the whole thing is back with my friend Ryan, for final formatting. After that, it's just a matter of getting Cold Front listed on the various sites. My guess is that it'll be available within 2 weeks. Woohoo!