andy warhol knitwear

Last week I finally hit upon the setting which is probably most appropriate for taking pictures of knitwear. It's the "food" setting. The thing is, even though it has 12 megapixels and a billion gajillion settings and whatnot, my camera still can't pick up the nuances of colors. That lovely cowl up there (photographed in the most unimaginative manner) is a most beautiful shade of lavender mixed with blues and lilac and certainly 50% more beautiful than seen in this picture. Although this is the picture that portrays the color most accurately, the others were miserable failures.

This is a shot of my Tegami Bachi cowl made from the wonderfully soft and addictive Malabrigo Yarn Lace in "Violetas", food setting, reddest option, macro option. It's closest to the original shade, just like the shot of the whole cowl above (also food setting, reddest option). Seems my camera has the problem of turning everything too blue.

This is still food and macro setting, only a little less red. It's turning blue! Although there is really not too much blue in the yarn.

This is the default and apparently "neutral" setting. See how blue it is? How can this be? Is it the light? No direct sunlight at the time, no flash, everything should have yielded a "normal" shot.

Have a look at this! Food, macro and the first actually "blueish" setting. It's a whole new yarn, one apparently named "Antarctica" or something similar.

Finally, the bluest setting. It looks like an Andy Warhol print. I wonder what food actually looks like photographed with this setting. I guess I'll be testing that soon. But isn't it crazy? For comparison, the reddest setting right below.

No, it isn't photoshopped. It's just my camera! 

Some more examples. That's a view of the sunset taken from my window (forgive the reflection of the actual camera). Setting probably the generic "landscape", colors pretty accurate.

The same view, only with the "dusk" setting. Notice a pinkish tinge that wasn't actually there? That's actually the automatic "dusky" setting. Why?

A view of the night sky one day past the new moon. Notice a pinkish tinge? Yes, the "dusk setting".

And that's the "night" setting. More like the real thing, but apparently, it adds a bit of a greenish tinge. 

I wonder ... is it me? Is it my computer? Or is it the camera? I never had such problems with the old analog camera. Ok, I couldn't take pictures like this with the old analog camera. But even the old digital camera only had color problems with intense purples and pinks - seems like it's colors with an ultraviolet component that are the trouble. But I have lots of blue knitwear, the loveliest being my new Cartouche Fragment. Lots of variegation in that one, greens, blues, purples, grays - and my camera can't pick them up. I'm going to do a few more experiments. Maybe it really is the light in my room. And I guess further experiments as to the veracity of the "dusk", "sunset" and "night" settings are needed. But how annoying ...

And if you think I'm not still watching the news from Japan in horror ... every morning I don't want to get up because the news is worse every time. I hope when I wake up tomorrow, Japan is still there. A bit worse for wear, but without the nuclear catastrophe that seems to be on the horizon.

not as much fun as I wanted it to be

So, my exam is over. I am a bona fide historian with an MA degree (actually the direct translation would be Master of Philosophy). The exam itself wasn't very spectacular, which is why it's strange that the university is keeping the actual details of what happens in the exam a secret. Or so it seems. They finally have webpages where they tell you what forms to use and what formats your thesis should have and a hundred other things, but nothing about the actual exam. Anyway, it was even fun and afterwards I felt extremely happy.

Everything seemed to be going well. My room was clean and things were stored away better than when I first moved in. My guests arrived and helped me carry my 10 000 bags over to my mother's flat where I'll be staying until next Thursday or so while they're using my little shoebox as a base. We had sparkling wine and roasted vegetables and all kinds of delicious things and I went to sleep happy about my new status.

The next morning, I wondered whether my thesis had been entered into the university library catalogue yet. And it has! It's even findable in two of the important meta-catalogues. I took a screenshot as a souvenir.

Then I read the news that there had been a huge earthquake and tsunami in Japan and started following the news updates. I only watched one live report and had to turn it off after a couple of minutes. It was terrible and terrifying and I'm still watching the developments around the Fukushima nuclear plant and hope they'll be able to get the situation under control.

Why care about Japan? I'm an absolute nerd about anime (Japanese animated films and television series) and manga (Japanese comics) and I admire and appreciate many aspects of Japanese culture, even if I can't understand or empathize with all of them. And now that country that I am so interested in is in terrible trouble and I can't do very much except watch in horror.

So, not the best day. Then this morning I finally read the book that has been waiting for me for a month or so, about the last days of the Second World War in Berlin and the time immediately afterwards from the perspective of a twelve-year-old girl and that has also contributed to a rather depressive mood.

Then I fled. Outside, the sun was shining, the wind was warm and I had to buy catfood anyway. I went by my favorite silversmith's to see if she was already working and to see if maybe she had her baby son with her - three and a half months old now. I had dropped off a pair of knitted socks in February and wanted to see if she had received them. She had! And he was wearing them and she was really happy with them, since knitted socks were an item on one of the "must have" lists and she knew noone who could knit socks!

The yarn is Lang Jawoll Cotton Jacquard.

Anyway, that cheered me up immensively and a little detour through the Museumsquartier cheered me up even more. I've also found a new song to learn that has consoled me a little - a German folk song from the 16th century that Johannes Brahms did a litte work on. It's an incredibly gentle and romantic song from the perspective of a man waking his beloved in the morning and the melody is lovely as well.

So it's been ups and downs. Maybe the best time to finish my Herzblut shawl, which is eating yarn like a very hungry moth! But I'm getting closer and closer to the final row and can't wait to see it blocked and in all its glory. So much for now - the next post will be about my crazy camera settings featuring psychedelic pictures of knitted fabric.