A journal of art, gardening, orchids, knitting and there may be dragons.
lunar eclipse
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If you missed it, or live in a cave and didn't know about the total lunar eclipse that happened ridiculously early on the morning of December 21st, 2010, I have pictures! You won't get to see another one from North America until April 15, 2014.
Before Wayne and I went to bed that night, we got out the big tripod and my tiny Panasonic Lumix and set them up. I set the Lumix to it's 'night scenery' setting, because I can't be bothered to figure out the optimum manual settings. I also set out warm clothing to jump into when the alarm went off at 3:00AM. Then we went to bed and I did my usual before sleep reading (I was reading a really good book...Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart, which I hope is not a foretelling of the world of the next lunar eclipse in 2014). The book was so good, that I didn't put the it down until something like 1:30AM. Two minutes later, the alarm went off. Wayne, jumped right out of bed and got dressed while prodding me to do the same. I groaned, I mumbled, I said 'f@#$ it, I'm not getting up, you take the pictures and I'll look at it tomorrow'. I woke up enough to realize, this is a rare thing and I do want to see it in person.
In the backyard, the red moon, at about 3:15AM was totally eclipsed. We had to position the camera to shoot through the branches of a big oak tree, but had a clear view. These are not the best pictures, but I'm proud of them. My favorite is the first one, taken before I set the zoom to the maximum 10x my camera will take. You can see Orion's belt in the lower left.
The next few were taken over the course of about 5 minutes. The exposure for each is 8 seconds. If I'd thought to use the timer to take the shot, maybe they would have been even clearer. The aperture and focal length are different for each. Click on the individual pictures if you want to see the settings.
Hey, I am checking this blog using the phone and this appears to be kind of odd. Thought you'd wish to know. This is a great write-up nevertheless, did not mess that up.
It took me more time to make the written charted pattern for this bookmark than it did to knit it! I'm still learning how to use Apple's Pages. Just click on the link above for the pattern. It's free to anyone who's interested. I'm still pretty bad at making tassels. I think I may invest in one of those little tassel making tools that they sell at Joann's. I found the lace pattern for this in Barbara G. Walker's Charted Knitting Designs: a third treasury of knitting patterns . Here's the finished bookmark: From knitting From knitting Enjoy! This pretty little orchid opened this morning. With all the rain we've had, two of the three buds dropped, but at least I have one flower. This is Pot. Burana Beauty. From orchids
I'll have to knit one of these to keep for myself one day. I'm giving them all away. Here's a new lace bookmark design. I call it (actually, Wayne thought of the title) "Leaf me alone, I'm reading". We stopped by Fiber Art, Inc . last Saturday and I bought 3 more balls of Mini Mochi in different colorways. I've got enough now to knit 30 or so more bookmarks. The pattern for "Leaf me alone" is here . I'm accumulating quite an assortment of bookmarks of all kinds. The Ephemera Society of America posts an article on the history of bookmarks . Yet another collection. Add it to the dragons (I will post about them, eventually), orchids, skulls...can't leave out the knitting yarn, needles, and patterns (those seem to multiply like breeding rabbits!). I have bookmarks in two books I'm reading now: Aimee Bender's The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake , and The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume Four . ...
A while ago, I downloaded a free font program to chart knitting patterns called Knitting Symbols by CET V2.00 . I've run across a couple of lace patterns I really like and just finished a dishcloth pattern I found on Ravelry . It's called Elvish Leaves. The first time I started knitting it, I frogged it after 20 or so rows because I ended up with 45 stitches on my needle when I should have had 39! I need pictures. Charts speak to me. I can follow them. So I made one for this really nice lace pattern created by Kelley's Yarns . I hope it links correctly here. Please let me know if you cannot access the file. I'll make more of these cloths. It was really fun to knit. This link should take you to a pdf file for the chart. Updated document on 1/31/10 to correct row 7, which should be k3, purl 33, k3.
by Gary Shteyngart, which I hope is not a foretelling of the world of the next lunar eclipse in 2014). The book was so good, that I didn't put the it down until something like 1:30AM. Two minutes later, the alarm went off. Wayne, jumped right out of bed and got dressed while prodding me to do the same. I groaned, I mumbled, I said 'f@#$ it, I'm not getting up, you take the pictures and I'll look at it tomorrow'. I woke up enough to realize, this is a rare thing and I do want to see it in person. 
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- David