Camera

Well, I got a new camera, a Canon A530, but I am just now trying to learn it. It has many more functions then my old one and I need to run through the onboard software to learn just what is available and how do I make it work. Not the best or most expensive camera but for my craft work and the kids it will do. The price was good, $148.94. I actually bought two of them.

I have found that this camera unlike my old one will take some little amount of continuous pictures. Of course this all depends on the flash recharing and what function you are in, it is not available in some funtions. Still this is an option that I might choose to use a time or two.

Even without the flash on the camera takes ok pictures inside the house. Oh and it has a couple of night time functions, one for just night pictures, and another that it meant to take a picture of a person against a nighttime background. I haven't tried this out. No one available when I have the time and the camera out. Everyone sleeping at that time. Oh well maybe sometime soon I can see just how well it might work.

I did find out one thing though. This camera came with non-rechargable batteries. Now my other camera went through those like crazy. So I use rechargables as that is much less expensive. I have been playing with this camera for a couple of days now and have not had to change batteries. When they do go I am going to have to take a good look at what these are as I will usually pick up some back up non-rechargables for emergency use when my rechargbles are dead. These ones are lasting very nicely and I think that they might be what I purchase for backups in the future.

So far learning portions of the software has not been too difficult. The booklet the company enclosed with the camera is also not bad. Oh I have seen books that come with software that are like greek to wade through and you get almost nothing from that book (quickbook pro, oh what an awful book that came with that). So this one at least is a good guide for the user, me to follow. I haven't had any trouble with it so far. This company didn't expect me to have a phd in photography when they put this one together. ROFLOL That's great as I am not very good at taking pictures and don't need the extra bother of a higher learning curve for the camera.

I do have some pictures to take of fingerless mittens. Then I can work on updating the blog entry without a picture of these. I also have a couple of other things to take pictures of that I haven't gotten around to taking. Today though is a work one. Clean, sweep and mop, then to the laptop for my "work" work. LOL So it is later for picture taking.

Oh this one is a 5 mega pixel with a 4x optical, 4x digital. Not too bad compared to the 2 mega pixel I had. Oh and I should say I am not giving up on the old camera. It just could be a software problem as nothing can be found to be wrong with the lens. So will continue to try to puzzle that one out. It would be nice if I could get it working again. That might not be as good as the one I have, but I did pay for it and I would like it to work.

Fingerless/thumbless mittens

Not a very good picture but the only one I managed to get before the old camera died. These look to be red on my computer but are actuall the cream and brown ones I knitted for Carter. I wanted to get a couple of pictures of them on the hands so you can see the openings but that didn't happen. Since I have the new camera I will get those pictures sometime and post them.


Mittens, fingerless
knitted from the wrist to the fingers with the simple e-wrap stitch.
Easy to do. Use one strand of worsted, two strands of a sports weight, or a strand of sports or worsted and a strand of fur type of yarn for the cuff.

I have used a size 15 1/2" guaged loom for the 1-2 year olds, a 17 3/4" gauged loom for the older children (which also fits me), and a blue knifty knitter which fits the hubby (cuff is a little loose with the yarn I used by he likes them that way).

I knit on the loom in the round going clockwise around the loom.

Cuff wrap an knit off for 10 to 20 rows (depends on how big you want the cuff) If you have used fun fur, cut the fun fur at this time. For worsted add another strand of worsted (on the large gauged looms), for sports weight go to three strands.

Wrap and knit from 10 to 24 rows for the body of the mitten. This length depends on how far up the arm you want the mitten to go and the size of the person it is to fit. So for example a toddler might be 10 to 12 rows, a child 10 to 17 rows. The more rows the further up the arm the mittens will go.

After finishing the rows for the body of the mitten you are going to do the thumb opening. The yarn strand will be at your last peg.

Pick up that strand and move it over to peg one leaving the last peg empty. Wrap, starting with peg one around but do not wrap the empty peg. Knit off. If you wrap and knit off in the same direction as I do you will be moving clockwise around the loom for this row.

Now the return row is counterclockwise and is knitted one peg at a time.

Lay the yarn above the stitch on your last peg. Lift the stitch and pull the yarn strand down through that stitch. Pull up a long loop with your strand. Hold the loop and pull the stitch it is going through off the peg. Now look at the loop you are holding, it is coming straight out of that stitch you just knitted. You want to twist it to put it back on the peg. So just twist the loop clockwise so it is laying on its side towards your right and place it back on the peg. One twisted knitted stitch done in the flat.

Continue around the loom doing each peg as above.

You are back to peg one. E-wrap each peg around to the empty peg and wrap the empty peg also. Knit off each peg that has two wraps. this is row one of the top palm portion of the mitten.

Holding the wrap on the last peg so it doesn't fall off (it is not attached to another stitch at this point), e-wrap all the pegs again and knit off. This is row two of this section. Your last stitch is now secured by this new row and your yarn strand is back to the last peg.

Continue wrapping for 3 to 12 rows. Here again it depends on the size of a person you are making it for. The larger the hand the more rows you need to reach the base of the fingers.

To remove the mittens. The best way I have used is as follows:
With a crochet hook (for the larger looms I use a J, for the smaller an H-I) pick up the stitch with the yarn strand off the last peg, pick up the stitch off of peg one, two stitches on the crochet hook, yarn over with your working yarn (the yarn coming from your skein) and pull through both stitches on the hook. Now pull up the stitch on the hook to make it slightly looser then the normal loop on the hook. Pick up the stitch off of peg 2 and repeat the process, always making sure you make the final loop looser.

Making that last loop looser keeps the piece from being too tight around the finger base and allows for a little extra stretch.

When you have picked up the stitch off the last peg and worked it down to one stitch on the hook remove the mitten from inside the loom.

Now you will see a gap between where the first and last stitches were. Put your crochet hook into a solid section where the first stitch is and pull through the working yarn, pull it right through the stitch on the hook, yarn over and pull through again cutting the yarn as you do so to pull it all the way through. Hide ends.

For the thumb portion. I leave the thumb portion open as the finger portion, but that area is a little loose with the strands that go between the fingers. So to reinforce that area I take a yarn needle and the same yarn I have been using (one strand only), and just do a whipstitch all around the opening for the thumb, finish off hide then ends and the mittens is completed.