Playing Around

Last week I received a special request in my shop. Could I make a lip balm holder in black and gray (as opposed to the one I have in black or the one I have in gray). 

Normally, I would go to the yarn store and look for a variegated yarn in black and gray. While the yarn store is open, I wasn't really in the mood to go out searching. Instead, I decided to play a bit with the black and gray yarns I had on hand. 

This is what I ended up with... 

I did not intend nor expect the pattern that emerged. I was just playing around with the yarn. 

It turned out kind of diamond-y. 

So, how did I achieve this? Every other round was "checkerboard". That is, I did one black stitch, one gray stitch, and repeated. The non "checkerboard" rounds were alternated black or gray. So... 

Round 1: black

Round 2: alternate gray and black stitches

Round 3: gray

Round 4: alternate black and gray stitches

And I repeated those rounds, finishing on round 10 with an "alternate gray and black" round. 

(I'm writing this out more for myself, in case I ever have to reproduce this.) 

I almost just did stripes. I'm rather glad I didn't just do stripes.

Christmas Tree Ornaments and Mermaid Lip Balm Holders

I got all the knitted and beaded ornaments listed, at least I got the ones listed that I have pictures for. (They're here if you're interested.) I'll just add the ones not listed to the pile of stuff I still need to photograph.

If you recall, a while ago I made a mermaid tail lip balm holder in teal blue. Only, I couldn't get the color to come out right in the photograph...

It turns out that the fixes I used to get purple to work also helped with the teal. Now I get pictures that look like this...

Which is such a better representation of the actual color. I was happy enough with it that I got it listed, too.

I also managed to make and list mermaid tail lip balm holders for the EOS lip balms...

I just like the way it looks when upside down. But hanging from a lanyard, it looks like this...

I'll be listing more of these as the week progresses. You can find all these lip balm holders here.

The Purple Problem

I've been whining quite a lot about my new camera. First it was the lighting. Then it was getting things in focus. Finally, it was the purple problem.

It's kind of an issue when colors, like purple, don't show up and look like they look in person. This is especially troublesome for items I'm selling in my Etsy shop.

I had been flummoxed as to what to do. In desperation, I did a random Google search. I got no good answers, but the various blog posts and articles I found jarred something loose in my head. I could sit down and experiment, couldn't I? So, that's what I did last week.

I made an EOS lip balm holder with a mermaid tail in a variegated yarn that had purple and my other problem color, teal blue, in it. If I could get that to look pretty close to true to life, my problem was solved.

At first, the colors came out looking like mud...

Looks blue, doesn't it? That's the problem. Yes, there is blue, but there's also purple and teal. It's a beautiful yarn. Great colors. But they don't show up here.

And this is an improvement over where I started. For lighting, I fashioned a homemade lightbox. The focus issue eventually solved itself. I have no idea what I was doing wrong before, but now things just focus for me.

For the purple problem, I went into the camera's settings. Things like DRO, ISO, focus, and metering didn't have an impact on color detection. What did end up making a difference were the white balance and the exposure compensation.

Those were white balances that don't work. But...

You can kind of see the purple in those. Why are they so dark? Because someone *ahem* had the exposure compensation dialed down into the negatives. Which in retrospect is stupid, but at the time, I didn't quite know what it meant.

Once I dialed up the exposure compensation, suddenly things were looking up...

(I put away my lightbox at this point thinking I was done for the night. But then I wanted to take just a few more shots.)

And now that I had settings that worked, I could take some time (on a different day) and get some pictures that actually kind of look like the actual colors.

I did a little sweetening with photo editing, but this gets so much closer than I had gotten before. (The colors are a little deeper in person.) In fact, I'm happy enough with it that I finally listed this lip balm holder in my Etsy shop. (Click on the link to find the listing.)

Now, fingers crossed, hopefully this doesn't throw other colors into confusion. It's looking pretty good so far.

Crochet Tails

I've been making lip balm holders for a while now...

...and also for the EOS lip balms... 

The other day I was looking these up online and I discovered that there was a new thing. Lip balm holders in the shape of mermaid tails. 

Oooh. Now, that's an idea. 

I finally got around to trying it... 

I modified this pattern to fit the lip balm holders I already make.

And I did it in teal blue because it seemed fitting.

I kind of like them. It's a good warm weather project as it's small and it's crochet. (Crochet doesn't make my hands sweat as badly as knitting does.)

Blame It On the Heat

The jellyfish are coming along...

I don't have a complete jellyfish at the moment. But these pieces will go into the four that are in process.

I could be totally done with them except: (1) It's been warm, so I haven't been doing as much yarny stuff as I would do when it's cold, (2) I've been working many days (which is such a shock as I don't usually get so many summer school days, but I'm so very, very grateful for the work), and (3) It turns out that the heat is making me stupid.

How is the heat making me stupid? The other night I thought it'd be fun to do some different color combinations of the flip-flop keychains. I needed a bit of a break from the jellyfish. And while one came out really nice...

...I managed to make stupid mistakes on the other two. This one in orange and purple...

...is for me, so I'm making myself live with the mistake. Can you see it?

As for the other...

...I was going to put it up for sale, but I can't sell this. Can you see the mistake? How about here?

Yeah, so I'm going to have to remake this. Ah well.

I did manage to list a couple more lip balm cozy colors. (If you click on the pictures, it'll take you to the listings on Etsy.)

As I was doing some research, I saw lip balm cozies with mermaid tails on them. What do you think? Should I attempt such a thing?

Updating Pictures, Part 2

I've been taking more pictures and updating more Zizi Rho Designs listings. (I actually spent some time on a new project, but I don't have enough to show off yet. Maybe next week.)

Last week I showed the stick lip balm holders. I also redid the EOS lip balm holder cozies.

EOS Lip Balm Cozy with Clip

And a couple of the water bottle carriers.

Lavender Water Bottle Carrier

I even took some pictures of the unicorn gift card holder. (I may or may not list this. I'm not sure yet.)

Alas, the pictures of my lacy gauntlets didn't come out quite right, but I rather liked this close up.

But I did manage to get a couple more keychains listed.

Keyper Wrist Strap in Purple Rain

Copper Beaded Keyper Wrist Strap

And once again, links to Zizi Rho Designs, my Facebook page, and my Pinterest page.

Updating Pictures

I haven't much felt like knitting lately. But I have been taking pictures. It's "update the photos" time (long overdue).

First, I finally got some of those keychains that I was making listed...

Lavender Beaded Keyper Keychain

Copper Colored Beaded Keyper Keychain

Black Marble Knitted Keyper Keychain

Then I took some new pictures of my lip balm holders...

Lip Balm Cozy in Lavender

Bottom View of Multi-Colored Lip Balm Cozy

It's still a work in progress. (And I discovered I can list things on my Facebook page. I had no idea.)

If you're on Facebook and don't follow Zizi Rho Designs already, I would appreciate the follow. Thanks. And I've also been playing a bit with my Pinterest, too, if anyone is there as well. 

My Shameful Addiction

I don't lose things usually. I get the same number of socks from my dryer as I put in. I replace pens when they run out of ink. I always know where my car keys are.

Last Monday they forecast temperatures in the 90s, so I pulled out my capris. Briefly, I thought I should put my lip balm in my little lip balm clip

Shameless product plug: You can buy one of these from me...

but ultimately decided against. It's not like I'd lose it.

Am I the only one with a lip balm addiction?

I'm sure by now you know where I'm going with this. I got into the classroom, and after checking the lesson plan I checked my pockets (nervous habit). The pocket which should have held my lip balm was empty.

Oh, the horror!

The classroom was at the back of campus. The lip balm could have fallen out of my pocket just about anywhere. I retraced some of my steps, but first period was just about to start and it was already getting hot.

I suffered through the day. (At least the air conditioning worked. And worked well.) Checked out with the office. Got back to my car...and there was my lip balm on the ground just outside my driver's side door.

Found it!

My nearly perfect record (there was that time I lost my wallet) remains intact.