Cyanometer

On By CarynIn Craft, photography

I had never heard of a cyanometer and was curious when I saw it scrolling my feed. It was invented in 1789 by Horace-Bénédict de Saussure and is used to classify the color of the sky. Gavin Gough has a good quality free printable here. My youngest is all about blue skies, so I printed her one and laminated it.

Photo description: cyanometer held up to the sky, matching color about 26, sun behind me

What my readings did not tell me, and what I had to discover in practice, was that you need a good light source on the cyanometer. Standing facing the sun, or in the shade, makes the colors too dark. I found using it with the sun at my back shining on the disc worked best.

Photo description: Cyanometer held up in the shade, which does not work well

Of course there are many other factors to collect when taking your reading: time of day, geographical location, angle in the sky, cloud cover. Painters and photographers use it as a reference. Overall an interesting little disc.

Ball to cake

On By CarynIn Craft

Every knitter or crocheter has their own preference for the form of their yarn. My friend prefers to wind her yarn into balls before she gets started. With purchased yarn, I dig into the middle and pull the yarn from the inside, then wind the remains as cakes on a winder, or nostepinne style balls. I have a whole bag of remnants that are balled and I am rewinding them as cakes.

Photo description: yarn bowl with hand wrapped ball of yellow yarn going to a Royal ball winder clamped to the counter

I tried using my ceramic yarn bowl, but it isn’t up to the speed produced by the winder, so I dropped the ball into a basket so it didn’t roll around on the floor.

Achievement

On By CarynIn Cats, Craft
Photo description: calico cat sitting on crochet made with wool

Izzy the calico cat has been trying to lay on the wool vest I am crocheting for weeks. She finally found me distracted and cuddled in. I did continue to work on the piece and just rotated her as I went. She still stayed put. Purring.

Size comparison

On By CarynIn Cats, photography, Wildlife

The trail cam pictures gave a good way to compare the size of the new raccoon vs a cat.

Photo description: night vision view of a long haired white cat with his front feet on a wood bench
Photo description: night vision view of a raccoon with his front feet on a wood bench

These two photos were also taken just under two hours apart, so the depth of the ice is the same.

The ice accumulation from the last storm did finally all go away. I can’t recall that I’ve ever seen it stay as long as it did in Texas. I still refuse to call it snow.

Throwback Thursday: doll riding helmet

On By CarynIn Craft, throwback

Back in October of 2016, my kids were taking horseback riding lessons. My youngest had trouble keeping her hands forward, and her instructor had the idea of having a stuffed toy sit in front of her on the saddle and she had to keep her hands in front of the toy. She chose one of her baby dolls, and of course baby had to have a helmet if she was riding horseback, so I crocheted a helmet with black yarn.

Photo description: crocheted riding helmet with straps and a button closure on a baby doll toy

I don’t have any pictures of my youngest riding with the doll, but her hands are forward with the reins in all the pictures after, so something clicked.