Norie

My second finished project of the year was the perfect opportunity to "test" the new tripod I bought for myself for Christmas. My old tripod, which will still be useful, as well, due to its much smaller size and lighter weight, was a problem when taking pictures of hats. If I stood up for the pictures, the angle would be too low, since the maximum height of the tripod is less than my height (which isn't really that much to begin with). So, I finally went and bought a tripod that goes up to at least 180 cm, which should be more than enough for me, and it also has a nice ballhead that allows practically any position for the camera you might want. The only downsides are that it's quite large and heavy, and not very easy to carry around in a snowy forest, for example, but at least for short distances I can manage.

The project itself is the Norie pattern from Gudrun Johnston's The Shetland Trader. A fast and easy knit, although my yarn choice, Rowan Felted Tweed, kind of hides the lace pattern. Otherwise, I think the yarn and pattern are a good match, since Felted Tweed is so pleasantly lightweight. I think I'd like to try it on a sweater some time. To be able to take the pictures I wanted today in adequate daylight (which isn't so easy this time of year here, when the sun sets just after 3 pm and makes it hard to take pictures on work days), I did a sort of a high-speed blocking: I pulled a dry hat over a balloon, sprayed just the top of it with water, because I didn't want to stretch the brim, shaped the crown flat and then used a blowdryer to dry it. This worked out pretty well.

The Ravelry project page