Mermaids!

I was asked to make two more mermaid cocoons, just like here, but the size of the smaller of the two.  And a bit wider at the bottom.  And bigger tails.

As I mentioned in my last post, I hadn't written anything down.  So, once again, I was blowing up pictures and counting stitches.  This time I wrote it all down.  Including the new tail design. 

If the pictures look fuzzy or small, click on them and look at them through the Blogger picture viewer.

 When I first  started this blog, we'd had a digital camera only a few months.  I took pictures because, well, this is a knitting blog and if you can't see what I'm talking about, what's the point.  When I first started TracyKM Designs, I was doing some newborn photography props, so I didn't worry too much about my own photos because I knew I'd have some awesome, "real" photos to share.  But not all my orders were for photo props, or weren't custom ordered (they were things I made up in hopes of selling).  I had the basics of good photography, but hadn't done actual product photography.  It's been a fun journey.  There are times I get frustrated by having to wait for the perfect lighting outside (not too bright, not too overcast), and times I get cold, or it's taking too long, or I'm stumped by composition or design.  I liked the trick of using heavy invisible fishing line in my last mermaid cocoon pictures, but I hate our deck as the flooring.  I got some laminate floor to put together, but it hasn't happened yet.  And even though it was thick line, it wasn't quite strong enough to support these cocoons.

The benefit of dabbling in sewing is that I have collected quite a bit of fabric.  I started searching and saw this golden sand coloured piece and knew I had to use it.  However, the cocoon was a bit too big.  I wasn't thrilled about scrunching up the cocoon to get it to fit, although I thought it actually added to the lines of the composition.  Looking at the photos now, (I had to crop them as the fabric wasn't quite wide enough), I'm very happy!  Curving the cocoon seems to add a bit of "movement" to the photo.  Draws you down, through the photo. 
I wish I could offer photography for other crafters.  I cringe when I see Facebook pages with blurry, dark, crowded, or distracted photos.  I don't have fancy equipment, so I'm not a "real" photographer.  I don't have a light box, or a studio.  I also know that other crafters tend to be just as broke as I am LOL.

This is the new tail design.  I don't want to give away all the secrets :) I kept thinking of using short rows because I wanted more width across the middle, but not at the top.  You don't see short rows in crochet very much, but I realized one night what you do see, is the different stitch heights used to their advantage.  That's all I'll say :)

Yarn In: 918gr
Yarn Out: 889gr + 890gr + 1284gr = 3063
Balance:  2145gr more USED than bought
Costs:  43.09/41days = $1.05/day