Hi all 😁 Feel free to join in this weekly challenge whenever you find yourself thinking “I’m a fan of…” (see below for how to).
This week’s Fan Of… a new knitting machine.
My wife recently bought a new knitting machine so that we could make our own hats, scarfs & gloves, & eventually jumpers & cardigans. I thought I’d give it a shot to make myself a hat!
From this…
Ball of yarn
To this…
Double thickness wooly hat
Using this…
Sentro circular knitting machine
The first hat I made was able to be worn with a brim…
Or as a slouch beanie…
So far, my wife & I have made several scarfs & hats. One of the hats I made for a colleague’s birthday (her mum has just ordered another one), & sold two to another colleague. So, we’ll see where we go from here.
We’ve also started making pom-poms for the hats as well, but that’s a post for another time 😃
How To Join In
1. Create a Fan Of… Photo Post. 2. Add a link to your Fan of… blog post in my comment box or create a pingback by linking to my post. 3. Title your post Fan Of… or add Fan Of… tag.
Hi all 😁 Feel free to join in this weekly challenge whenever you find yourself thinking “I’m a fan of…” (see below for how to).
This week’s Fan Of… the magnification of ice crystals in a lensball.
I was recently up at Palacerigg Country Park on a cold winters morning. I’d literally just raced the sun to the top of the park for the first sunrise shots of the New Year.
New Year sunrise
Happy with the sunrise shots, I headed off to a different part of the park for more lensball landscape shots.
Lensball landscape
The wood that lensy was sat on had frost on it where the crystals had grown in the shape of the wood grain.
Ice crystals
I noticed that looking down through the lensball, the ice crystals were magnified, with a star burst effect round the outside 😎
The next shots were taken in a slightly different place.
The ice structure was very different.
How To Join In
1. Create a Fan Of… Photo Post. 2. Add a link to your Fan of… blog post in my comment box or create a pingback by linking to my post. 3. Title your post Fan Of… or add Fan Of… tag.
Hi all 😁 Feel free to join in this weekly challenge whenever you find yourself thinking “I’m a fan of…” (see below for how to).
This week’s Fan Of… is a wee break & Happy New Year. Although the craziness of Christmas working in retail is mostly done, we now face the task of reconfiguring the store to go into spring; so more long days over the next couple of weeks. To that end, I’m taking a wee break from Fan Of…! The next post will be on Jan 11th.
As Hogmanay is only a few days away now, this seems the ideal opportunity to wish you all a Happy New Year & best wishes for 2021.
Aberlour Single Malt Whisky
Slàinte mhath & lang may yer lum reek! (Good health & long may your chimney smoke (may you live long)) 🎉
How To Join In
1. Create a Fan Of… Photo Post. 2. Add a link to your Fan of… blog post in my comment box or create a pingback by linking to my post. 3. Title your post Fan Of… or add Fan Of… tag.
Hi all 😁 Feel free to join in this weekly challenge whenever you find yourself thinking “I’m a fan of…” (see below for how to).
This week’s Fan Of… is Yule.
Yuletide wreath
For Yule, Susan & I made our own Yuletide wreath. We went into some local woods & collected some Ivy (Evergreen symbol of immortality), pine (branches bring healing & joy to the home), Evergreens (representing everlasting life) & Holly (evergreen of protection, spiky bristles are said to ward off evil spirits).
How To Join In
1. Create a Fan Of… Photo Post. 2. Add a link to your Fan of… blog post in my comment box or create a pingback by linking to my post. 3. Title your post Fan Of… or add Fan Of… tag.
Hi all 😁 Feel free to join in this weekly challenge whenever you find yourself thinking “I’m a fan of…” (see below for how to).
This week’s Fan Of… is a branch to sit Lensy on. I’m always on the lookout for somthing to sit Lensy (my lensball) on; I can often get much clearer pictures that way. If I’m lucky there are some low or fallen branches that I can use.
Whilst writing this post, I realised that some of the shots from different times of the year had a similar composition, so I thought I’d use the compare block to display them.
How To Join In
1. Create a Fan Of… Photo Post. 2. Add a link to your Fan of… blog post in my comment box or create a pingback by linking to my post. 3. Title your post Fan Of… or add Fan Of… tag.
I needed some new gloves, so began by looking on Amazon at fingerless gloves, but quickly discounted them; didn’t want my fingers exposed the entire time. Next I looked at mittens that had a top section that folded back to reveal fingerless gloves underneath. These seemed the way to go, apart from most were made of wool & I wanted something waterproof; that and the fact that the fold back section were either held down with velcro (never lasts long) or buttons (tend to fall off & fiddly).
In the “more items to explore” section I spotted some gloves specifically for photography (a bit steep at £74). I then put gloves & photography into the search & several showed up. The ones I decided on ticked all the boxes; waterproof, the thumb & forefinger tips hinged back & were held by magnets. There were no fancy buckles either, so they’re easy to slip on & off. They do have grippy material on the palms & fingers, but to be honest, it’s the most slippy, grippy stuff I’ve come across (only downside)! They also featured in Amateur Photographer, and got a thumbs up from them.
Sewn in magnetsThumb & forefinger tips folded backThumb & forefinger tips folded back
There is a zip pocket on the back of the left glove, for spare SD cards; this pocket is actually quite big & a DSLR battery easily disappears inside!
Zip pocket
I took the gloves with me when I headed to the park in the snow, in temps hovering about zero 🥶; they kept my hands warm & dry throughout. If my finger tips got cold with the tips folded back, I put them back over my fingers, which warmed up again in no-time 😃 The tips folded back easily & were held well by the magnets, & went back over the finger & thumb relatively easy. They are not too bulky, either, so basic operation of the camera could be carried out without the tips folded back. When the tips were folded back, I had full dexterity for finer manipulation of the camera & lens. I could also easily operate my phone for Instagram posts without having to take my gloves off 👍.
When I got back, my wife took a few shots of the gloves in use.
Easy off gloves in use
How To Join In
1. Create a Fan Of… Photo Post. 2. Add a link to your Fan of… blog post in my comment box or create a pingback by linking to my post. 3. Title your post Fan Of… or add Fan Of… tag.
Hi all 😁 Feel free to join in this weekly challenge whenever you find yourself thinking “I’m a fan of…” (see below for how to).
This week’s Fan Of… is Low autumn sun.
This week finally saw me back out with Snappy in one of my favourite local places, Cumbernauld House Park. I specifically headed out this morning owing to a forecast calling for clear skies, with the hope of getting some good shots using the low lying sun to create shadows & highlight the natural undulations in the Park.
This was only partially successful, for the forecast clearskies were in actuallity about 3-4 octas of StratoCu & AltoCu (once a forecsater…). I was able to gets some good shots as the sun broke through gaps in the clouds; plus bonus of being able to get some good shots for Hammad’s weekly sky challenge.
How To Join In
1. Create a Fan Of… Photo Post. 2. Add a link to your Fan of… blog post in my comment box or create a pingback by linking to my post. 3. Title your post Fan Of… or add Fan Of… tag.
Hi all 😃 Wow, I can’t believe it’s been just over a year now that I’ve been running the Water Water Everywhere challenge, so, I’ve made this the subject of my Fan Of… post this week. Thank you to all you awesome people out there that take part 😃 & I look forward to another year of awesome contributions from across the globe!
Feel free to join in whenever you have a water picture to post (any type of water, in any state, will do). See below for how to join the fun 😁
I’ve put together a gallery of watery pictures this week, some previously posted & some new 😀
How To Join In
Create a Water Water Everywhere Photo Post.
Add a link to your WWE blog post in my comment box or create a pingback by linking to my post.
Title your post Water Water Everywhere or add WWE tag.
Hi all 😁 Feel free to join in this weekly challenge whenever you find yourself thinking “I’m a fan of…” (see below for how to).
This week’s Fan Of… is Stormtrooper Beer 😋
I have always been a huge fan of Star Wars since the originals back in the late 70s. Of all the characters, the much maligned Stormtroopers have always been my favourite, so, when I saw this beer on sale, with pint glass, I had to have it.
Stormtrooper Beer
Had a bit of help from my lego guys to get in to it 😂
First, they had to get into the box!
Next was getting the bottle open.
The guys weren’t strong enough, so had to call in a Scout Walker.
Success, cheerz 😋 (One guy did get stuck in the bottle whilst checking there wasn’t any left 🤣)
How To Join In
1. Create a Fan Of… Photo Post. 2. Add a link to your Fan of… blog post in my comment box or create a pingback by linking to my post. 3. Title your post Fan Of… or add Fan Of… tag.
Hi all 😁 Feel free to join in this weekly challenge whenever you find yourself thinking “I’m a fan of…” (see below for how to).
This week’s Fan Of… is flowering cacti.
These two cacti featured last year (Fan Of… #45). They had lots of flowers on them when my wife bought them for me; the blooms lasted a long time, but as with all flowers eventually wilted & died. For a long time nothing much happened, although a couple of flowers did materialise on the pinky-orange one in Aug. Through all this time, new leafs continued to sprout & finally, almost a year after they were in bloom, pretty much over night, they went crazy with flowers.
How To Join In
1. Create a Fan Of… Photo Post. 2. Add a link to your Fan of… blog post in my comment box or create a pingback by linking to my post. 3. Title your post Fan Of… or add Fan Of… tag.
