…look what Photoshop can do — all by itself — to a handful of photos.

I went to the Rose Garden at the Woodland Park Zoo last weekend with the vague idea that if I took a sequence of pictures — making sure that they overlapped each other — that Photoshop could assemble them into one scene. How Photoshop would do this, I hadn’t a clue. I just thought I’d read about it somewhere, and I wanted to try it.

So I took some pictures…visually lining things up as best I could (no tripod was involved), and went home thinking: this is going to take me hours to figure out. I sat down at the computer, downloaded the photos, made one quick trip to the Photoshop Help menu, and 2 minutes later (I’m not kidding) I had a seamless panoramic shot of the Rose Garden. Photoshop is frickin’ amazing.

P.S. To make a panoramic image in Photoshop CS4, go to File>Automate>Photomerge. Select your source files (I used 5 different photos), choose your layout (I used Spherical), click OK, and Photoshop does the rest.

I’m still addicted to Photoshop tutorials. The deal with this latest one (in the March 2010 issue of Photoshop User magazine) is that the tutorialist, Corey Barker, had recently taken a cruise to Aruba, where he shot a beautiful sunset-over-the-water scene. He then floated some type over the whole thing, reflected the type in the water and…coolness!

I had to try it, but what could I substitute for Aruba? How about…

I think this is hysterically funny. This might be one of those “guess you had to be there” jokes though.

P.S. Shot taken from the Ballard Bridge, Seattle.

Toby is making movies right and left, but it’s not like he’s the only talent in this household. Emma has been hard at work writing her memoir. Here’s the cover.

This will be one drama-packed story. First, she is born. Then she is named Fluffy. That’s a chapter’s worth of insult and injury right there. Next, teenage pregnancy. Cast out by family. Finding refuge in the shelter/foster care system. Surgery. Infections. Drugs. Finally…adoption. A new name. And, OMG! Living with Toby!

It’ll all be in the memoir. Candid. Frank. Uplifting. Enlightening. Emma.

Suddenly, I’m spending all of my free time working my way through Photoshop tutorials. This one is “Light Beams Through Text,” from the March 2010 issue of Photoshop User magazine.

Tom saw my finished poster (it could go on a bus) and said that “Toby” is an edge-of-your-seat espionage/thriller and you don’t know whether Toby is a good guy or a bad guy until the very end. And I thought: Now that’s a movie I’d pay good money to see.

Also, Toby himself is in the poster. He’s the silhouette at the base of the letter T. Tom didn’t see him until I pointed him out. I guess that’s part of the whole espionage thing…and it shows just how good Toby is.

Here’s the results of another Photoshop tutorial. The tutorial (in the March/April 2010 issue of Layers magazine) was on creating a retro poster background. In their example, they made a poster for a train exhibit. I went in a different direction.

This is Toby’s campaign poster. I don’t know what office he’s running for, but I’m pretty sure he has the support of the catnip lobby.

…of watching the Academy Awards when you’ve only seen one of the ten nominated best movies, and one of the 20 nominated best performances. It’s like being at a party where you don’t know anyone. Where you’re afraid the hosts might turn on you. Where one of the hosts introduces some guests as “clothes whores,” and you think, “man, what a juvenile sense of humor that guy has.” And then you think, “Besides, doesn’t he know children are watching?” Then you think, “No, they’re not. They have more sense.” Finally, you just want to pull a blanket over your head and take a nap.

Robert Downey Jr. and Tina Fey were good though.

And luckily there was knitting, so the Oscar-viewing hours weren’t completely wasted.

That’s the beginning of my “Boneyard Shawl,” designed by Stephen West. (There’s a Boneyard Shawl page on Ravelry, which includes a link to the free PDF pattern.) The yarn is Cascade 200 Superwash in color #867.

I’m loving this design. It’s very simple, but has an understated elegance. Plus, it’s fun to knit. I’ll probably be sorry when it’s over. Unlike the Oscars.

…I worked my way through another Photoshop tutorial. This one was in the March, 2010 issue of Photoshop User magazine, and the task was to turn an ordinary person into a “human-Na’vi hybrid avatar.” Easy-peasy. Not that Toby is exactly ordinary.

I think I’ve only seen one of the nominated movies this year (”Up”), but I’m planning on watching the Oscars anyway. Gotta check out the gowns. Gotta see what’s new in the Art of Montage.

Here’s a purse I finished late last fall and never got around to posting.

I’m posting it now, because I just bought Yet Another Purse Pattern (YAPP), and I needed to remind myself that I do actually make a purse now and again.

This one was really fun. It has pockets all over the place…

It’s going to be my “traveling light” purse for spring and summer. It hasn’t had an outing yet, but I have a feeling its time is coming soon.

The pattern is “Tube Pocket Purse,” designed by Ginnie Kelly of Wonder Woman Quilts. I bought it from Shibori Dragon (www.shiboridragon.com). The fabric is my own XOXOXO, The Cat. My very first collection…makes me feel kind of nostalgic…

Emma’s medal was provided by Franklin Habit. Thank you, Franklin! And thank you Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, for conceiving of this crazy event, and then galvanizing over 4,000 knitters to take up their needles and rise to the challenge. Anyone who hasn’t already seen it, should go check out Stephanie’s amazing Whistler sweater.

What am I going to do now, with no Olympics to watch, and no Central Park Hoodie to knit? Such a hard place to be. Is there anything to that hair-of-the-dog cure? I might have to buy some more yarn and start a new project. Dang.

The Knitting Olympics, Part 7