Secret Knitting, with updated photos, lol

First of all, I need to confess that I just got into big trouble for uploading this photo while the hubby was playing Call of Duty on X-box live, because it caused him to lag and die, lol.  So I can't upload the rest of the photos or he won't speak to me for the rest of the night, but if you haven't gotten to go check out my Ravelry project page for this puppy...go do it right now (no Ravelry account needed).  Seriously.  Why are you still here?? 

As you know, I troll Ravelry stalking my friends' activity feed to see the latest, newest, prettiest, funnest (?) projects and patterns out there.  I've seen some things that will knock your socks off, and some photography that let me know pretty quick that my old point-and-shoot sucked.  We eventually got a new camera, but there were so many options and buttons and to be honest I still don't know what half of them do so I sort of live-and-die by the flash and the 'natural lighting' functions. (Whew.)  Fast forward a few years to when my hubby went to school to get a degree in Web design, which led to our acquisition of Photoshop.  I've mentioned before that I've had some steep learning curves with Photoshop, but I've learned how to doctor my photos to look pretty much the way I want with a few simple settings, and I've gotten much faster.  These only took about an hour from camera flash to my project page.  Not bad considering my earlier efforts.  One thing that I've learned...you can make a pretty background with just about anything.  The background of that photo is just a white polo shirt draped across my bed.  But since I can't keep a white shirt clean to save my life, I probably won't be able to use it again :)

Tomorrow, my pretty mittens head out to Washington, to their new home.  I've started on my latest project and as usual, I immediately started to second guess my original vision.  But this time I told that voice to 'Shut the hell up', because I'm not going to let it scare me away from what I fell in love with and got really excited about when I first started sketching the idea.  Where does this new, bold version of designer-Cam come from, you ask?  Well, I've been working my way through the e-course (you know, the one I mentioned a couple times already), and it's been liberating!  Already I'm starting to network with other people in my position and that makes me feel better about where I am and how I feel.  I've responded pretty emotionally to several things that I've read because I was struggling with that issue.  I think I just needed the validation.  So here goes:

I am a fiber artist.  I am.  Others have tried to call me a designer, or an expert, or even a professional, and I've shot them down.  Why?!  Why was I afraid to admit that I'm an artist?  I think I was afraid that because I'm not at the level of the fiber artist that I admire and follow, that I didn't have the right to call myself that.  Who do I think I am to go out and create my own fan group on Ravelry?  Who am I to have an artist page on Facebook.  And when I first set it up, it was as a business page and not an artist page.  I've shunned that title for years, and without reason.  Here's a little background on me...

My mother is artistic, has beautiful handwriting, sews, cross-stitches, crochets, and could sketch and paint.  My father was recruited to draw for Walt Disney studios (but turned them down).  Mom said he could draw eyes like nobody's business.  I have always loved to draw and I've loved color.  I used to dump out my crayons and put them in color order before I could start using them, lol.  I took art in school until high school, where I had to give it up for Advanced English.  I never got to take it again, and it was pretty much beat out of me.  But it really wasn't, because it showed up again when I went to beauty school to become a manicurist.  I was very talented, and I really got into nail art.  I worked happily for years until the economy made it impossible for me to stay in the business.  That's when I started knitting.  Not long after I started altering patterns, and a few short years later I was designing my own.  I'm an artist in my soul, and being artistic makes me happy.  I love to be surrounded by color (and yarn, but that's another story), and I love to make beautiful things.  I find beauty in everyday things, like the jars of pickles I canned a few days ago.  So yes, I am an artist and I'm ready to embrace that and I'm not afraid of it anymore. 

Hi.  I'm Cambria, and I'm a fiber artist :)