Borrowing Mum's Cotman Paints and New Canon Powershot Camera

The finish line, the end of the road, the epilogue of a book, everything comes to an end but an end always means a new beginning, a new chapter and a new journey. #WorldWatercolorMonth has come to an end and boy have I seen some incredible artists with some incredible work this month. Of course this doesn't mean the journey of an artist has ended but we’ll have to wait until next year to celebrate this month once again. As a new watercolorist of only a few months this was a big time for myself a time to learn and get deeper involved in the watercolor world. I actually finished 4 watercolor pieces this month, yeah four. What did you say? I’ve only showed you three this month? Hmmm wonder what that means.

Yes just in time to wrap up the month I finished one last project. Funny enough this means i’ve finished a project every week this month. Without further ado let me show you this new finished art project, just a warning it’s full of 1930s class.

I’ve been dabbling in some car illustrations after creating a father’s day card featuring a 1957 Chevy Bel Air. I mean I'm a huge car fan, especially of classic cars, so to illustrate them seemed like a great idea and to my surprise I'm not half bad. It's not a technical drawing by any means, I'm sure I could probably pull some sort of patience out of myself and get super technical but I love illustrating in this style, my style.

This car is none other then a 1938 Talbot Lago T-150 CSS. To many car enthusiasts you probably know this car but I'm afraid I didn't know the name of this beauty when I first discovered it. This French Automobile manufacturer sadly faded into obscurity after the 40s and I rarely hear anyone really talk about it when describing 30s and 40s motors. This sucks because this is a beautiful car which prompted me to make it my next illustration. I decided to go with a burgundy like color for the motor and while my color mixing probably isn't superb I really love how this came out.

You probably noticed something else as well, the classy looking (And pretty tall.) lady standing next to this car. Well in an experiment of sorts I wanted to actually illustrate someone next to a car. It was tough to originally pinpoint where she should stand but I found a few references to help. Probably would of been if I knew how tall the car was but information about this car is scarce. Anyway I decided to do more than just a random person and use a character I’ve not touched on much. This is Rachael Scarlet from my novel series Dream Eclipse. I’ve illustrate her before a few months ago and more recently side by side with Aeris her best friend. Rachael is also from a very Rich family thus the classy outfit. Unlike Aeris and Luna I don't really want to dive to deep into her character yet but i’ll be drawing her more in the future so maybe i’ll slip some more details out soon. I'm really plugging away at Dream Eclipse and after many years of building up the world I'm finally solidifying it. As much as I would love to get book 1 done this year I'm not making any certain dates but I think I'm on a roll.

It seems I’m always poking my nose into my Mum’s new cool supplies, from raiding her yarn stash to what I got to do yesterday. I may or may not have borrowed some of Mum’s paints to try out for you guys. With my Mum being just as avid with watercolor as myself (I got into watercolor because of my Mum and Sister.) she has some really cool supplies and paint brands. One of these is a brand i’ve been tempted to upgrade too in the near future, Winsor & Newton Cotman.

Photo Taken With My Nikon Coolpix S3300 (This is important for later keep that in your head.)

My sister also recently upgraded to this brand and never turned back to her Sakurai Koi with her artwork improving even more so because of this. While she got a 12 color pan set my Mum grabbed herself a 24 pan set which is what I got to try out. Yeah don't let Mum know I'm doing this okay? Im making her a color chart so that should make up for it.

Photo Taken with Mum's new Canon Powershot ELPH 190 IS

Winsor & Newton Cotman brand watercolors are student grade watercolors compared to Schmincke’s Artist Grade Horadam Aquarell watercolors which I got to try out last Friday but these might be a huge step up from what student grade paints i’ve been using so far aka Sakura Koi. (Also they’re a lot cheaper then Schmincke.) I'm not saying Sakura Koi are bad they’re pretty good but these Cotman paints I believe might be the best Student grade paints out there.

This comes in a much larger box then Sakura Koi’s 24 set does and much larger than Annie’s 12 pan set but unlike my sister’s pan set this box does not have that odd and annoying blue plastic part that you have to detach to open the box all the way. Mum has told me a lot of people who bought this box complained about their nails breaking when opening this box but I can safely say nails are not necessary, actually pressing firmly on the top lip and lifting the lid will do just fine.

Photo Taken with Mum's new Canon Powershot ELPH 190 IS

Inside the box you can see Mum has put a lot of use into these awesome paints and what really caught my eye is the fact you can mix and match these paints in any order you want.

Photo Taken With My Nikon Coolpix S3300

When you first receive your set all of your cakes will come wrapped and already set within the pans allowing you to place the pans in any order you want in these sets of four in which you can then move your sets of four around anyway you want. One of the disadvantages of this however was sliding, yeah the pans apparently slid around due to gaps in between each pan but Mum the genius she is came up with the idea of cutting up some black sponge to place in between each pan, stopping the paints from sliding around and reducing any risk of paint spilling from one pan to another. Oh yeah apparently there’s this big empty spot to the right of the box which I guess can be used for adding additional pans but Mum has turned it into a brush cleaning sponge area as it doesn't seem useful for anything else at the moment.

Another part of this set is the removable pallet at the top, to my surprise it's a double layered pallet with the top being removable revealing more pallet space below for all your mixing needs. You can place this removable pallet on the lower part of the paint set.

That aside I was eager to check out these paints and see if they were worth being my next upgrade and yeah I think without a doubt i’ll be upgrading to these paints. As you can see the paints are really vibrant and rich to the point I question if these should even be classed as student grade, they feel like artist grade paints but let me just go out on a limb and say I'm a novice with only a few months experience so I'm very early in my artist journey. This is why I'm very eager to try out as many different brands of paint as possible. The Colbalt Blue in this set is a much deeper Colbalt Blue then my Sakura Koi set. (Which is classed as Colbalt Blue Hue apparently, didn’t notice that before.)

Photo Taken with Mum's new Canon Powershot ELPH 190 IS

Really these Winsor & Newton Cotman paints are great and while I haven't tried their professional brand just yet (Would really love to at some point.) these are some of the best paints I’ve tried yet. Annie my much more talented sister has gone a lot more in depth on these paints with her recent review on her Winsor & Newton paints on her blog Lady AnnaVintage so I recommend you check this blog to give you definitively answer whether to buy these paints or not. You can read her blog here: http://ladyannavintage.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-winsor-cotman-watercolor-review.html .

For those wanting to purchase this specific set I got the link for you on Amazon!

You may of noticed a slight difference in photos throughout the first part of the blog as well as a little tag under each image indicating different cameras and that’ll be because Mum let me use something else of her’s today. Yes we have a brand new camera in the house in the form of the Canon PowerShot ELPH 190 IS!

With all new tech I get pretty excited to try it out so Mum has let me use it for this blog and discuss it in a little bit of detail.

In an interview with my Mum she expressed her eagerness to find a camera that was compact enough to fit inside her handbag as well as have great quality photos and ease of access in regards of transferring images from the camera to her iPad. Well two of those wishes came true at least. This camera while not as thin as my Nikon compact camera which has been my primary camera throughout this past year of ZAK Entertainment’s life time it’s thin enough to be perfect for mobile use. We’re out and about almost all the time with scenery and perfect photo opportunities around every corner so a compact camera is perfect for Mum’s situation. As far as quality the quality of this camera is comparable to my Nikon which I’ve always praised for being the best quality a compact camera can get (Other than Annie’s slightly higher tech Canon she got for Christmas but that’s a little bit less compact than mine.) if not better. Sadly transferring photos is where this camera falters. It’s Canon Camera Connect App on iTunes seems to be absolutely useless after one use leaving the only way to download photos to your iPad from your Camera to the temporary server you can upload your photos too, though this costs time and internet data. Oh yeah and Mum wasn’t too keen on the blue but she’s warming up to it.

While my Nikon Coolpix S3300 has a 16 Megapixel capture with a 6x zoom this camera has a 20 Megapixel capture with 10x zoom but I have to say the quality isn’t extremely different from mine, which is for the most part what Mum wanted, a camera similar to mine. It does have its perks such as software wise as it seems to have more program options including a low light mode which is pretty cool actually as well as a Macro Mode and an Infinity mode for shooting long distance which is a plus over my Nikon. You can also have a grid layout for better positioning as well as some other cool guides that I didn’t dive into much. (This isn’t a proper review, just me trying the Camera out that’s all.) Apparently this camera doesn’t have as many flash options as my Nikon and the Flash seems to be in a bit of an odd position but other than that it seems to have everything you need to take great photos, with exposure settings, white balance settings and ISO settings.  

To my surprise this camera has a few editing options you can use after you take your photos. While it doesn’t have a red eye reducing flash it does have a red eye remover which works great. You can also view the histogram and other details of your photos which is cool for professional photographers.

Below is a photo my Mum took of a cow at a local farm, she seemed pretty camera friendly.

Like I said earlier this camera is going to be used outside a lot and as you can see from this it really does the outdoors justice. Here’s a similar shot I took from my Camera below of our Moo Cow friend.

Mum’s camera seems to be just a little bit more detailed than my camera; though considering my Camera is a few years old it’s to be expected.

Overall this camera is great and does everything you want a compact camera to do for a pretty good price too. While there are more powerful cameras out there such as Annie’s Powershot as well as her professional DSLR Camera this camera gets the job done with a quality to take amazing shots. I didn’t get to try out the video function of this camera however so that might be a task for the future if Mum will ever let me use this camera again, she loves it too much. You can buy this camera through Amazon, just don’t expect the Canon Camera Connect app to work, it doesn’t really matter what Canon camera you have this app just does not work at all.

With that said and done I have one more photo to show you guys before I leave you all for the day. For those celebrating #WorldWatercolorMonth I hope you enjoyed and poured your heart and soul into your work. I’ll be continuing to paint but I think it’s about time to kick the knitting back into gear a little with winter coming up soon. I do have a illustration in the works however so you might see that within a few days.

This was ZAK Entertainment

See you on Wednesday!

[Photo Credits Go to Didomum and Zachary Kuhn]

Incredibly Vibrant Schmincke Horadam Aquarell Watercolor Samples

If 2017 is anything it sure is a creative year. If you’ve stuck with me since February you’ll be familiar that I am now illustrating Artwork as well as knitting. This whole thing began as a way of visualizing my characters I had been writing years beforehand but now it’s evolved into an activity I don't think I ever want to replace. As well as this Watercolor has become my favorite medium, it's so versatile and allows me to really visualize my ideas. Can one man watch movies, play video games, write blogs, knit, write books and illustrate at the same time? I sure am going to try. Anyway we’re wrapping up #WorldWatercolorMonth sadly with August around the corner but we’re not going out without a bang. I received something very unexpected in the mail the other day, watercolor paint samples! Yes the awesome people at Schmincke Watercolor have sent me samples of their Horadam Aquarell line of watercolors which are artist grade and boy you can tell they are. Up until now i’ve been using Sakura Koi Watercolor and Daler Rowney watercolors which are student grade and while I love Sakura Koi i want to branch out and experience higher grade paints, Schmincke has just made that possible so big thanks to them and Chartpak who distributes Schmincke over here in America.

I can't just write a blog about these paints, no I got the camera out and filmed a demonstration for you guys! I'm a little disappointed in how the audio came out and I didn't have time to record it again but it's clear enough. You can watch the video below but be sure to come back for some still images and a little history on Schmincke!

These watercolors are so vibrant and beautiful I was absolutely shocked as you can tell. Guess i’ve become a little over the moon for these paints. Schmincke was established in 1881 by Josef Horadam and Hermann Schmincke who apparently met through their wives. They started off as a oil paint company after apparently searching hard to find traditional resin-oil-colors recipes. With the lack of metal tubes during the previous period these oils were impossible to keep while painting outside without tubes. After 11 years of development Horadam released his watercolor brand. Since then they’ve introduced tons of products including a second line of watercolor called Akademia. (Which seems to be difficult to get over here unlike Horadam.) Really Schmincke offers so much and I barely scratched the surface of it.

Onto the actual product I received Schmincke sent me two samples, one with 12 colors that are usually main stays when buying colors, yeah there are tons of awesome extra colors but these are your main colors with three cool red, yellow and blue colors and three warm red, yellow and blue colors. This second set are more specialty colors with different shades tat can add some depth to your masterpiece. Each sample as a little blob of paint with a box for testing the paint out on.

The colors included in this first set are Lemon Yellow (A Cool Yellow), Cadmium Yellow (A Warm Yellow), Cadmium Red (A Warm Red), Permanent Carmine (A Cool Red), Ultramarine Finest (A Warm Blue), Prussian Blue (A Cool Blue), Phthalo Green, Permanent Green Olive, Yellow Ochre, English Venetian Red, Sepia Brown and Ivory Black. I'm actually new to Permanent Carmine, English Red and Sepia Brown, never used this colors before.

I was amazed to find that it doesn't take much pigment in the slightest to get a vibrant gradient, a small bit goes a long way. There’s so much color control and everything flows nicely, no fighting with these colors required. Really these are professional artist grade paints through and through. I actually have to say this was my first encounter with artist grade (Mum won’t let me touch hers, she’s mean, haha,) so it's a big change from what I usually use. Actually you guys want a confession? I started watercolor with Crayola. Yeah boom big reveal my first few pieces back in March through April was all Crayola. (Actually I think I already said this months ago, oh well.) Apparently Mum must of thought I was good enough to buy me my Sakura Koi and truth is I love Sakura Koi but these Schmincke are in another league of their own.

Moving onto the second sample set we have 35 colors total with multiple shades and awesome colors. Basically prepare for a big list incoming.

From left to right on the top of this sample we have Rutile Yellow, Quinacridone Gold Hue, Turner’s Yellow, Yellow Orange, Geranium Red, Vermillion Light, Quinacridone Red Light, Perylene Dark Red, Ruby Red Deep, Transparent Red Deep, Saturn Red, Bordeaux, Quinacridone Magenta, Potter’s Pink, Perylene Violet, Quinacridone Purple, Colbald Violet Hue,  and Phthalo Sapphire Blue. I really love the Ruby Red Deep, Quinacridone Gold Hue, Phthalo Sapphire Blue and Potter’s Pink out of this lot. Potter’s pink may even make a good skin tone actually.

Part two of this sample includes Colbalt Azure, French Ultramarine, Viridian, Transparent Green Gold, Spinel Brown, Maroon Brown, Transparent Sienna, Transparent Ochre, Mars Brown, Green Umber, Transparent Umber, Mahogany Brown, Perylene Green, Graphite Grey, Hematite Black, Mars Black and Brilliant Opera Rose. I actually have to admit I don't know the difference between transparent watercolors and normal watercolors I figured all watercolors could be transparent. You guys can school me on that in the comments. I was really shocked by the Brilliant Opera Rose, it came out as sharp neon pink and would actually be perfect for a certain pink haired original character of mine that I recently talked about. (You can read about Luna by clicking here.) Lots of earthy colors are in this set.

Overall all of these colors are incredible, vibrant, easy to use and to make it even better you barely have to use any pigment. I will actually be able to use these colors on an actual watercolor piece because of the amount of pigment left on these samples, that's pretty exciting. Schmincke definitely still has the quality after 125 straight years. I can't express my thanks to Chartpak for sending me these watercolors. Of course i’ve rambled on about how amazing these paints are but what about you guys actually buying them? Well you can get them through good ol Amazon! You can buy them in pans and tubes but here’s a cool deal. The 12 set of Schmincke Half Pans are currently only $84.91 on Amazon!

This set comes with the same 12 colors from the first sample I tried and the quality between pans and tubes will be the same so my video is a good reference for this. The extra colors you can buy in separate tubes if you’re interested, just make sure you’re looking for Horadam Aquarell!

You can check out Schmincke at: https://www.schmincke.de/en.html

Chartpak at: https://www.chartpak.net/

So despite the constant errors regarding audio I really enjoyed making that video. In my quest for expanding myself as an illustrator and watercolorist it was incredible to be able to try out artist grade paints like this. Who knows maybe I’ll be able to try other products for you guys in the near future. Until then let's switch gears to a slightly different kind of paint.

For as long as i’ve been alive and beyond that this house has been full of Acrylic Paints. While Watercolor paints are my favorite medium I have to express my nostalgic love for Acrylic Paints, I grew up with these paints, making Christmas ornaments and apparently finger painting. (You guys aren't seeing that photo, okay? Maybe one day.) Acrylics work much differently then Watercolor in fact they’re much thicker to the point you can paint lights on top of darks. Acrylics are a different medium so there's no real comparing them with Watercolor other then the fact you can water down Acrylics. Anyway I was recently assigned the task of categorizing every paint tube we own, making sure the near empty ones were listed so we can replace them. Let's just say Acrylics can be messy and fun all in one package. Pretty sure 90% of our paints are just Plaid with their various brands such as Apple Barrel but we do have some paints from companies like Grumbacher (Also distributed by Chartpak.)

As you can see from this photo we have a lot, which I can safely say are all nicely organized thanks to organization skills, I know I'm too good. Bragging aside I actually want to do some artwork using these paints, they give quite a different look and there are so many colors to choose from. I’ve made up color charts for all these paints so I know exactly which ones I want now. You’ll see more of these paints in the near future.

Well we’re at the end of the road for the day, thanks for rea… Wait what's that? Is that… A shark?! Shark alert!

Yeah apparently it’s Shark Week, I'm late to the party but that doesn't mean I'm not bringing one awesome knitting pattern to the table for today’s Free Knitting Pattern… Shark Edition. More to the point a whale of a shark so let’s have a whale of a time with the “Whale Shark iPhone Cover” by Reuben Briskie!

Yeah I don't think i’ve ever witnessed a knitting pattern quite like this before. This is an actual iPhone cover, shaped like a Whale Shark. I'm assuming you can use this for other smartphones as well such as Samsung but you’ll need some DK weight yarn, a sewing needle, two buttons of some kind or scrap yarn for the eyes and apparently 3 MM knitting needles, which don't exist in a US Size but I'm sure it's possible to compensate. It's U.K. Size 11 if that helps.

Seems like a bit of work so definitely not for beginners but an awesome fun project regardless. This can be used as a toy just as much as an iPhone cover. The pattern is very informative and you can check it out at: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/whale-shark-iphone-cover

This was ZAK Entertainment

See you on Monday!

[Video and Photo Credits: ZAK Entertainment and Reuben Briskie]

PS That Owl logo that Schmincke uses is adorable.

Racing into DC Universe Rebirth: The Flash Volumes 1 & 2 (Plus a Knitted Octopus)

The Flash has sped his way into the spotlight lately hasn’t he? Being a primary figure in many comic book storylines from DC such as Crisis on Infinite Earths in the 80s to recently with Flashpoint, New 52 and DC Rebirth which is what today’s blog is is all about. Of course The Flash is more than just Barry Allen there have been many speedsters who have donned the title, Jay Garrick who is actually the original Golden Age Flash, Bart Allen aka Barry’s Grandson, Wally West and Wally West. Yeah there are two Wally Wests now. Actually the Flash family can be a tad bit confusing at times. 

Wally West is famous for taken over for Barry Allen after the events of Crisis on Infinite Earth and for Twenty Three years Wally was the Flash kids like myself grew up with. From the Justice League animated series to the comics themselves Wally was my Flash growing up and I can say I didn’t know much about Barry Allen until much later. Making a brief appearance in the Infinite Crisis storyline and making his real return in Final Crisis. With this done Barry Allen would take the leading role as the Flash once again with Wally becoming the second Flash. Sadly Wally kind of got the short end of the stick when it came to Flashpoint and the New 52 storyline and faded into obscurity. Another Wally West was featured in the New 52 storyline but as I soon learned this Wally was a much different character, a good character nonetheless but different. Incomes DC Rebirth which so far is bringing back the legacy of the pre-52 timelines but meshing them with the New 52 continuity which is causing quite the problem for our DC heroes as a forgotten past clashes with the future. One of these forgotten pasts is a certain Carrot Top Speedster making his stunning return. Yes Wally West, the first Wally West, has finally returned to the DC Universe in one snazzy costume. He’s featured in the first Flash Rebirth Volume but mostly spins off into the Titans: Rebirth storylines which I’ve not touched on yet.

So far DC Rebirth has been a blast so far, which is great considering I could not keep up with the New 52 comics at all. I have quite a lot of catching up to do as there are many comic storylines out such as Green Arrow, Batman, Detective Comics, ECT but with what I’ve read so far DC Rebirth is great. I have currently read DC Rebirth: The Flash Volumes 1 and 2 as well as the first Justice League volume but I’ll focus on The Flash Volumes 1 and 2 today so beware of possible minor spoilers for these comics!

DC Rebirth: The Flash takes place in the same continuity of New 52 but with Wally West making his reappearance Barry Allen discovers that his history has been edited with memories of Pre-52 and even Pre-Crisis events Flashing in his head. (Yeah I just went there.) After discovering his anchor back to reality Wally dons a new suit and becomes the Flash once again. Barry doesn’t have much time to worry about the altered history when a speedforce storm occurs, turning thousands of Central City Citizens into speedsters. With a new villain in the form of Godspeed and tons of speedster villains and trainees to handle Barry has his hands full. Luckily S.T.A.R. Labs is there to assist.

The Flash Rebirth Volume 1 is pretty chaotic but for some reason manages to handle all of the speedsters as well as having some heart wrenching moments. Barry Allen’s story continues into the next Volume which features the story “The Speed of Darkness.” 

Wally West, the shorter and newer of the two Wally Wests, is learning more about his speed powers and is eager for Barry Allen to mentor him and finally convinces him to do so, becoming the new Kid Flash. After skipping school however Barry cuts off the mentorship and Aunt Iris grounds him, leaving Wally distraught. With  a mysterious shadow appearing in Central City, Wally decides to redeem himself by solving the mystery. To his surprise the shadow is an old villain of Barry’s… The Shade. Yeah! The Shade makes his return after seemingly retconned from the DC universe. The Shade started off as a villain of Jay Garrick and then Barry Allen during the Silver Age. With the power to control shadows at will thanks to his cane the Shade was a strong villain but as of late he’s become more neutral. It seems The Shade aka Richard Swift (In no relation to Taylor Swift, to my knowledge.) has lost control of his powers turning him into a shadow of consumption, with Wally being his first victim. Now Barry must enter the Shade’s shadows to save Wally. It’s a pretty awesome three part story that gave the new Wally a lot of character development. This volume also has a cool Christmas themed one shot in at the end, building up for the next Volume which will feature the return of Captain Cold and the Rogues.

Overall The Flash Rebirth is awesome as well as the DC Rebirth In general. After a few years of not reading comics from DC the DC Rebirth has dragged me back in. I know New 52 had some good stories but I just couldn’t keep track of it all. Thanks to a certain app called Hoopla however and my library card it’s been possible for me to go back and read what I’ve missed as well as dive further back and read comics that released before I was born such as the original mega reboot, Crisis on Infinite Earths. I’m nearing the end of Crisis so I will be throwing that blog up sometime within a few weeks. Anyway for those interested in DC Rebirth: The Flash Hoopla has the first few volumes and for those not aware of Hoopla or how to sign up for it please go and read my blog discussing all about Hoopla: http://zakentertainment.blogspot.com/2017/05/unlock-free-online-book-library-with-hoopla.html. You can download Hoopla via the Google Play, Amazon and iTunes stores!

I’m actually not sure which DC Rebirth story I should dive into next, perhaps Titans and Batman as they seem to be intertwining with The Flash. I also need to read Justice League Volume #2. Guess I have a lot of catching up to do, time to binge-read!

Besides reading some comics I’m still playing Paper Mario for the Nintendo 64 though it appears I’ve become stuck. I’m on the infamous chapter 6 where you head to Flower Fields to stop Huff N. Puff from blocking out the sun forever. I’ve managed to find and save Petunia from the Monty Moles but I seem to hit a dead end no matter where I go from here. Ohh well I guess I’ll figure it out eventually.

Now it’s time for the FREE Knitting Pattern! You guys love cute toys right? Well get ready for a gigantic cute toy in the form of an, Octopus?! Just in time to start knitting for Christmas toys here is “KnitOctopus” by Whit’s Knits of Purlsoho.com

This is absolutely adorable but apparently is quite big and made from 6 skeins of sport weight baby alpaca yarn weighing 50 Grams and is 110 yards per skein. This seems like such a fun knit though and isn’t too advanced. You’ll need some US 6 needles with a 16-inch circular cable attached and a set of US 6 DPNS. This would make an incredible toy for any ocean loving child, sibling, nephew, ect. Yeah I like octopuses, they have three hearts.

Anyway you can read more details on this pattern as well as the pattern itself by going to this link here: https://www.purlsoho.com/create/2013/05/19/whits-knits-knit-octopus/ This is the first time I’ve heard of Purl Soho actually but it seems to have been around since 2002 created by a group of knitters, crocheters, quilters and embroiderers.

With that all said and done it’s time I speed out of here, catch you guys later!

This was ZAK Entertainment

See you on Friday!

[Photo Credits: DC Database, DC Comics and Purlsoho.com]

San Diego Comic-Con 2017 and the Thousand Movie Trailers

It’s hard to decide which is the busiest time of the year, summer or winter? During the summer you got summer vacations and if you’re in the entertainment business or just love entertainment mediums conventions are happening all over the world. Anime conventions and Comic conventions are happening all over with one of the most important Comic Conventions happening this past weekend, San Diego Comic-Con otherwise known as Comic-Con international. Comic book writers, artists, cosplayers, Hoopla, movie directors, actors you name it. 

Everybody tends to flock to this specific Comic-Con and with all the panels going on you can be sure somebody has something to announce. I figured after D23 the announcements would a little more spread out but oh boy Comic-Con International dropped a ton of new trailers, comic book announcements, TV announcements and more. Like with previous onslaughts of announcement s I’m going to fit as much as I can into this blog but let’s try to control my rambling for once because boy when something good is announced I can’t stop discussing it.

Seems like it’s Marvel vs DC happening out here with two big trailers dropped for their 2017 movie releases. Thor Ragnarok and the Justice League movie will grace your theater screens later on this year and these two new trailers really make these movies look great.

First up Thor Ragnarok, it’s Thor’s third outing in a movie and first appearance since... Well to avoid spoiling a certain movie he appears in the end credits of a recent 2016 Marvel movie. His first real last appearance was Avengers: Age of Ultron so let’s dive into that shall we? (Please let me know if I’m putting too many Videos into one blog, I’m including four this blog with the rest of the trailers just being links.)

Can we officially call this Thor and Hulk: Ragnarok? It seems both Thor and Hulk take the spotlight in this movie with Hela the Goddess of Death bringing hell upon Asgard. This looks like an incredible trip of a movie and was that Hulk talking?! I’ve waited so long to hear Hulk actually talk and have more of a part in the Marvel Cinematic Universe other than just being the one that smashes stuff at the end. Bruce Banner will also play his part too but The Hulk finally having a big role? Sign me up! Thor Ragnarok might be one of Marvel’s most Visual Effect heavy movies yet but it doesn’t seem phony by any means. I can’t wait to see this movie when it releases November 3^rd.

Next up is DC’s competitor of the year, Justice League. Believe it or not I’ve actually not watched Man of Steel or Batman VS Superman yet, I know the latter wasn’t well received but man does this Justice League movie look great. Check it out below.

Was that J.K. Simmons as Commissioner Gordon? I’ve been waiting to see him in that role even if it was just a glimpse. The age of heroes comes again and with the forces of Steppenwolf and Apokolips invading earth. With the Green Lanterns mentioned a possible Supergirl hologram and what looks like Superman’s return at the end of the trailer this is looking to be the Justice League live action movie I’ve wanted for years. Flash seems like the most inexperienced one of them all but you know what? I actually like Ezra Miller. Will we see a glimpse of Darkseid or is Steppenwolf going to be our only link to Apokolips for now? Also if Cyborg doesn’t say BOO YAH at least once it’s a 0/10 for me.

Jokes aside DC also released little teasers about their upcoming DC Live Action movie releases. For one the solo The Flash movie is now renamed “Flashpoint.” So instead of us getting a origin story for the Flash again this will take place I’m assuming after Justice League. Flashpoint as you probably know is an event that occurred in the DC Flash comics, with Barry Allen traveling back in time to save his Mother. In doing so Barry created an alternative timeline where everything plays out differently, also Reverse Flash is involved so hopefully he’ll be the main villain. Now some could view this as a reboot to the DC movie, while I hope this isn’t the case they don’t have to make this movie reboot everything. Flashpoint the animated movie did this as well without rebooting anything.  The CW Flash show did tackle Flashpoint but I don’t feel like it did Flashpoint any amount of Justice.

Now we turn our attention to the TV side of DC, all of DC’s shows had trailers released but I have to admit only The Flash caught my interest. Spoilers ahead for The Flash season 3!

Taking place after The Flash Season 3 Barry sacrificed himself to the speed force to bring balance back to reality. Iris is trying to stay strong and cope with her was to be future husband gone. Okay the Samurai guy was NOT expected in the slightest. I’m not entirely sure who this guy is but diving into the DC villain database inside the Batcave (Is my secret identity exposed? Probably) the possibilities seem to fall towards Baron Katana, a silver age Flash villain who seemed to be forgotten, erased from existence during the Crisis on Infinity Earths storyline from 1985. It’s awesome to see the CW Flash team dive into some of Flash’s more forgotten villains. Caitlin is back and apparently in a much happier mood then she was in Season 3, I guess she finally can control her powers making her “Frost” instead of “Killer Frost.”. That Flash costume at the end bared a striking resemblance to the Future Flash’s outfit from Season 3 so perhaps when Barry returns (He will, trust me.) he’ll be donning this costume? The Flash Season 4 is looking pretty promising with a non speedster main villain for once it looks to be a ride. Oh yeah apparently Danny Trejo is going to be in this season, yeah no kidding he’s playing a character named Breacher, “A feared bounty hunter” and apparently father to Gypsy who we were introduced to last season. Clifford DeVoe aka The Thinker and Flash Season 4’s main villain will be played by Neil Sandilands.

New trailers for Arrow, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow and the newest show Black Lightning (Which is not connected to the CW Arrowverse for some ridiculous reason) have all new trailers for their upcoming seasons that you can watch by clicking these links below.

Arrow Season 6:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHZEeDEwRE0

Supergirl Season 3:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-p5Ioz7inOc

Legends of Tomorrow Season 3:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwGNep39atY

Black Lightning Season 1:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dM8dI_-P9o

Truth is none of these trailers really interest me but perhaps the actual show will prove me otherwise. I have to admit I actually thought Black Lightning was Static Shock, I kid you not apparently I’m way beyond misinformed. I loved Static Shock as a kid so I really had no idea Black Lightning was a separate character until recently. If we can’t have Black Lightning in the CW Arrowverse can we have Static Shock make an appearance? Please?

Space, the final frontier, It seems space related shows and movies are making a huge comeback and along with that comes the return of old favorites. Announced a few years ago the brand new Star Trek show dubbed Star Trek Discovery is almost here and a new trailer was shown at SDCC 2017.

First of all I never expected the show to look this good. Star Trek visual wise have come a long way and comparing Next Generation despite Next Generation being timeless and an unmovable force on my favorite Space Shows/Movies list this new show is such a visual upgrade. When this was first announced I was hoping it would take place after the Next Generation shows like Voyager but this apparently takes place ten years before the Original Series. This makes exploring new worlds kind of difficult and brings back the Klingon Cold War between the Klingon Empire and the Federation. A ship by the name of the USS Discovery gets involved. The main character actually will start off as the first officer of a different ship, the USS Shenzhou, Michael Burnham (Played by Sonequa Martin-Green). Apparently she was raised as a Vulcan despite being human by none other than Sarek, Spock’s father. I’m assuming eventually she’ll switch ships over to the USS Discovery. Apparently the captain of the USS Discovery is being played by Jason Isaacs, you know, Lucius Malfoy. Problem is this show is actually going to be exclusive to the CBS All Access streaming service, which means I’m probably never going to see this show. I find it ridiculous to limit the show to the streaming service but at least the first two episodes will premiere on CBS this September 24^th.

The next space show to have a big reveal is a show I never expected to make a comeback, Stargate! I got to admit I’ve never watched Stargate despite it always being interesting to me. This new show however could get me to finally watch through the multiple Stargate movies and shows. You can watch the small teaser for this here.

The origins of Stargate apparently go back to 1929 Egypt and while this trailer doesn’t really show much at all it looks like it could be good. Sadly this is another show limited to an exclusive streaming service by MGM. What’s the deal with these exclusive streaming services? This will end up another show I’ll never see sadly but it makes me want to watch the Stargate SG-1 series. I actually remember watching the 1994 movie now that I think about it so I have seen Stargate in a minimal form.

It seems Comic Con is more like a Movie & TV trailer con rather than an actual Comic Convention but there were some comic announcements, though I had to dig deep to find them, like really deep, what gives with the lack of actual comic announcements? Anyway this is actually not the most positive news but you know the Sonic the Hedgehog Archie comics? Well sadly they will be coming to an end as Sega moves the blue blur from Archies to IDW Publishing. Didn’t Sonic just go through a reboot? I haven’t kept up fully with the post-Megaman Crossover comics but I’m sure the comics pulled a Flashpoint and rebooted the series. Archie comics has been running this Sonic the Hedgehog series for 25 years now but it seems to all be coming to an end with SEGA wanting to take Sonic in a different direction. I’m assuming means a complete rework instead of just rebooting the Sonic Universe with the storyline from the Archie Comics coming to a complete end. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what’s in store for the Blue Hedgehog but I’m afraid it might just end up carbon copies from the storyline from the games with no unique creativity thrown in. A lot of memorable characters not featured in the games might also be dropped. Of course I could just be a little pessimistic about the situation. IDW is responsible for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle comics which I enjoy so perhaps we’ll get a crossover between Sonic and the Turtles, oh man that actually sounds pretty awesome and weird all in one. More details on this will come later.

Oh yeah Nickelodeon seems to be winning everything as far as animation goes lately, have you heard of the revivals of Rocko's Modern Life, Hey Arnold and even Invader Zim? Yes they might be movies but they aim to recapture the feel of the original shows while telling a new story. At SDCC 2017 Nickelodeon revealed a clip/teaser for the new Rocko's Modern Life Trailer and it basically is Rocko's Modern MODERN Life. Rocko and friends find themselves in the 21st century, 2017. The humor is the same but poking fun at modern things like iPhones. It's an incredible nostalgia trip. You can watch that here. This one hour TV movie will premiere sometime in 2018.

Now the Hey Arnold Movie is a movie that was originally conceived back in the late 1990s but after the bad reception from the first Arnold movie it was canceled and left to obscurity. Hey Arnold: The Jungle Movie is a two part TV movie event and you can watch the trailer here.

That’s pretty much it for San Diego Comic Con 2017 but like I mentioned before I was not able to cover everything announced such as the new trailer for the movie Ready Player One by Steven Spielberg but you can watch that trailer here. (It’s got Iron Giant in it! From the animated movie, remember? I loved Iron Giant.) A lot of fun events happened, tons of panels and merchandise everywhere you went but sadly this is another one of those events I wish I could have gone to but didn’t get the chance. Maybe next year I’ll be able to get over to San Diego. Did you get to go to San Diego Comic Con? Leave me your SDCC 2017 memories and photos below or tag ZAK Entertainment on Facebook and Twitter!

Believe it or not I actually have one final movie trailer. This one is completely unrelated to Comic Con. Queen Victoria of Britain has become immortalized in many different movies and TV adaptations and this new movie will be taking place during the later years of Queen Victoria’s reign. This is a biographical drama film based on a book of the same name featuring the real life relationship between Queen Victoria and her Indian servant Abdul Karim. You can check out the trailer below.

Looks like a good film actually. I wasn’t aware that Dame Judi Dench had played Queen Victoria once before in a movie called Mrs. Brown so this is an actual returning role for her. This movie will be releasing September 22^nd.

Finally before we wrap I have something knitting related to tell you guys about and it will warm your hearts more than a knitted blanket could ever do. This is the story about a boy from Patchogue, New York 11 years of age. He has been knitting since he was 7 years old and was taught by his loving grandmother. This is where it gets heartwarming. He’s utilizing his years of experience by knitting hats for girls suffering with cancer and is part of the Shining Stars Foundation in Colorado. Shining Stars goal is to bring all of these children together in a fun and friendly setting to reassure them that they are not alone in the fight against cancer. Quoting from News 12 Long Island the boy, Cameron Sumner said “I really feel bad for how much they’re fighting and I wanted to maybe put a smile on their face.” 47 knitted hats have been made by this awesome kid since the beginning of the year and apparently he’s worked as long as 12 hours a day on them. You can read more and watch a video of this here: http://www.news12.com/story/35916379/patchogue-boy-knits-hats-for-children-with-cancer  Let’s support this awesome knitting kid as he does a wonderful job for those with cancer.

With that heartwarming note I’m leaving you guys for today.

This was ZAK Entertainment

See you on Wednesday!

Luna the Moonlight Girl, Unlocked Movie Trailer and Legends Invade Pokemon GO

Storytelling and art, to me these two are one and the same. Whether it’s a watercolor painting or a pair of knitted socks each piece of art has a story to tell. Perhaps it's to do with my passion for writing and being a writer at the core of my soul but my art comes from stories. My story writing is the sole reason I began my journey as an artist, to visualize my stories and characters. Dream Eclipse is a novel I’ve been brewing in my head for a long time and while I’ve not had the utmost confidence in revealing much regarding the novel with my art and this blog it has really allowed me to open myself up more and in turn improve my story writing. That said I have a brand new watercolor character art piece finished. No, no it’s not Aeris Eclipse this time. The character this time is more on the pink side. This isn't a big reveal you’ve seen her before but I have finalized her design. For #WorldWatercolorMonth here’s Luna!

Ironically I came up with this idea in a dream during the night a week ago and I'm dubbing this piece “Luna and the Moonlight Skyline” because well it has Luna in it, it's night time and there’s a skyline in the background. I really wanted to try my best at illustrating a scene at night. Dark blues and purples are among my favorite colors so I wanted to incorporate that into this. Getting my watercolors dark enough wasn't actually that difficult and the city skyline is actually made up from my white gelly roll pen believe it or not. Luna was the character of choice because of her connection to the moon and the significance to the story and world of Dream Eclipse.

That specific skyline is none other than the city of Bruadair which I slightly introduced in my last illustration blog featuring Aeris. Bruadair is the center of a technological revolution in the world of Dream Eclipse, the city where dreamers come to make their dreams come true. Aeris and Luna live on the outskirts of Bruadair in a country village. Luna as you can probably tell is not your average lady, that pink hair isn't actually hair dye.

My first real drawing of Luna from Months ago. This really isn't good by any means and I'm not sure what's up with her stomach, maybe she ate too much who knows.

Luna is a special being connected directly to the Dream World and its energy. This energy is sought after by scientists, leading to corruption and people who will break boundaries to do so. Luna is targeted by a shadow organization and chased into a forest. Pleading for help her calls are soon hearted by a young lady asleep in her bed, Aeris Eclipse. Shockingly Luna turns out to have no memories of her past or who she is but instead of being completely amnesiac Luna has an incredible and vast knowledge of the Dream powers as well as intelligence regarding how certain things work. Luna’s power soon connects with Aeris leaving the blonde lady to discover she too is connected with the Dream World. Dream Eclipse’s story begins here and is going to be quite the ride so hope you guys are interested for what’s to come.

A digital art piece I did of Luna a few months ago, haven't really done any digital art since.

As far as Luna’s personality due to her loss of memories Luna is quite innocent to the world around her despite her intelligence and is extremely shy around strangers. Aside from that she’s quite bubbly and has a heart filled with kindness and love for everything around her. Luna isn’t into fighting and can be viewed as a pacifist at times but helps Aeris with her powers. Aeris tends to a bit of an influence on Luna with Luna soon becoming more bubbly and fun loving as the story goes on. Luna tends to look up to Aeris and shadows her often, which Aeris quotes is similar to how she was when she was a kid with her best friend Rachael Scarlett.

A much more recent illustration of Luna done when I really kicked myself in the butt and improved on my art style. I have just realized how on my newest art piece the flowers on the shirt are in a completely different position, continuity error folks.

There’s a lot about Luna I’ve yet to disclose, she may be one of the most important characters in Dream Eclipse so stay tuned for more! Don’t worry I’m going to try and get Book 1 finished as soon as I can, no more holding back.

Before I wrap this up I did this art piece using my Sakura Koi Watercolors I got for my birthday, a Sakura Gelly Roll white pen and some 140lb Canson Watercolor paper. This was kind of an experiment and my first time doing an illustration set at nighttime so my light is probably not spot on, making this surreal I guess in a sense but I prefer my art to be surreal anyway.

As I said my art always incorporates a story and as well as this featuring a character and setting from my story this is actually based a scene I have planned for my book. Aeris with her friends take Luna, innocent to the world, to the Bruadair Riverfront for the first time. Luna is mesmerized by the scenery and is looking back to her friends. This happens quite early on in Book 1 after Luna meets Aeris’s group of friends who I’ll be introducing in later blogs.

You can read about Aeris by going to this blog right here: https://zakentertainment.blogspot.com/2017/07/aeris-eclipse-kicks-off-world-watercolor-month.html

To view my art in a more gallery like setting visit my DeviantArt: http://zak-art.deviantart.com/

Before we move on from art my sister has an awesome new blog up on her blog Lady AnnaVintage. It's called "The Forest Dream Part Two of Two" and features a large ish scale illustration and some awesome bird watercolor illustrations coupled with a awesome photograph of a wild rabbit we have hanging around our backyard. You can read that here: http://ladyannavintage.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-forest-dream-part-two-of-two.html

Until next time let’s move on to some movie news! Yes there’s a new movie trailer released for a movie that’s caught my eye. Remember my two RED blogs? (RED 1: http://zakentertainment.blogspot.com/2017/05/painting-town-red-movie.html RED 2: http://zakentertainment.blogspot.com/2017/06/the-best-never-rest-in-red-2-plus-new.html I’m a big fan of the RED franchise and while this reveal is not RED 3 sadly it is coming from Lionsgate and the producers of RED as well as stars John Malkovich from RED and RED 2. This movie is called Unlocked and stars Noomi Rapace (The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo), Orlando Bloom (Pirates of the Carribbean), Toni Collette (The Sixth Sense), Michael Douglas (A whole bunch of good movies including the recent Ant-Man.) and more. This movie seems to be based in the UK with Rapace playing a CIA interrogator by the name of Alice Racine. After a major ruse it seems London is now at the risk of a major biological terrorist attack. Seems like a pretty cool action movie, not as comedic as RED but cool nonetheless. You can check out the trailer below.

This movie releases in the US September 1^st but apparently has already been released in the UK since May the 5^th, which I apologize for not mentioning this movie before but I’ve only just discovered the movie myself. It looks pretty awesome so it’ll be cool to see when it releases.

One last announcement I want to discuss is one that will please you Pokemon GO fans out there. The game isn’t as highly popular and mainstream as it was last year but it seems to still be holding a player base and this update might bring in more people again. A new update was recently released and it’s building up to what might be the biggest addition and most anticipated since Gen 2 Pokemon, Legendaries. It begins with the addition of Raid Battles. Raid Battles occur at Gyms randomly and allow for players no matter what team you’re on to team up and take on a boss Pokemon. If you win you receive Premier Balls and the chance to capture the boss Pokemon, only using the Premier Balls apparently. (Nice to see the Premier Balls have a purpose other than looking cool finally.) There are different ranks of Raid Pokemon Bosses with there even being a Magikarp Boss, which will probably be tougher than any legendary. These boss battles can be fought like any Gym Battle, where you can bring up to 6 Pokemon. To make things easier Raid Battles will start with an egg on top of the Gym with a timer and if you’re in the area of the gym you’ll get a notification.

As announced yesterday Niantic will be adding Legendaries to the lineup of Bosses for these Raids. Which brings everything full circle as this entire method of battling legendaries with a group of people in a raid takes us back to the first trailer dropped for Pokemon Go picturing everyone fighting against Mewtwo, remember that? Yes it seems this raid battles have been planned from the start and it’s awesome to see this feature finally added. (Niantic is slow.) You can check out the trailer below it’s pretty awesome.

Whoever put this video together this was so  engaging it makes me wish Pokemon GO actually was like this in real life but then again if Pokemon was real then this would be pretty dangerous wouldn’t it? (WANT IT TO BE REAL REGARDLESS OF DANGER) You will not be able to place these Pokemon on Gyms unlike normal Pokemon but you can use them in Gyms and future raids so that’s cool, seems to be balanced for the most part. 

The first of these Legendary Raids will begin during the Pokemon GO Fest at Grant Park, Chicago USA. This is happening tomorrow July 22^nd so if you’re in the area check it out! Apparently it’s going to be $20 per ticket (They’re already sold out, go figure.) and there’s going to be a mass of events happen. From 6pm to 7pm Chicago time it’ll be Legendary Raid time in a big kick off event. Players not in Chicago will have the chance to take on Legendaries beginning the next day, July 23^rd as Legendary Raids begin to appear, of course this will only happen if the Pokemon GO Fest is a success so get out there and team up Trainers! You can read more here: http://pokemongolive.com/en/post/legendarypokemon

That’s about it for today everyone, no news regarding Ultra Sun and Moon other than a few fake leaks so I guess we just have to be a bit more patient. There was that strange lore filled Pokemon movie posted by the Japanese Youtube channel (Link here: ) and it really seemed to dive deep into the Pokemon Lore but sadly it's only an event in Japan that won’t see the day of light outside of Japan. Hope you all enjoy the rest of your day! I’m going to finally be filming a new video tomorrow that you artists might enjoy so be prepared for that next week!

That was ZAK Entertainment.

See you on Monday!

Reviewing the ChiaoGoo Premium Stainless Steel "Knit Red Lace" Needles

When you’re a knitter there’s nothing more important than the tool you use to orchestrate your wonderful knitting objects. You can have all the yarn in the world but when it comes down to it, how are you going to knit that yarn? Knitting needles come in all manner of sizes each one having its own use. Lots of variations of knitting needles exist too such as DPNs and cable needles. Even variations of the same sizes exist such as wooden needles vs. metal needles but it goes so much deeper than that as I’ve learned in my one year of knitting. I’ve used quite a few metal variations of needles, some slippery some with a good grip, each brand have had a completely different feel to them and it really does make a difference. You may not imagine using an Addi Turbo over a Knit Picks metal needle would make a difference but it does. With my recent self striping afterthought heel sock project finished I figured I would do a little review/discussion on the needles I use, because the kind of needles you use matter a lot with socks.

Today I’m discussing the ChiaoGoo Premium Stainless Steel Size US 2 (2.75 MM) with a 32 inch (80 CM) cable, dubbed “Knit Red Lace”. ChiaoGoo is a brand under Westing Bridge LLC and is a family owned business started by four Zheng brothers. Born and raised in Linan, China the brothers come from a family of craftsmen with the brother’s Mum being a knitter. This entire company started with the brothers making these needles for their mum so it’s kind of a sweet back-story. (Mum If I knew how I would make you knitting needles.) Their Mum is actually the inspiration for the name ChiaoGoo which means “highly skillful and crafty lady”. It seems these needles released overseas around the late 90s and 2000s.

I came across these needles of course from my Mum (Who is a big inspiration for me and my knitting too.) who wasn’t a major fan of these needles but thought they were good enough to pass on to me. I decided to break out these needles for my afterthought heel sock project. One of the inputs from Mum was that the cable on this needle set was too ridged and not flexible enough. I originally thought the same too but after a while I found the cable doesn’t bug me in the slightest. See I knit socks using the magic loop method which means I have two Mickey Mouse ears sticking out from either end of my yarn. Originally I thought the rigidness would make this cable hard to work with but the cable actually seems to keep out of my way.

Moving on to the actual needles while some metal knitting needles tend to not hold their stitches and I’ve experienced quite a few dropped stitches from some but these seem to be made with a metal that grips. I say Addi Turbo needles are still the needles with the best metal grip (Maybe too much grip) but these needles seem to have a balance of slick and grip allowing you to knit at a good pace without worrying about dropping any precious stitches. These needles are great sock needles but what they’re actually meant to be used for I’ve not yet tried out, Lace. Yes these are actually lace needles but with how smooth these needles are I assume lace will be a piece of cake. These needles seem to also be good for knitters with tight gauges; I included which is another reason why I feel these needles connected with me.

Here’s the fun part I actually have a video demonstrating myself using these needles. It’s not a dedicated video on these needles but it’s ZAK Knits Episode 4 which was dedicated to the project I had on these needles, my afterthought heel socks. I also show how cable works when dealing with these needles too so it’s a good watch to add a final touch to my thoughts on these needles.

All in all these needles are very comfortable and I thoroughly enjoy using these. The cable felt rigid in the beginning but as I worked them it started to feel more natural. I highly recommend these needles to you if you’re looking for new sock needles or lace needles, the cable seems to be great for magic loop and its rigidness soon becomes completely unnoticeable. Needles like these really make me appreciate metal needles as much as I do wooden needles. Of course I’ve talked about the needles but where would go about buying them? Amazon has them listed with a couple of buyers you can purchase these needles from. Pay no heed to the $6.20 price when you add on the shipping it ends up $9.00 anyway but there are a couple of other sellers here. View this product here: http://amzn.to/2tEu8DY

These needles do not have an interchangeable cord and you will have to purchase different needles if you want a different length, I have so many needles in this house so this isn’t really a bother for me. Luckily ChiaoGoo has quite the variety and you can check them out at ChiaGoo’s website: http://www.chiaogoo.com/products/ !

With that said and done I actually have a knitting update for everyone! Is this a new project? You bet your bottom stitch marker!

I’m knitting up this little knitted colorworks cozy. Why am I knitting this you ask? Well recently I got a new battery put into my Film Camera’s remote finally after all this time and to keep everything together I’m knitting up this cozy for the remote. After knitting this I’ll be knitting some eye cord to wrap around my camera case so it’s always there to grab.

The pattern I’m using is the same as my other colorworks project in the works which will serve as a sketchbook cozy. This is a favorite pattern of mine and my Mum’s so it’s used a lot in our work. This is actually just a quick knit up project so it’ll be done soon.

Today’s FREE knitting pattern feature is actually this exact pattern I’m using for both of these projects. This is “Argyle Cardigan forKindle 3” by Julia Farmer.

Argyle patterns have deep roots in knitting and colorworks history and you’ll find Argyle Cardigans and Sweaters everywhere, it’s almost like the poster pattern for colorworks and maybe even knitted sweaters in general. The Argyle pattern dates back to at least the 17^th century where it was found primarily used in kilts and plaids in Western Scotland, Argyll to be more precise. Argyle knitwear became fashionable in Great Britain in the aftermath of the First World War. Argyle has stood the test of time with hundreds maybe even thousands of variations and patterns based on it.

This specific pattern Is made to be used as a Kindle cozy or Amazon Fire cozy but it’s such an easily adaptable pattern you can use it for just about any kind of case you want, you can even take the argyle pattern out and use it on different objects such as socks. It’s a big favorite of mine and my Mum’s which is why it’s used so often in our house. It’s easy to knit and you only ever need two colors to knit this pattern. (You can get crazy and add more than two if you want.) Argyle is perfect for someone wanting to break into colorwork knitting so check this pattern out on Ravelry: http://www.ravelry.com/designers/julia-farmer ! I might be sharing some more wonderful Argyle patterns going into winter/Christmas time as they make great winter patterns so stay tuned!

That brings us to the end of the blog for today, it’s been a while since I did a 100% knitting based blog but after the chaos of writing Monday’s blog. I got something in the mail yesterday by the way that will be the focus of my next #WorldWatercolorMonth blog so keep an eye out on the blog and my social media for when that drops!

This was ZAK Entertainment, See you on Friday!

[Photo Credits: Zachary Kuhn/ZAK Entertainment and Julia Farmer]