Over the last month, I have been going down a photography rabbit hole. When I started my business way back in 2011, there were no real standard dimensions for product photos. I opted to go with a 4:3 ratio at the time because I thought it looked nice. For the last few years, though, the standard has become square photos, and going against the grain has started to become a little difficult.

That led me to the conclusion that I really ought to change my photos from 4:3 to 1:1–aka square. Then I thought that if I were to change all the photos, I really ought to get better photo editing software to make the process go more smoothly. So I did.

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Then I started thinking about the fact that if I’m going to retake all my product photos, I ought to make sure that the background color looks consistent. I’ve been using a large ceramic tile as my background in my photo closet, and depending on the colors in the yarn, the tile color changes from lighter to darker. Here’s a behind-the-scenes photo of my setup so you can see what I mean:

In order to get the tile to look the same all the time without sacrificing the accuracy of the yarn colors, I really needed to stop using aperture-priority mode and go full manual on my DSLR camera. That led me to a lot of study followed by a lot of experimentation to get everything just right.

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Then I thought that if I am really going to get everything just right, I need to stop holding the camera so I can slow down the shutter speed to brighten the photos without making them blurry. I already had a tripod, but I almost never use it because I take most photos from the top down, and I needed a special kind of camera mount to hold the camera above the tile without getting in the way of the soft-box lights.

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The lights came from my last photography rabbit hole a few years ago when I decided I needed a better solution than taking photos in front of a window that only had the right lighting for about 2 hours per day.

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So, I found the right kind of camera mount (which you can see above) and did lots of experiments to figure out the F stop, ISO, and shutter speed that worked well for most of the different colors and textures. I also figured out how to connect the camera to my cell phone so I can take the photos without jiggling the camera by touching the button and so I can see the photo before I take it, which is hard to do when the camera is mounted from the top.

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All that said, I am now in the process of retaking photos of everything in my shop, which brings me at long last to the Solitary Skein Sale.

Solitary Skein Sale

I prefer to photograph multiple skeins at once because there’s only so much you can do in terms of photography with a single skein of yarn.

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With multiple skeins on the other hand, I can show you different angles at the same time, I can show you variations in color, and I can just take more interesting photographs.

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But here’s the tricky part: I need to rephotograph everything in the shop and then switch all the photos from 4:3 to 1:1 in as short a time frame as possible. Otherwise, the website will look really wonky if there are photos of different dimensions. Yet, if I photograph the solitary skeins, they won’t match the other photos.

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That’s where the solitary skein sale comes in. I’m offering 15% off all my solitary skeins (the last one of a batch) when you use the coupon code DOWNTHERABBITHOLE. You can see all the solitary skeins right here.

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I want to give all my newsletter subscribers first dibs on the solitary skeins since there’s a limited quantity, so I won’t mention this sale on my website or on social media until Saturday. I hope you find a colorway or two you will really enjoy! If you are wondering what you can make with a single skein, here’s a blog post I wrote with some great patterns for a single skein.

After the sale, I will be able to dye whole batches of these colorways and photograph them properly.

Kid Mohair Locks

I have found a source for fantastic soft kid mohair locks from a farm here in Texas. These are softer and cleaner than any locks I have found elsewhere, and I use them in some of my art batt colorways. This week I dyed up some in lilac, eggplant, teal, and bright blue. They are great to spin on their own or add to other fiber for spinning and felting. You can find them here.

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I also have a few freshly dyed semi-solids this week, which you can see in the New This Month section of my shop.

On a Personal Note

We had a houseful for the eclipse, including our grandson, who is now officially a toddler. One of his uncles decided he would look cute with a mohawk.

The eclipse was really amazing. Most of the family headed over to the university nearby where they had telescopes and talks. A few of us decided to watch it from the front yard in the peace and quiet, and it was amazing. The difference in the light between full totality and not-quite totality was truly like night and day. We also got to see some solar flares, which looked like bright spots just outside the edge of the eclipse.

Whether you were on the path of the eclipse or not, I’ll leave you something to chuckle about.