Why we take so many photos

This week we have a new shipment to share from Qing Fibres of London. I adore the hues that Layla and her team dye up for us, and I love that we are able to stock several bases and nearly all the colors. Layla hails from Beijing and now lives in the UK, and her use of color seems to express these influences.

One of my jobs at the shop is photographing the yarn. I do this in diffused natural light. I think it brings out the colors better than unnatural light, and certainly better than anything with a flash. And with each batch of yarn that arrives, I search through, compare photos with past photos, and make sure that I rephotograph hand dyed skeins that look different from the last time. Some of the time, the skeins do look the same. I mean, solid red looks the same pretty much each time. But Tart sometimes does look different. So you can bet that if it looks different, it's going to get a new photo. 

Dyers often do provide photos of their yarn. And while that's super awesome to get an idea of what a color looks like when I order it, it often has nuances that are different in the batch I receive, or that didn't show up in the small photos provided. That why I think it's important to take new photos with dyelots. I would want to see that Qing Donegal in Denim (newer photo first) seems more watercolored than last time, as shown above. Or that Underwater on Sock is just even more awesome than before (new photo above).

Now, I'm not at all complaining about the extra work. I don't mind that dyelots of hand dyed yarn look different from batch to batch. It's nearly impossible to make hand dyed yarns match from lot to lot. I mean, even if you use the same yarn, the same dyer, the same temps of water, the same dye formulation... there will always be fluctuations in each of these. The yarn might be merino, but it came from a different animal. The temperature of the water might heat up or cool down faster. The dye might be added to the yarn at a specific temp one time and different the next. The dye itself might have the same name but has a slightly different chemical composition than the last time the dyer ordered or mixed it. All this means changes in the skein that you and I receive. And I like that. I like that I get to anticipate changes in a color, and see things I like better this time. I don't even mind the feeling that I should have gotten the skein last time, when I liked it better. Because it's likely that I'll find another skein next time that I like even better.

Bittermelon on Sock, new batch at top.

The extra work of photographing hand dyed yarn means that you get a more predictable online experience. Yes, it's a lot of time and work, but if you were going to knit a sweater in Bluefinch and you were expecting it to look like the skeins above but it looked like the photo below, wouldn't you be a little disappointed? Maybe not in the skein itself, but more in the shopping experience? Like, well, couldn't this shop have done a little better?

Now, I'm not perfect. Once in awhile I forget to swap out a photo (I mean, we have tens of thousands of colors in stock) and those notorious teals that are always more green in person than they seem to be on a screen... But I do do my best in providing the best shopping experience I can, given the restrictions of ordering fiber and color online. And I hope that if you have any suggestions on how to make your experience any better, that you'll e-mail me. A thousand minds are better than one!

On a sidenote- if you were waiting for more Donegal Tweed sock in Hippienista to knit socks like mine, I have more now.

Comments

[Shaw Mumford]

Thank you for the explanation! I didn't know I appreciated your extra work until you clarified. And yes, I do appreciate it

[Megan]

The fact that you take such excellent, clear photos—and update them— is one of the key reasons SSYC is my go-to online shop for yarn. I know that whatever I order will be very close to what’s pictured, even with the usual variations in hand-dyed skeins. Even those pesky teals!

[Kristi]

i have always appreciated the extra time you take to make sure photos of the yarn are accurate.

happy new year!

[Julie]

Thank you for all of the time and effort you put into making our shopping experience an excellent one. Happy New Year!!! ❤️

[debbie]

Thank you, thank you, thank you!! What you do makes a huge difference.

[Alberta]

Your photos make me want to reach out and touch the yarn. I have ordered from other sites on line and the yarn was no way near what I thought I was ordering when received. Your photos and descriptions show the love you have in what you are doing. Thank you....