Tag Archives: Behind the Yarn

Our Spring / Summer photo shoot has been pushed off twice now (one when I had shingles and once when Susan had mono. It’s been a rough couple of months for us), but today we just finished day two of the shoot. Unfortunately, we’re also in the middle of the polar vortex. Up until a few days ago, we thought we’d be able to shoot outdoors, but with this brutally cold temperature, it just became obvious that we needed to move indoors. We’re really disappointed that we can’t use the farm as a backdrop, but this was the best for everyone’s health and safety. And we just couldn’t delay any further or we wouldn’t be able to get the patterns to yarn stores in time!

So, yesterday and the day before we moved into Jen Fariello’s studio. She’s the fantastic photographer who took this great photo of Susan:

She’s got a gorgeous loft studio in Charlottesville and we took it over both upstairs and down. Fortunately she didn’t seem to mind the hurricane that blew through her place and was so kind to us while we were there. Here are some looks behind the scene:

There’s a lot of smoothing garments so they look picture perfect. I have no idea what I’m thinking when this picture was being snapped, but it amuses me.

Emily’s adorable jeans had too much fun stitching on the back, so I had to fake raise the hem so we could  get a good detail shot of the hem.

Everyone’s favorite lunch sandwich from Revolutionary Soup. This sandwich changed Susan’s opinion on sandwiches (meaning, she didn’t seethe point of them). We can’t get enough of them!

Emily’s cute new cut has grown out into this adorable look. It just needs a little scrunching and it’s good to go!

As we were cleaning up Wednesday, we saw an Amtrack train going past the window. We all waved from the engine to the caboose. It was a magical moment. Ann caught it on camera.

Neve arrive yesterday morning more than bundled up for the weather. The day before she was a bit cold sitting by the window.

There’s a lot of waiting around during photo shoots. It can be exhausting.

Oona was in charge of keeping herself entertained, so we didn’t bother this little monkey frog girl.

Hair, necklines and hemlines all need to be just so…

Reflector holding requires strange positions sometimes.

By day two, I knew it was time for some silliness, so I pulled out my favorite joke shirt. (That’s the apron I made with Julie’s help!)

But I also squeezed in a little modeling. iphones abounded in the background.

Our friend Lisa dropped by for moral support.

Susan and I confer over some detail.

Today’s lunch included slightly less delicious sandwiches. Ah, good old PB&J. I peanut buttered and Maddie jellied for fast distribution.

After we wrapped up for the day, Susan took some portraits of the kids after the shoot. This one is from her iPhone.

Oona can look so sweet…

and be so terrifying in a moment.

Getting Emily to dance turned out to be the winning strategy of the photo shoot. Not only was it fun, it got her nice and loose and relaxed for the shoot.

All these photos were either taken by me, Susan, or Amy. There are more photos that you can see on our facebook page!

Things have been moving along behind the scenes while we work on getting the Spring/Summer 2014 ready for release. Last time I updated you I had just about figured out all my sample knitters. Well, at this point, I’m getting sample garments back at a terrific pace! And weeks earlier than the final deadline. Besides just having some really fantastic, quick knitters this round, they were also offered a bonus if they could get their sample to me before October 1st. Why then?

Well, every 6 months in October and April our distributor has a sales meeting. All the sales reps from around the country come and get to see the new upcoming yarns and receive sales materials so that the sales reps can each go to their territory and talk to yarn shop owners, showing them the many options of yarn available and helping them to select what will work for their shop. Susie is actually at the sales meeting right now, explaining the vision of the collections our terrific designers have put together as well as the properties of each awesome yarn to the sales reps.

Having good sales materials is really important. Susie and I have pretty good imaginations and can see the awesome potential of a design from just a small sketch and maybe talking with a designer. The sales reps and yarn shop owners don’t have the luxury of talking with the designer or even necessarily seeing their previous work, so the sales materials are really important.

What’s in the sales materials? Each collection has a paragraph telling about the yarn, a paragraph about the collection, and brief bio of the designer. Then each design has a page like this:

You can see the final sweater here

Some sales materials has final photography, but it means that you need to really work ahead and you need the co-operation of the mills you’re working with. We have not been able to get that far ahead, but are working hard at getting us to the point at which this is feasible. This season, I was aiming to photograph as many samples as I could for the sales meeting. A handful of samples arrived for the bonus deadline, and I went out to the park just as the sun was going down to take some pictures.

There’s a gorgeous park near where I lived called The Sheep Fold. I thought it was really fitting that I take some pictures there, so I went. It has trails and a grassy picnic area, and also a leash-free dog park. This photo doesn’t show how magnificent the sky was. It was AMAZING.

I set up my mannequin a number of places, looking for green grass that might suggest spring or summer and a green background.

I did not consider, however, how freaked out dogs might be at this headless person-like thing. I had numerous dogs barking at me. Usually they left me alone after their (sometimes-curious) owner called me off. I’m sure that many person wanted to come over, gawk, and ask what I was doing. Only one person did and when I explained that I taking photographs of some knitwear, they nodded absently and quickly moved on.

However, Piglet (I know his name because his owner yelled it continuously) would.not.leave.me.alone. He never got within arm’s reach, always carefully circling the mannequin and me and letting off the most outrageous howls.

Almost the entire time I was there, he howled at me. Fortunately he wasn’t aggressive, so I just continued to take my photographs of garments. Stuff like this heavily cropped photo:

When I arrived home, two more garments had arrived to be photographed. I photographed them the next morning. In the wooded area right by the front of my house. I wasn’t ready to face the dog park again so soon!

When last I left you in this series, we had started to receive the yarn for sample knitting and I was mulling over color names. Well, I’ve been so busy I haven’t really mulled. But Susan said that I could show you pictures of colors so long as I didn’t give away which yarn it is. So if you have any brilliant ideas, let me know! Some of these are lab dips, meaning that they’re the right colors, although the might not be on the correct yarn base. So you shouldn’t assume that it’s one kind of yarn! It might very well be another!

Mystery Yarn A

Mystery Yarn B (Looking for super summery names)

Mystery Yarn C (Food names – spices and ingredients rather than things like Marshmallow Fluff)

I have wrapped up assigning sample knits (I think. I got an email today and I might look for a couple more knitters) and almost all the sample knitter yarn is out for delivery. One yarn is still on its way from the manufacturer (what, you didn’t think I was spinning it in my living room, did you?)

I’m going to hand deliver some yarn to one of our regular sample knitters, Krysta. We meet at the Frozen Yogurt place in the next town over because it’s super convenient for her to stop there on her way home. Certainly we don’t sit and chat and eat frozen yogurt. But that would be a business expense, right? Tomorrow I might be delivering some yarn to another sample knitter. We might be planning on sewing a photo shoot apron and making dryer balls while we’re there. That’s all going down on my time sheet because I’ll be taking photos and sharing the progress at some point in time. Oh, and we’ll be having waffles for lunch and homemade pizza for supper. I have SUCH a hard job, right?

PS – A reminder that tomorrow is the last day to buy your blanket! We cannot extend because the mill MUST have our order so we can get the blankets to everyone in time for Christmas giving.

PPS – If you’ve pre-ordered The Shepherd and The Shearer, I sent you an email ages ago asking for your sizing. I’ll follow up with those who haven’t given it to me, but I asked for a deadline of September 2nd. So check your old emails for that so I have less people to email, please! (If you’re still waiting to buy, no worries, I’ll get your sizing info after you purchase.)

There has been so much going on behind the scenes of the commercial yarn lines, I can hardly take a moment to share it all with you! When last I left you, we were looking for designers for Spring/Summer 2014. We have selected a fantastic group of designers and they’ve been busily swatching (and swatching, and swatching) and writing up patterns. Some patterns are ready for the tech editor, but most are still being written up right now.

Some of the yarn has already arrived to my house! It’s incredibly exciting still to have yarn arrive. And then I bring it upstairs and I really have no place to store it. (Clearly I need to move somewhere else to solve this problem.) It’s a little less exciting then, but it’s still pretty exciting. I pull it out, look at it and try to think up color names. That sounds like a lot of fun, but it’s really hard and can be really arduous. So if you have any favorite color names, feel free to put them in the comments section! One theme is likely going to be food, another other will be names that really evoke summer, but otherwise we’re open to different color options!

The next thing on my to do list is to start match up sample knitters with patterns. All those beautiful sweaters that you saw on Monday were knit by women who quite frequently also read the blog (hi guys!) or I found through Ravelry. Sample knitting is not for everyone. It’s very, very different than knitting for yourself (you have to follow the pattern exactly, you have to get exact gauge, you can’t fudge things) and knitting to a hard deadline can be tricky. I’ve been working to get our sample knitters a little more time to knit than in the past. It’s amazing what a difference even a week makes in terms of deadlines! This is something I could easily write a whole post about, and I may very well at some point in time.

(If you’re seriously interested in sample knitting, please send me an email at Lauria AT fiberfarm DOT com with the subject line “Sample Knitting”.)

Sorry no pictures this time! I tried to take pictures of the boxes of yarn that I have, but it just gave too much away!

The photo shoot is wrapped up (kind of) and our saintly hosts’ house is emptied (mostly), so it’s time for Susie and I to hit the road! We’re on our way to TNNA – The National Needlearts Association – trade show in Columbus, Ohio.

When I went to bed at 2a last night, I knew that there were several things I still needed to pack and my suitcase is filled to the brim right now. We’re going to have to see who wins, me or the suitcase!

When we stop for the night, I’ll update you with anything crazy we see on the road.

In the meantime, here are a couple of behind the scenes shots from the photo shoot:

Thanks, Julie for the photos, being the most wonderful hostess, and everything else.

A quick photo post of how yesterday’s photo shoot went. Thursday we were completely rained out, but got a TON of prep work done. Friday we were up in Salem, Mass (Yup, witch city) shooting at this lovely park right on the harbor. All photos are courtesy of Brenda, one of a lovely ladies who came from all over Mass to help us. We seriously couldn’t do it without these wonderful women!

Today we’ll be at in apple orchard in the area. I’m so keyed up I couldn’t sleep! Hopefully it won’t catch up to me too much today! Hope you are all having a lovely weekend.

Friday was the deadline for the sample garments to come in from the test knitters. That meant that this week I’ve been receiving an INSANE number of packages. In fact, on Friday I had five deliveries at my house. Not five packages, five separate trucks pulled up and dropped things off for me. It’s just crazy!

My regular FedEx driver is great. I’ll get my 5 or 6 or 7 packages (at least one package didn’t make it into this picture and I discovered it fallen on the floor right after I took this picture) all tied up in one big plastic bag to keep it safe from all the rain we’ve been having this week. My tiny apartment looks like a yarn store exploded in it! My poor husband has been stepping over boxes and bags of yarn that have overflowed from my office/storage room and into the living room floor, under a table, and onto the couch. On Friday the couch was entirely not sitable and even when I “cleaned up” only half the couch is accessible.

But besides the crazy mess, it’s extremely thrilling! I love very carefully opening a package and seeing what kind of loveliness emerges! Things that I’ve seen sketches for, and seeing photos of, and answered a million questions about are suddenly right in front of me and they take my breath away! They shock and delight and make me squee!

And on Friday, I got even more special treat. A couple of my lovely, thoughtful test knitters gave me a little present to open as well:

Even though it was 9am, I immediately followed Lisa’s instructions and had a chocolate break! And Akshata not only made that lovely origami box, but filled it with hard candies! I felt like a very lucky woman. Not only did I get to be the first person to see these gorgeous samples and work with some great women, but I also got a couple of bonus presents, which were entirely unnecessary!

Lisa also reminded me that I need to be very careful when opening the boxes. This was a repurposed box, but the warning message was still pertinent!

As you can see, I didn’t follow Lisa’s instructions here. But I promise that I was incredibly careful, cutting only where I knew that there was cardboard to protect those delicate fibers!

There are still a few more samples to come for various reasons (and two knitters who are knitting like the wind, so if you have any spare knitting mojo lying around, please direct it to them!). Susan will be traveling starting on Monday and we’ll be pretty crazy for the next few weeks, but we’re really excited about this next phase and will be endeavoring to update the blog regularly anyway! (Seriously, planning blog posts was a part of one of our regular phone meetings.)

I know some of you have started your Uki Cowls! I’ll have a blog post tomorrow that talks about the dropped stitches and how to handle them, so if you’re running into any issues, I’ll be here to help.

So more than a few people have wondered what exactly goes on behind the scenes of the commercial yarn line. Since we’re getting ready for Spring/Summer 2014 (Yup! We’re working more than a year ahead of when the yarn will be released!) and it’s my first season working full time for JMF, I thought I’d share the process with you. The feature will be sporadic. There might be a month in which I only mention it once, and as we gear up for the photo shoot, there will be more and more say until finally the release!

Months ago Susie met with the wonderful folks at Knitting Fever, who distribute our yarn. They looked at which of our yarn is popular and we’d like to continue producing, as well as what new yarn we should bring to the market. Susie got to feel different samples of the new yarn to see what it looked like and what kind of handle it has. They make sure that the blend is just right. For example, one of our Fall/Winter 2013 yarns is a blend. They talked about at what percentage the characteristics of each blend really shine. Can they fiddle with it to save money? And the answer was no. The blend is just right where it is and to tip the balance to save money would produce an inferior yarn – which neither KFI nor JMF want to do! So the balance stays as sampled.

Then Susie flew home and collected images to create a mood board. A mood board sets the tone (or mood) for the collection. It gives a feeling and maybe a style that speaks to Susie and hopefully will speak to designers. I don’t want to give too much away about Spring/Summer 2014, but here’s the Fall/Winter 2013 Mood Board:

You can see that for this season, Susie was heavily influences by PBS shows set during WWII. It has a vintage charm and a slightly European feel to it. We use these boards to help communicate with others what the yarn and patterns should feel like. In fact, I used the Spring/Summer 2014 yarn boards as part of the call for pattern designs that I created.

Susie then spent time pouring over color choices for each of the yarn lines and working to create a cohesive collection. One where you can hopefully pick up a ball of yarn in any color in the collection and find a perfect mate for it. This is trickier than you think and sometimes we might end up with two different color collections within the color choices.

And that brings us up to present with the Spring / Summer 2014 yarns. I’m currently gathering design submissions for the yarn so that we can select designers to create the patterns. I’ve already hired a designer and rehired our fantastic tech editor (more about what she does in the the future!), but right now we are mostly waiting to see what people come up with. It’s a big job designing 8 patterns to submit to a yarn company and we can’t wait to see what people come up with! (If you’re seriously interested in designing a collection for JMF, you can email me at lauria AT fiberfarm DOT com.)

Where are we for Fall/Winter 2013? Well, Susie and I are very busy preparing for the photo shoot. I’ve got dozens of beautifully knit samples hanging out with me waiting for the rest of their sample friends which are trucking it from all over the country (and one from our friends to the north – Canada!). In a couple of weeks I’ll give you a sneak peak look at the Fall/Winter 2013 photo shoot! Then Susie and I will be at TNNA in Columbus, Ohio to present the Fall/Winter yarn line to those within the industry before the public release in July or August.

PS – we do have a winner for the Tenzing guessing game contest. I’ll be emailing her today, but we can’t tell you who was right until it’s time to release the yarn! I will say that I’m very impressed with your guesses and some of them might even give us a new idea for Fall/Winter 2014!