Virtual Yarn Stash

Taking photos of my yarn is such fun for me. I think, in the beginning, it gave me a comfortable familiarity with the yarn because I’ve loved photography for a few decades, but only been knitting for a few months. Capturing and creating something with the yarn using a well-loved hobby helped me approach the yarn as a raw material and feel like I can make beauty with it in spite of any setbacks I may have had with my actual knitting. After a few months of this habit, which was fueled by Ravelry, I thought it might be worth sharing these photos. Checking on Facebook, I found too few yarn-related Facebook applications so I created one myself allowing users to send virtual yarn (my photos) back and forth to friends. It was easy enough from there since I still think lighting is the hardest part of photographing yarn (dark and red yarns in particular).

Ravelry.com motivates me to photograph my yarn stash because the Stash section of my profile helps me keep track of my yarn inventory with all the details and a place to upload your own photos! The same photo option exists in their Project section. So, when a yarn stash becomes too big to see them all at once in-person, the Stash section helps make sense of it. Unfortunately, it helps us remember if we already have something, thereby cutting down on new, unnecessary purchases. Sigh.

Since I created the For Your Yarn Stash app, over 3,500 images have been sent! I am amazed, flattered, and honored that people enjoy my photographs so much and it inspires me to be a better photographer and choose more and more decadent yarns in delicious hues. I recently started including brand information with each image so something dearly admired can be sought after and purchased by application users. It was a tough decision to do this since I worried it would make it too commercial, but what’s the point of drooling over something attainable if you don’t know where to get it? Here is a peek at the latest yarn added to the application, a luxuriously soft cashmere/silk worsted yarn from Hedgehog Fibres.

I have linked to Hedgehog Fibres a few times:
Mmm, New Yarn
Where To Buy Yarn in Cork City
Virtual Yarn Stash
Cork-based Spinning & Dyeing

DISCLOSURE: Hedgehog Fibres is Cork-based and I know her personally. She has given my two skeins as a gift during the course of our friendship. Read about the FTC Regulation that sparked this disclosure.