WYS Winwick Mum Collection yarn – Photo shoot

Are you ready for another instalment of the Winwick Mum yarn adventure?  We’re on countdown now to the yarn being in the shops so I’d better get on with telling you the story!

Are you sitting comfortably?

It was a remarkably Spring-like Thursday afternoon in January when I drove up to Clitheroe in Lancashire to meet up with the West Yorkshire Spinners team.  They were at Bashall Barn, a rather rural lovely venue for weddings with a farm shop and restaurant attached, for the second day of a photo shoot for the WYS upcoming new yarn releases including Colour Lab and … Winwick Mum Collection Signature 4ply!

As you’ll know, I do like to see behind the scenes so I wasn’t going to miss out on the opportunity to see my socks being photographed for the pattern book that’s going to be available with the yarn.  The room they were using was huge, with white painted walls and furniture, and enormous glazed doors that looked out on the beautiful view across the hillside.

Along with the WYS team, Eve the model for the day and Anna the make up artist.  I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of being part of days like this, I always feel very lucky that I get to spend my time doing something that I really love.

There were lots of props around – plants in pots, tables, chairs and other bits and pieces that I have recognised in some of the photos accompanying the new Colour Lab patterns.  I might not have noticed them if I hadn’t seen them as our eyes are always drawn to the main focus of a photo, but having things in the background makes the photos complete in a way that I had been aware of but yet hadn’t really considered before.

The blanket is a brand new Colour Lab pattern by Emma Leith called Liquorice Rose.  It’s very striking, isn’t it?

By the time I arrived at the barn, it was just after lunch time and already the light was changing as the sun started to go down.  I learnt from the Knit Now photo shoot more about how photography is as much about learning to use the light and the shadows as getting the composition right, and I also know from my own experience that getting a photo right isn’t always as easy as it looks.

Photography spent a lot of time moving sheets around to stop the glare of the sun bleaching out the photos, and moving furniture around to catch the best light.  The sun is so much lower in the winter time and was particularly bright although it wasn’t very warm and we all had our jackets on – except Eve, who must have been freezing in the summer clothes she was wearing!

Despite the cold, though, Eve sat patiently and waited.  I liked Eve a lot (not least because she makes my socks look fabulous!) and I think that you must need bucketfuls of patience to be a model as well as looking good in front of a camera.

“Turn this way, move your foot that way, can you look up, look down …?” She just did everything asked whilst the camera snapped away with our photographer checking the photos on his camera from time to time …

sometimes taking them closer …

and sometimes further away.

Eve just sat and waited …

changed socks from time to time …

and read a book.

I tried not to get in the way, thought I’d lost my phone and hence my camera (it had fallen into a pocket in my bag – phew!), drank tea, advised on which way round the socks should be worn, talked about 80s pop music (and felt old enough to be almost everyone else’s Mum in the process!) and generally had a lovely afternoon.  I am very spoilt sometimes! 😀

It wasn’t long after the photo above that the light had gone completely and everyone started to pack up for the day.  There’s an incredible amount of stuff that needs to be ferried around for photo shoots – the cameras and all the associated equipment; racks of clothing to be worn to show off the knitwear; the knitwear itself; props as well as some things from around the barn that needed to be returned to where they had come from – things like the pot plants, and vases and candle holders which are all bulky to carry about; accessories such as necklaces and earrings … the list goes on and on!

I said my goodbyes and set off for home.  It was dark now, and the moon was full and bright. There were only a few weeks from this point until CHSI Stitches, the trade show where the Winwick Mum yarn would be officially launched and available for the stockists to see for the first time.  And now, there is only a short time until the yarn is in the shops.  It seems to have gone by in the blink of an eye!

So when can you get your hands on it?  It’s been a long wait – for all of us! – and I am absolutely thrilled to tell you that the yarn and the pattern books are starting to leave the mill to reach the yarn shops next week.  It should be in all of the yarn shops by Easter weekend but do phone to check before you go, just in case.  How exciting is that?!

We’re so very nearly at the end of the story – or is it the beginning of a whole new chapter?  Both, I would say – and it’s super-exciting!  I think we’ll go to a trade show next.  Are you coming?