Back in December, I finally got the DSLR camera that I’ve been wanting for years. Since then, my creative focus has drifted from knitting* and sewing to photography. It is unbelievable how much I have to learn. Not only do I have to learn the basics of photography, I also have to figure out how to apply that all to my camera. In order to learn as much as possible, I’ve been checking out some photography forums and finally found Clickin’ Moms, which seems to be the best fit for me.
As I’ve been browsing around the forum, I have seen some amazing newborn photos. Not only are they giving me some major baby fever (my baby is turning 2 in two weeks!), but also some baby knitting fever. Almost all of my favorite newborn photos I’ve seen recently feature some adorable chunky knitted and crocheted items. There have been some gorgeous hats, baby cocoons, stork slings, and blankets. This photo session in particular just killed me. And the yarn! The beautiful shades spun in a thick-thin mix are driving me insane. I have to find some of that!
All of this desire for chunky knitted baby items led me to search both Etsy and Ravelry. I did find a few patterns I want to try, but (so far) I haven’t found the yarn I want. I’m going to start looking around locally, but I do most of my yarn shopping at either Hobby Lobby or Joann’s and I don’t recall seeing anything like that. I guess it’s time for me to graduate to a real yarn shop.
So, now I need some advice. I need to find a good local yarn shop in the Kansas City area that would carry fun super chunky yarn and I need some fun patterns to go with it. Anyone have any suggestions?
*Yes, I am still knitting when I can find the time. I just keep forgetting to photograph my finished knits to post! Seems to be a bit of irony there considering the topic of this post, eh?
Look for handspun yarn. Etsy is a good place to look as is Hyena Cart. I know a gal who recently started spinning and will be opening her own shop on Hyena Cart pretty soon in fact. While the stuff she has spun for me so far is mostly evenly plied (meaning it’s all thick or all thin), she can also do thick/thin, which a lot of that yarn in the link you gave is. It might be harder to find such a yarn at a local yarn shop, unfortunately!
I too have been considering graduating to a ‘real’ yarn shop. I think I will take the previous commenters advice too and look into ordering handspun. That sounds so delightful. I came across a site today that has instructions for dyeing yarn in a crockpot. Seriously, who would have thought to do that. I’m going to have to try it.
I would love to learn more about photography. Taking a class is high on my list of things to do next. The photo session you linked to was absolutely breathtaking. Oh how I wish I could take photographs like that.
Good luck.