Our presenter, Felicia Lo, discussed photography for textiles. There are plenty of practical and artistic reasons why we take photos of our textiles. The photos may be for personal record-keeping purposes or for professional use. Felicia emphasized that we first need to understand our focus — what aspects of the fabric or fiber do we want to portray in the photo? Then she discussed the variables that make up a good photograph, including shutter speeds, aperture, film, and especially lighting. A diffused natural light is best and can be achieved with several different set-ups. Composition of the photo must also be considered. An object off-center may make a more interesting photo. Felicia then presented a number of examples of good and bad photos as well as references for further study. She summarized with a quick list that will help us improve our photos:

• Use natural light.
• Modify your light source.
• Use a tripod.
• Bracket your exposures.
• Consider your composition.
• Have fun!

A copy of the lecture handout is available in PDF format at the sweetgeorgia yarns blog here »

Another shop front store with yarn and fleece is always good news as far as I’m concerned, so I couldn’t wait to check out the shop at 4458 Main St. The mother and daughter team, Francesca Pagliotti and daughter Zoe, are obviously ardent knitters but the spinners amongst us will be happy to know that they also plan to carry roving as well, provided by none other than Felicia Lo, the live presence behind SweetGeorgia website. The wall of reasonably priced Cascade 220 is also an excellent resource for felters, and there is an ample selection of Euroflax linen.

There was a great sense of celebration as yarn enthusiasts drifted in the door on opening day. What better way to mark the passage into autumn on the west coast than to spend a Saturday morning on Main street deliberating amongst so many enticing yarns and patterns as a cozy sweater begins to materialize in the mind’s eye. And afterwards, there’s no shortage of atmospheric coffee stops, where one can puzzle over the pattern and perhaps even cast on the inaugural row.

After the excitement and mayhem of the first week dyed [sic] down, I had a brief, online interview with Francesca, to which she responds below.

“We love the Main Street neighborhood and were very excited to find a storefront in that area. We have tried to create a shop with a warm, friendly and creative environment, full of beautiful yarn and inspiring projects for all levels of knitters. We will begin offering classes in October, starting with a beginners and intermediate series taught by Linda Hull; we then plan to expand to add advanced classes and specialty knitting, drawing from the expertise of master knitters in the community, including finishing, beadwork, felting, mobius knitting, socks, knitalongs, etc. We are also hosting a knitting circle on Wednesday nights from 7 to 9 pm where knitters can meet informally to work on projects, share ideas, and help each other. Everyone is welcome. We see ourselves as a gathering place in the community for people who love to knit.

We believe we have chosen a nice selection of yarn for our opening inventory and will, of course be adding new lines in the future, including Fleece Artist and Handmaiden. We welcome suggestions from our customers for expanding our selection. We have a full colour range in most of the yarn we carry, including a beautiful wall of cubbies filled with Cascade 220 in 70 colourways. We also carry Mission Falls 1824 cotton and wool in all the colours. We want to support Canadian yarn manufacturers, local fiber artists and independent knitwear designers and will be continually expanding in this direction.

In addition to Mission Falls, we also are fortunate to have a wonderful selection of Koigu KPPPM and Felicia Lo’s SweetGeorgia Yarns. We also carry the full line of Euroflax linen, a beautiful and interesting yarn that we love but is not well known in Vancouver.

In addition to spun yarn, we currently have a very small selection of SweetGeorgia Yarn’s hand dyed Blue Faced Leicester roving and bombyx silk fiber and we may be carrying more in the future.”

Submitted by Barb Duncan