Over the last few years, I’ve thought and written a lot about knitting photos. I’ve talked about techniques and tools until I felt silly. Surely, after all that, there can’t be more to say about taking pictures of our knitting. There’s one thing, though, that I never touched on: why do we do it at all?
Knitting Photos are Our Scrapbooks
The vast majority of people who responded said that taking pictures of their knits was a way to keep a personal diary of their knitting journey.
Knitting can also be a really social activity. I love being at events with other knitters because we’re constantly passing around yarn to squish and sniff, asking if we can pet someone’s sweater, or ogling a particularly well made shawl. Distance, however, can make it hard for a lot of us to attend those sorts of events. I live in a small-ish Southern California beach city, which isn’t exactly a hotbed of fiber meetups. So what’s a knitter to do when we can’t gush over each other’s work in person? We take photos and share projects with each other that way.
The smallest group of respondents indicated that they shared photos because they’re test knitters and want to help spread the word. I confess, that’s a huge part of why I share my own photos now as a designer: I want you to know what I’ve got coming next!
Taking pictures of my knits is, for me, as much a part of the finishing process as weaving in the ends and blocking. I love giving each project a little photo shoot when I’m done working on it. I’ve never known a knitting life without Ravelry and social media, so I’ve never lived in a world where I didn’t share my projects with friends online. But we don’t all have that same lived experience.