I have a new sock pattern collaboration with Catherine at Gauge Dye Works, A Checklist of Birds, so I’m highlighting the exciting things that went into this project and what’s great about it. Today is all about our team!

Teamwork

A lot of my design work consists of me standing in front of my computer, digitally moving tiny boxes for making charts, bringing the colour saturation up or down on countless images, or sitting on the couch with balls of yarn surrounding me as I knit my latest sample. I feel very at home doing that kind of work and it suits me. But there’s something particularly fulfilling about getting together with other creative people and making something new that none of us could have done alone. So this post is to celebrate the teamwork that went into A Checklist of Birds Socks.

A grey scale selfie of Kiya, Andrea, Catherine, and Mandy all leaning in and smiling. Photo by Kiya.

The Photo Shoot

In 2020 and 2021 I took photos of myself in my living room or on my balcony for the projects with Catherine and for the indie work I did. And our first project this year, A Garden Wedding, was a very personal one that I designed especially for me to wear at my sister’s wedding, so even though we hired a photographer to help with that one, it felt right for me to model the design.

But we’re all very ready to have someone who isn’t me showing off our work again! So we were delighted to work with Kiya, a brilliant professional model who made our photo shoot a dream. And some of you may already be familiar with Mandy, who does all sorts of very useful stuff at the Gauge Dye Works studio, including help coordinate pattern tests for our projects.

Catherine, Mandy, and I are all interested in photography, so we decided to take the opportunity of a photo shoot to do some pro development. We all brought our cameras and a few helpful props, so instead of just one photographer, all three of us chatted about locations and settings and poses and snapped pictures. With Kiya’s help, we hardly needed to figure out posing at all and there were so many great spots at our location, Saxe Point Park. It was a fun throwback because it was where Catherine and I did our very first photo shoot together!

Kiya is seated sideways on a park bench with her feet up, wearing bright striped socks. She’s holding an open card with a variety of coloured squares.

Behind the Scenes

A lot of stuff goes on outside the frame of any photo shoot and everyone loves an out take! That plastic thing with a bunch of pixels that Kiya is holding above is a tool photographers use to help get the colours correct in an image while they’re editing them after the photo shoot. Catherine and I both brought ours, but fortunately she actually remembered to pull hers out because I forgot completely! There’s a lot to keep track of at photo shoots! It really helped me to edit the colours accurately, which is important when you’re trying to show folks what the yarn actually looks like.

And feet-in-the-air is a classic sock pose, but those angles are trickier than they look! I think that third one got it, right? I really appreciate Kiya being up for our goofier pose ideas!

A couple years ago we did a photo shoot for our SKY collection and our photographer, Zee Photo, brought a step ladder to get some of those great overhead images. I thought that was brilliant, so I made sure to bring one for this project. The number one priority was definitely getting it to sit evenly on that pebble beach so no one would topple off, but we had an incident-free morning and I’m so glad we got those shots!

Kiya is leaning back on a blanket on a pebble beach while Catherine, standing on a step stool, and Mandy, crouched nearby, are taking photos of her brightly striped socks.

An overhead view of Kiya’s feet and legs with a focus on the cheery striped socks she’s wearing.

Get the Pattern & Yarn Now!

All our efforts were to bring you this project, a combination celebration of our treasured local bird population, nerdy data visualization, and stripe-lovers heaven. We hope you love it!

And speaking of teamwork, I’ve got some more thanks to extend:

Here’s my gratitude for birds! Without their delightful colours, we never would have thought of this project at all and they bring me moments of joy every day.
Thanks to the Victoria Natural History Society for creating the checklist we used to get the data about how common particular birds are. The form of the checklist was absolutely perfect for sock charts, which I’m sure was a major priority for them when they designed it.
My editors are absolutely vital to my process, so thank you to tech editor Susan and copy editor Jessie!
Thank you to my testers who tried out the pattern and gave me very helpful feedback! They improved the pattern so that it’s better for you knitters.

What’s a bird that’s local to you and brings you joy? Tell me about it in the comments!