The other day I finally made it to Argyle, the new yarn store that opened up a few months back on Prospect Park West in Brooklyn, just down the block from me.

I don’t know why I waited so long to go—it’s such a lovely store, owned by this lovely couple, Esther and David.

Their passion for knitting is apparent in their great selection of yarn and wide array of tools that knitters need. It’s a great feeling to know that if I need some new needles for a project right now, they’re just a walk away!

The first time I visited, I introduced myself and mentioned my patterns. I’m not the best self-promoter, but Esther and David made it easy with their enthusiasm for my designs! You can now find a bunch of Mochimochi patterns and kits in their store.

If you live in or near Park Slope/ Windsor Terrace, Argyle could be your new favorite LYS! They’re renovating a back room for classes, and they’re also planning to add other craft supplies in the future. I’m exited to see this small business grow along with the neighborhood.

I thought it would be fun to show my setup for shooting the still images for the Yeti Party GIF.

(Please ignore the horrendous mess. It gets a little cramped working and sleeping in the same room…)

I normally do my pattern photography using a little tent and these super bright lights, but because I had to get my hands into the scene and move lots of stuff around, I skipped the tent and pointed all the lights away so there wouldn’t be too many shadows.

I also had to find a way to suspend the little mirror ball without using something overhead that would block the light, so I just pulled out the top drawer of my yarn storage and hung it down from that.

Here’s a look at a still photo before I cloned out the wires in Photoshop.

I wanted some of the yetis to make smooth dancing moves, so I inserted pieces of thin wire through the front yeti’s arms and legs, and one through the arms of the yellow-horned yeti, to make their appendages malleable. (You can see a tiny bit of the wire sticking out from the yellow one’s left hand.) The head-spinning yeti and the two dancing guys are stuck to the styrofoam base using straight pins through their backs where they wouldn’t be visible.

I used Photoshop to make the GIF itself, but there are several free GIF makers out there, which you can find with a web search. But if there are enough people interested in how I made it with Photoshop, I’d be happy to share that sometime!