podcasts

Episode 344

April 2, 2025April 2, 2025 by Sara

I’m proud to be a participant in Knit-for-Food this year. I’ll be knitting up a storm on Saturday, April 5th. Feel free to join me from noon-3pm at Orange: coffee.art.music in Delaware Water Gap, PA. Help me reach my fundraising goal of $1000 by making a contribution via my pledge page.

Making progress on the Pressed Flowers shawl designed by Amy Christoffers. I’m using Bare Naked Wool Stone Soup Worsted (marble) as the main color and Making Tracks LITE (Aurora Borealis) as the contrasting color. In the meantime, I’ve been considering

Last Word and Grapefruit Pink Lady designed by Thea Colman

Lyra (forthcoming) designed by Aegyoknit

I’m so pleased to be enrolled in Cal Patch’s hand sewn shirt class and looking forward to stitching something similar to what I’ve sketched here. I recommend Episode 176 of the Check Your Thread podcast, in which Cal discusses some tips for hand-stitched embellishment on garments.

Oh, my goodness. This cornbread is just the thing with a cup of coffee. Here is my recipe, which has been adapted from the Moosewood Cookbook recipe for Delicious Corn Bread. I sourced my toasted black sesame seeds from a local Asian grocer.

Preheat oven 400F.

Prepare an 8×8 pan with a parchment sling.

Melt 3 tbsp butter.

Beat together 1 egg, 1 c buttermilk, and 3 tbsp sugar.

Stir in 1 c (120g) yellow corn meal, 1 c (120g) all purpose flour, 2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp salt.

Add dry ingredients to wet. When mostly incorporated, stir in melted butter.

Pour all batter (RESERVING 1/2 c) into prepared pan.

To the reserved batter, stir in 3 tbsp ground toasted black sesame seeds, and 1 tbsp honey.

Place dollops of the sesame mixture on top of the corn batter, then use a thin knife blade or skewer to create a marbled design.

Bake for about 20 minutes, being careful not to overbake. Allow cornbread to cool in pan for five minutes, then remove it to a cooling rack.

Two poems from our current Poet Laureate Ada Limón.

Calling Things What They Are

The Raincoat

Arrows and Doorways

The design for this super-cozy cowl was inspired by textiles in a hotel lobby. Concentric geometric shapes kept playing in my mind until finally I was able to chart the pattern and get it onto my needles. The interplay of this chevron-like patterning has a mesmerizing effect–while you’re knitting and when you wear the finished accessory.

Knit up a cowl with yarn from your stash, adding some magical new mini-skeins from your advent calendar, or exchange leftover yarn with a friend. The design invites frequent color changes, and makes an ideal knit for the advent season. It could be just as striking knit with two high-contrast colors.

While most cowls of this type are seamed within a band of a single color, this pattern incorporates a technique called stranded donut grafting, an incredibly clever and completely seamless graft that allows you to maintain colorwork patterning so that your starting and ending rounds are undetectable. Really! With many possibilities for color play and a new technique to add to your skill set, this cowl pattern is really an opportunity for knitters to level-up!

NEW PATTERN DESIGN!

ONE DARK BLUE NIGHT

This hat is the third in a series of patterns inspired by teachings in Clarissa Pinkola Estés’ Women Who Run with the Wolves. This time, I drew inspiration from Estés’ retelling of a Japanese tale, Tsukina Waguma or “The Crescent Moon Bear,” in which a young woman travels to the cave of an incredibly intimidating and ferocious bear. She makes several journeys to the cave, leaving food and quickly retreating, until “one dark blue night,” she musters the courage to stand her ground and ask for what she seeks--one hair from a moon-shaped patch on the bear’s chest--which she is granted. The young woman returns, triumphant, to the old healer who has sent her on this quest. She believes this single hair is the magic ingredient in solving the problem that plagues her. She holds it forth, but the healer tosses the hair into the flames. The young woman is in despair until she realizes the true lesson of her quest: that using her determination, courage, and patience, as she did with the crescent moon bear, will help her to confront the challenge at hand.

The moon phase motif of this colorwork hat is meant to capture the magic of a dark blue night--when the moon shines brightly overhead, the frosty air sparkles with possibility, and we succeed in summoning accumulated wisdom from deep within ourselves so that we can apply it to our own healing. Choose colors to conjure a wintery night sky, or select a palette of your signature colors.

Available on Ravelry December 20th.

Yarns at Yin Hoo

Episode 344

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