Yarns at Yin Hoo

Episode 339

In this episode, I talk about overcoming obstacles like working colorwork flat by purling back backwards. Plus, more hearty recipes from Six Seasons.

December 8, 2024December 12, 20242 Min Reading

Episode 338

I finished a test knit using Tidal Yarns and some fringe. Plus, new cast ons, fiber-y events, stitching a self-portrait, the return of #powerpantry, and a poem suited to the times by Kay Ryan.

November 17, 2024November 17, 20241 Min Reading

It’s a review of my weekend in Rhinebeck for the New York Sheep and Wool Festival and A Woolen Affair. I talk about what I wore, where I shopped, and all the goodness of a fiber festival at peak leaf peeping in New York State. Plus, a life-changing loaf of bread, my clog obsession, and a poem to celebrate the season.

October 26, 2024October 26, 20242 Min Reading

Episode 336

An update on new sewn and knit garments, teaching and planning for classes, a quilting retreat, and Rhinebeck-bound.

October 14, 2024October 14, 20241 Min Reading

Episode 335

Fall festival season continues with a trip to the Southern Adirondack Wool & Arts Festival to meet the men behind two new yarn companies.

September 30, 2024September 30, 20241 Min Reading

Episode 334

It’s fiber festival season and knitting is in full gear!

September 16, 2024September 16, 20241 Min Reading

Episode 333

Once and for all … I commit M1L and M1R to memory. Two nearly, oh so nearly, finished knitting projects, a new one on the horizon, sewing the Plover Pouch, and a new frontier in education. Plus, a poem featuring allusions to sewing and needlework by Samiya Bashir.

August 31, 2024September 14, 20242 Min Reading

Episode 332

I’ve been making progress on two knitting projects and just finished a hand-sewn top with curved piecing. Plus, an excerpt from my current read about owls!

August 18, 2024August 18, 20242 Min Reading

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.