podcasts

Episode 174

August 1, 2017 by Sara

So much color in the Natural Dye Intensive course I took with Jane Woodhouse. The class, hosted by Hope’s Favorite Things, was an excellent primer on achieving the natural color you want by making careful calculations and mixing dye extracts.

The Back Porch

Yarn spun from Cluck and Baa Farm’s Clun Forest roving. This yarn is spindle-spun and wheel-plied, resulting in a soft, springy product. A high-twist 3-ply would be an excellent candidate for socks!

Batts of Hog Island fiber from a fleece I split with Emily of FibreTown. These batts will be a dream to spin. Working with a drum carder was a good way to remove debris from the fleece.

The Front Porch

I’m planning to cast on Ujo, a dress design by Ankestrick, for the #hipsterkal hosted by Jaclyn of the Brooklyn Knitfolk podcast.

I think I’m going to get mileage out of single skeins by using this color palette.

Ever-expanding Skill Set

Grilled Romain is becoming a summer go-to. The topping possibilities are endless — here I’ve used chopped bacon and hard-boiled egg. Check out the Dishing Up the Dirt blog for recipe ideas.

Wow your guests with very little exertion on your part by grilling peaches at the end of the meal. Close all oxygen intake and let them go. Charred bits on the surface; skins slip right off. Top with vanilla ice cream and drizzle with a balsamic reduction for an over-the-top yum factor.

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 174

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