podcasts

Episode 236

November 24, 2019 by Sara

What considerations guide your clothing purchases? In this episode, I share some of my thoughts on this subject and talk about a few places I shop when the “BUY” pinnacle of the purchasing pyramid seems warranted. Plus, I talk about what’s on my needles and share three poems in celebration of the Thanksgiving holiday.

Yarn Lover at Large

I’ve been working on corespun LED lights and I’ll have them for sale at Hope’s Favorite Things in Richmond PA. StarString is one-of-a-kind; each strand is made from specially-blended wool, silk and sparkle. These are fun to decorate with an bring some extra warmth and light to your home during the cold, dark winter season.

in Richmond, PA on Small Business Saturday. Stop in for a visit, shopping, tea and coffee. Or bring your wheel and join in the fun at The Wool School.

A Few Notes on Ethical Fashion

Thank you Suzanne, for the Ravelry post that got me thinking about my #mostlyhandmadewardrobe and what I do when I don’t have the skills or inclination to make my own clothing. This is a broad topic on which I humbly offer a few of my thoughts. I think that a good start is to consider “The Buyerarchy of Needs” illustration by Canadian illustrator Sarah Lazarovic.

Here are a few articles: one on the first three levels, and another on the top three levels.

In the segment, I mention the following:

Good on You App
Boody
Girlfriend Collective
Tradesy
Bryr Studio
Unicorn Clean
Soak — I link specifically to Soak School, with helpful hints to cleaning all kinds of things in your home.

Off the Shelf

Poetry Foundation’s The Cranberry Cantos — Thanksgiving Poems for Family and Friends

Bless Their Hearts by Richard Newman
Onions by William Matthews
Perhaps the World Ends Here by Joy Harjo

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 236

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