podcasts

Episode 21

January 5, 2014November 22, 2017 by Sara

Happy New Year! This episode includes segments titled The Back Porch, Double Happiness, The Front Porch, and Ever-expanding Skill Set. Listen to the podcast episode for the Little Things contest prize winner.

The Back Porch

Since spinning the honey to fig gradient from FiberOptic, I’ve been eager to get started on making something with the extraordinary merino-silk that took an age to spin and chain-ply. I did not get enough yardage to knit the Clawed shawl featured in Ply magazine’s COLOR issue, so I decided to knit a Daybreak shawl by Stephen West. This required dividing the yarn into two separate balls. After a lot of number crunching and second-guessing, I made the cut. It turns out that my instincts were pretty good. I was able to keep complementary colors playing against each other throughout, and ended with a border of dark hues.

Another completed project is the Bitsy Baby Beanie by Ellen Silva of the Twinset Designs podcast. The pattern is great for beginning knitters and the perfect size and difficulty for charity work. Each January, I try to make several contributions to a charity. This year, I’ve decided to knit hats for the Click for Babies initiative, which seeks to educate parents about the period of “purple” crying and the significance of shaken baby syndrome. Hats for this charity should be in newborn / infant sizes and must be at least 50% purple. I’ve searched through my stash for purple yarn and I intend to knit several hats for the cause.

Double Happiness

This holiday season, my suspicions about my knit-worthy family were confirmed. Everyone on my gift list received my handiwork with a smile and a thank you. It was fun to knit for them, and even more fun to see them wear the things I made. I’m already planning some projects for gift-giving next year. I’m also delighted by the thoughtful gifts I received–gifts for a knitter! Four of my favorites: a vintage adjustable dress form on a heavy stand (her name is Gertrude); a glass head for modeling hats; The Fleece & Fiber sourcebook; a needle case by Crippenworks, and a set of awesome headphones.

The Front Porch

After a quick search on Ravelry, I located my list of goals for 2013.

1) Learn to knit socks.
2) Get the basics of changing colors to make stripes in a pattern.
3) Attend the knit nights at my LYS and get to know some local knitters.
4) Go to Rhinebeck.
5) Continue to drum up interest in the String Theory knit/crochet club I’ve volunteered to advise at the school where I work.
6) Knit something for my husband’s 2013 Xmas. I’m thinking some cashmere yarn and a masculine scarf pattern.

Even though I did not spend the year thinking about and crossing off items on this list, I managed to accomplish all of them. I suppose the act of committing to your goals in writing is a kind of affirmation that you will strive to work toward them. With that in mind, I’ve constructed a list of goals for 2014:

knit a sweater
try a felting project
purchase yarn & fiber from new-to-me purveyors
record 45 podcast episodes by August
host a knit along
attend a knitting retreat

Ever-expanding Skill Set

This year, in order to expand my culinary skills, I’ve decided to experiment with products from the bulk bins at my local health food store. In the past, I’ve turned to the bins for inexpensive alternatives to packaged items at the supermarket. But there are so many products I’ve never tried. By focusing on one ingredient each month, I can really expand my repertoire of recipes and cooking techniques. I hope you’ll join me for a year-long cook-along. In January, the spotlight will be on lentils. Share recipes, links and photographs of your dishes on the Ravelry thread. The more often you share, the greater your chances of winning a prize in the monthly drawing! Get started with Monastery-style Lentil Soup, found on my friend Kristy’s blog, Creative Wisdom Wellness.

“Throw your dream out in front of you and walk into the dream.” — Carl Jung

One thought on “Episode 21”

Laura Brownlee says:

January 5, 2014 at 9:08 pm

Hello Sara! Happy New Year!
As usual, I’ve enjoyed listening to the recent podcast, episode 21. Though I may not comment on each one, I assure you, it falls on very interested ears! The previous episode which was recorded outside was particularly lovely–especially when you paused for a moment to listen to the woodpecker and visualizing the scene you described–as well as the content of the episode itself! This week’s has me eagerly interested in the cook-along! How fitting you chose lentils as the chosen food item to begin the year–did you know eating lentils (on New Year’s Day) brings good luck? Of course eating it the first MONTH of the year will bring the same! (Only if you believe it!) (*.*)
Thank you for doing what you do.
Laura

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