podcasts

Episode 22

January 14, 2014November 22, 2017 by Sara

This week’s episode features the following segments: Ever-expanding Skill Set, A Little Bit of Learning, The Back Porch and The Front Porch.

Ever-expanding Skill Set

Thank you, everyone, for the enthusiastic comments and posts about the Bulk Bins Cook Along. I’m thrilled that you are as excited about the idea as I am. Contribute your recipes, tips, and photos to the BULK BINS CAL thread on Ravelry. There is already a great conversation and recipe exchange going on in this thread. Each month, one post will be selected at random to win a Ravelry pattern valued at $7 or less. After announcing the idea in the last podcast episode, I spent a frigid Sunday afternoon cooking with French lentils for the first time. This soup recipe from Carrie Vitt of Deliciously Organic was my inspiration. I used pork kielbasa from Applegate Farms and some frozen turkey stock from my Thanksgiving bird. I also replaced the tomato products with 1/2 cup of finely diced sun-dried tomato. Just before serving, I squeezed the juice from half a lemon into the pot and shaved some parmigiano-reggiano over each bowl.

A Little Bit of Learning

This week, I’m sharing some nutritional facts and culinary lore about lentils on the podcast. I have found excellent information on The World’s Healthiest Foods website.

The Back Porch

This week, I completed several projects. Here you see the Spring Foliage mitts by Alana Dakos. I knit them in Berroco Ultra Alpaca Lite in peat to coordinate with my Batad. These mitts are beautifully patterned and wonderfully stretchy at the cuff. Alana’s patterns are written so well that I end up taking on much greater challenges than I think I am capable. For example, cables. And working with dpns (double-pointed needles). Whatever, the challenge, I feel confident that if I follow Alana’s pattern carefully, I will come out with a beautiful garment.

I also completed a fringed scarf (pictured at the top of the post) made entirely of scrap yarn in sport, DK, and worsted weight. Changing yarns every four rows and using linen stitch creates a lot of visual interest in this scarf. What a plus that you don’t have to weave in ends — you simply knot the ends of yarn together as you change colors and leave them hanging for a fun fringe on the side. Ingenious. I highly recommend this pattern, called Flickerl, from Simone Eich of WOLLWERK.

The Front Porch

During the month of January, I’ll be working on some additional hat donations for Click for Babies. I’ve completed three hats so far.

I’ve also begun working on my first-ever Amy Herzog pattern. This is my entry in a knitalong for SSK retreat members. That’s right, in July, I’ll be traveling to Nashville for the Super Summer Knitogether sponsored by theknitgirllls. The pattern I chose for the Amy Herzog KAL is the Fellowes cloche. It looks to me like something Lady Edith would wear when she leaves Downton Abbey for a few days in London. I know, I know. Lady Mary gets all the attention, but I really enjoying Lady Edith’s wardrobe — especially in this season of DA. Edith’s character is more fashion-forward and less traditional, so she has some exciting pieces and playful colors in her wardrobe. This pattern is a challenging one, featuring linen stitch and wraps and turns.

Dress shabbily and they remember the dress; dress impeccably and they remember the woman.” — Coco Chanel

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