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Episode 286

October 12, 2021October 12, 2021 by Sara

Fall is here! Sweater knitting is picking up and the NY Sheep & Wool Festival is just around the corner. In this episode, I’ll catch you up on the saga of my RB sweater and share chats with MJ Packer of Battenkill Fiber Mill and Carole Foster of Foster Sheep Farm. They are brimming with suggestions for your festival shopping.

Tiny knitted acorns glued into caps I collected. (pattern by Caroline Hosmann)

Goldwing by Jennifer Steingass in Battenkill Fiber Mill seconds
socks in the Rock Collecting colorway from KnitSpinFarm
Acorns pattern by Caroline Hosmann knit with scrap yarns
Leni by Isabelle Kraemer in Oysters & Purls yarn held double

Battenkill Fiber Mill 27A #12 (outside between barns 26 & 27)

MJ’s sweater – Wild Mountain Thyme by Thea Colman in Oysters & Purls Romney/Merino
MJ’s cowl – Flourish Cowl by Beach House Knits in Oysters & Purls Corriedale/Merino sport
Saturday 2-4 Jill Beach of Beach House Knits
Saturday 12-2 and Sunday 2-4 Morgan from Knitting Nellie Bags
Saturday 12-2 & Sunday 2-4 Madeline White of Vegetarian Viking Wool
Saturday and Sunday 10-noon Jennie O’Toole Forage and Sow Dyeworks
Sunday at noon Am of Oysters & Purls
all weekend Ensign Brook Farm yarns
all weekend fabric from Lilly Marsh Studios
all weekend Kathy of Midnight Mercantile
all weekend Gail of Cornwall Yarn Shop
tune in to the mill’s INSTAGRAM LIVE every Tuesday evening at 6:30pm!
follow @hvtextileproject on IG

Foster Sheep Farm Building 31 Booth 10

Carole’s sweater – Caribou Hills by Caitlin Hunter in FSF Concordia natural and botanical colors
Carol’s other sweater – Saknes by Zanete Knits in FSF Schuyler 3-ply worsted marl NEW*
botanically-dyed hat kits for Andrea Mowry’s Flicker & Flame hat
soaps by mary Jane
all the notions and supplies you need from FSF Yarn Shop

Flicker and Flame knit in FSF botanically-dyed yarns

All that, plus #powerpantry returns with pantry stocking suggestions and . . . sumac are available in the full-length version of this episode, available on archive.org.

Fage sour cream – an absolute FAVE refrigerator staple
Ottolenghi’s Lamb & Pistachio Patties w/ Sumac Yogurt Sauce
Delish Cajun Spice Rub (I substituted sumac for 1/2 of the paprika in this recipe

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 286

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