podcasts

Episode 35: Poem in Your Pocket

April 22, 2014 by Sara

This episode includes the following segments: Ever-expanding Skill Set, The Back Porch, The Front Porch, Double Happiness and Gratitude Journal.

LISTEN:

Ever-expanding Skill Set

My contribution to Easter dinner was a rice pie with a custard-like texture. I’ve made this dish many times, and I’m always trying to find new ways to amp up the flavor. This year, I used freshly-squeezed orange juice as the cooking liquid for basmati rice. I also soaked the pine nuts overnight in orange liqueur. Finally, I scraped vanilla from 1/3 of a fresh bean rather than use vanilla extract. Farm-fresh eggs and very high quality ricotta are essential. This dessert is not too sweet, light because of the phyllo crust, and a great balance to a salty ham dinner.

The Back Porch

Farbklang, (the color of sound) is an asymmetrical design for an accessory by Simone Eich of Wollwerk. This pattern knits up quickly and lends itself to improvisation and experimentation. I’m very pleased with the results.

The Front Porch

I’ve heard the yarn and the colors of Leading Men Fiber Arts praised on several podcasts, so I thought I’d try some lace weight to knit Tripartite, a loosely structured Stephen West design. The color, seaweed, is going to be perfect for summer. It is a beautiful tonal turquoise, and will look well with natural linen, white, and black garments.

The Clincher by Ash Kearns could become your new sockhead hat, as long as you don’t mind purling. I guess a lot of knitters DO mind purling, but this accessory is a great project for a precious skein of sock yarn and some scrap yarn in a contrasting color. It has a pleasing ribbed texture and can be worn in a variety of ways. I think it’s pretty easy to work on in a social setting and works well for travel knitting, too.

Double Happiness

Thursday, April 24th is Poem in Your Pocket Day. You’re encouraged to select a pocket-sized poem, place it in your pocket, and share it throughout the day with loved ones, co-workers, even friendly-looking strangers. Here is a link to short, printable poems in case you need some help finding one.

Share the happiness. Here are some ideas from Poets.org for giving poetry a place on Poem in Your Pocket Day:

Post pocket-sized verses in public places
Handwrite some lines on the back of your business cards
Distribute bookmarks with your favorite immortal lines
Add a poem to your email footer
Post a poem on your blog or social networking page
Project a poem on a wall, inside or out
Text a poem to friends

Would you like to win what’s inside this pretty pink package? It’s a project bag from Halcyarn Knitting Accessories. All you need to do is enter the contest in the Yarns at Yin Hoo group on Ravelry by posting your shopping advice. I’m traveling to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival in May and I’d like your suggestions for how to make use my shopping dollars.

Gratitude Journal

This week, I read “Thanks,” a poem by W. S. Merwin. This poem is not new; however, I recently discovered it in my six-week poetry class with the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation.

in the faces of the officials and the rich and of all who will never change we go on saying thank you thank you

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