Yarns at Yin Hoo

A Podcast About the Fiber Arts and Other Post Apocalyptic Skills

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Apple Oven Pancake

This recipe, perfect for tart or sour apples, comes to you from Rise Up Homestead. Jessie served this in the morning so that we would have

October 12, 2014October 21, 20142 Min Reading

Chia Seed Breakfast Pudding

Chia seeds pack a big punch of protein and fiber. Perhaps that’s what made them a favorite with Aztec warriors. I’ve been making a breakfast

October 9, 20141 Min Reading

Hope Club Canapés

This recipe was inspired by the young pioneers and their mentor, who have begun a garden at the high school where I work. Last week,

September 14, 2014September 15, 20141 Min Reading

Grilled Peaches & Cashew Crème

This recipe is a variation of a summertime treat, and an easy way to please everyone at your cookout. Grilled Peaches & Cashew Crème 1-2

August 26, 2014August 26, 20141 Min Reading

Chili-lime Peanut Dressing

I like this condiment for a cold summer salad. Prepare 2 cups of your favorite noodles and 3 cups vegetables. For the salad below, bring salted

August 18, 2014August 18, 20141 Min Reading

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!

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.