Yarns at Yin Hoo

A Podcast About the Fiber Arts and Other Post Apocalyptic Skills

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Episode 129: Peaches and Paisley

This episode contains the following segments: The Back Porch, Ever-expanding Skill Set, and Sew Forth. The weather service informs us that we’re trapped beneath a

July 23, 20162 Min Reading

Episode 128: Cool & Refreshing

This episode includes the following segments: The Front Porch, Ever-expanding Skill Set and Off the Shelf. Inspired by the Eat Your Words Read-along and farm-fresh

July 18, 2016July 18, 20162 Min Reading

Episode 127: Always Have Your Spinning

We have lived our lives by the assumption that what is good for us would be good for the world. We have been wrong. We

July 10, 2016July 12, 20162 Min Reading

Episode 126: Indigo Dreams

This episode features the following segments: The Back Porch, The Front Porch, Off the Shelf, Ever-expanding Skill Set, and Sew Forth. Last week, I traveled

July 4, 20162 Min Reading

Episode 125: Who’s the Knitter?

This episode includes the following Segments: On the Porch, Ever-expanding Skill Set, and Off the Shelf. Last night, I saw Maggie’s Plan at my local

June 19, 2016June 19, 20162 Min Reading

Episode 124: So Much for Science

The close of the school year is very busy and I haven’t had too much knitting time, so this episode will be low on knitting

June 12, 20163 Min Reading

Episode 123: Inner Color

This episode features some conversation among members of String Theory, the knit and crochet club for which I serve as advisor. The date of this

June 12, 20161 Min Reading

Episode 122: Eat Your Words

The Eat Your Words read-along begins on June 1st. Yarns at Yin Hoo listeners are invited to select a book and read along. Chatter in

May 28, 2016May 30, 20161 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.