Yarns at Yin Hoo

A Podcast About the Fiber Arts and Other Post Apocalyptic Skills

podcasts

Episode 121: Metacog(k)nition

This episode includes the following segments: The Front Porch, Ever-expanding Skill Set, and Sew Forth, plus some chinwaggin’ about metacognition. After spending a week doing

May 22, 2016May 22, 20162 Min Reading

Episode 120: Negative Knitting

Warmer temperatures and clear skies have hampered my knitting this week. It has been a very, very long time since I’ve seen a negative trend in knitting.

May 15, 2016May 15, 20164 Min Reading

Episode 119: Hello Sunshine

After many days of soaking rain, the Howard County Fairgrounds in Frederick, Maryland were pretty muddy — but that didn’t deter eager fiber lovers, who

May 12, 2016May 15, 20165 Min Reading

Episode 118: #MeMadeMay

This episode includes the following segments: The Back Porch, The Front Porch, Ever-expanding Skill Set, and Sew Forth. It has been a few weeks since

May 9, 2016May 15, 20163 Min Reading

Episode 117: Knit Local

This episode is devoted to a detailed Yarn Lover at Large segment. You’ll hear all about the getaway to Washington County, New York for the

May 1, 2016May 15, 20162 Min Reading

Episode 116: The Fuel that Feeds You

This episode includes Chinwaggin’ and an extended Off the Shelf segment. I’m pleased to have finally, FINALLY figured out the technical glitches that were preventing

April 17, 2016May 15, 20162 Min Reading

Episode 115: Le Petit Lapin

This episode includes the following segments: On the Porch, Sheep to Shawl, Ever-expanding Skill Set, Off the Shelf, and Yarn Lover at Large. Thank you

April 10, 2016April 10, 20161 Min Reading

Episode 114: All Birds Must Fly

This episode includes the following segments: The Back Porch, The Front Porch, Ever-expanding Skill Set, And Sew Forth, and Off the Shelf. Thank you damomma94

March 28, 2016April 10, 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.