podcasts

Episode 137: LETTERPRESS

September 28, 2016November 13, 2016 by Sara

Beginning with a cabled neckline, this cowl cascades in gentle swirls around your neck and shoulders. The pattern includes a bit of shaping, a bit of texture, and many opportunities for color-play. Create a dramatic addition to your wardrobe with a mini-skein set or yarn left over from some of your favorite projects. Wear your Letterpress with the drape in front, or over one shoulder for asymmetric flair.

Pattern sales support my efforts as an audio podcaster, so I hope you will add this pattern to your library or purchase it for a fellow knitter.

KITS including the LETTERPRESS cowl pattern and hankette set are now available from Meghan of Distelfink Fiber Co.

Electronic payment:
1. Send an email to: requesting the Letterpress hankette kit. Cost will be $32 for the kit, and shipping will be $7. Mulberry Hill Farm will invoice the requester and send information on how to make electronic payment through Square or Paypal. Shipping will be via USPS Priority Mail which should take 2-3 days for delivery;
OR,
2. Send $39 via Paypal to requesting the Letterpress yarn kit in the “notes” section. Shipping will be via USPS Priority Mail which should take 2-3 days for delivery.

Paper check:
Send a written request for the Letterpress kit and a check for $39 via US Mail to: Distelfink Fiber, C/O Mulberry Hill Farm, 2998 Ritner Highway, Carlisle PA 17015. Check should be made payable to Mulberry Hill Farm. Shipping will be via USPS Priority Mail which should take 2-3 days for delivery.

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 137: LETTERPRESS

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