podcasts

Episode 143

November 13, 2016November 27, 2016 by Sara

cover143 This week, the YAYH podcast hit a few milestones:100,000+ downloads and 600+ group members on Ravelry. I’m so grateful to everyone for your support and enthusiasm for the show. This episode features updates on three projects in progress. I share my plan for spinning up Shetland fleece on a Scottish dealgan, and talk about my commitment to making things and reducing consumption. In response to the shock and disappointment of the 2016 election, I’ve been turning to poetry. Naomi Shihab Nye’s “Kindness” has struck a chord. Listen, read it, and share with others.

from “Kindness” by Naomi Shihab Nye

Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,

you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.

You must wake up with sorrow.

You must speak to it till your voice

catches the thread of all sorrows

and you see the size of the cloth.

Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore . . .

On the Porch

Progress on my Sheep 2 Shawl class project.

I'll be spinning prepared rolags on a dealgan, a Scottish spindle (pronounced dJA la gen). Click the image for a link to Lois Swales' demonstration video. — I’ll be spinning prepared rolags on a dealgan, a Scottish spindle (pronounced dJA la gen). Click the image for a link to Lois Swales’ demonstration video.

A spun sample of Eloise's fleece: 21 grams, 33 yards. — A spun sample of Eloise’s fleece: 21 grams, 33 yards.

Calculations of unwashed vs. scoured fleece. I experienced a 22.9% loss. — Calculations of unwashed vs. scoured fleece. I experienced a 22.9% loss, which is less than average according the sources I’ve consulted.

#powerpantry

Pumpkin mac 'n cheese, topped with panko bread crumbs. So incredibly yummy. I really like the recipe from Broke Ass Gourmet. Click photo for a link. — Pumpkin mac ‘n cheese, topped with panko bread crumbs. So incredibly yummy. I really like the recipe from Broke Ass Gourmet. Click photo for a link.

Off the Shelf

James Rebanks on the Leonard Lopate Show (WNYC).

And Sew Forth

Dopp Kit tutorial on Creativebug

Panel discussion at FIT: How practices developed by the Slow Food Movement may also benefit the fashion industry. Panel moderator Summer Rayne Oakes, director of marketing for Foodstand, a company that promotes good eating habits, speaks with chef Daphne Cheng, a pioneer in plant-based cuisine; fashion designer Jussara Lee; and Richard McCarthy, executive director of Slow Food USA.

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