podcasts

Episode 188

December 31, 2017 by Sara

This episode features contest news, The Back Porch, The Front Porch, Ever-expanding Skill Set, and Sew Forth.

Enter to win this beautiful handspun laceweight yarn, project bag and lip balm — all in a prize package from Pam of Fibercrafty. Details for entering the contest are provided in the Yarns at Yin Hoo group on Ravelry.

The Back Porch

Underwing Mitts by Erica Heusser, knit in Crabapple Yarns MCN

The Front Porch

Ohra — in Blaker Yarns’ Samite
Oulu Mitts — in Blacker Yarns’ Brushwork
Cardamom Coffee (hat) — in Blacker Yarns’ Brushwork

Ever-expanding Skill Set

We used wonton wrappers as a quick and easy option for homemade ravioli. Minced pulled pork is give a little additional heft and texture with leftover baked potato. We made a rich and delicious mushroom cream sauce to accompany these savory squares. The flavor and texture were perfect, but I think the ravioli were a bit too large. Next time, we’ll try wonton shapes (more like tortellini).

I’ve been thinking a lot about approaches to my skill set for 2018, and decided on a year-long theme of fermented foods. To date, my experience with fermenting at home consists of brewing kombucha. I received two books that will provide ideas for this journey, and I look forward to learning along with you in the new year. I’ve begun a new thread in the Ravelry group for discussion on this topic.

And Sew Forth

The Dress Shirt by Merchant & Mills, sewn in a wool blend fabric. I love the drape and the warmth of this fabric as well as its wrinkle resistant properties. I wore it for two days in NYC, and it traveled well under my coat. The bib neck is great for showing off bold jewelry pieces.

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 188

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