podcasts

Episode 339

December 8, 2024December 12, 2024 by Sara

This upcycled scarf from the LITTLE SANTA show at Orange has been resist-dyed and embellished with shisha embroidery. The price is $125. All money raised from sales of my work will go directly the Delaware Water Gap Fire Department. I am able to ship within the US. Contact me if you would like to arrange a purchase.

The Seoul Blouse has attracted my interest since I first saw it on IG this fall. I’m knitting with Concordea yarn from Foster Sheep Farm in two natural colors, and adding a mohair / silk from Lichen and Lace for the colorwork motif. To work the colorwork for upper front and back, which are knit flat, I found Patty Lyons’ overview of purling back backwards very helpful.

For the ideal travel project, I’ve cast on Clincher, a pattern by Ash Kearns. This is the third one I’ve knit. For this one, I selected a beautiful farm yarn from Distelfink Fiber, dyed in tonal greens. The texture of this penannt-shaped shawl is delightfully squishy.

Recipes from Six Seasons continue to hold my interest and are quickly becoming household favorites. Above: Crostada with Leeks and Swiss Chard (the walnut crust is divine) Below: Kale and Mushroom Lasagna

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 339

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