Yarns at Yin Hoo - A Podcast About the Fiber Arts and Other Post Apocalyptic Skills

Episode 251

ANAPHORA & MUHAMMARA The Back Porch Rift by Jaqueline Cieslak in Green Mountain Spinnery Cotton Comfort sock darning (woven patch technique) by Bristol Ivy from

June 19, 2020June 19, 20203 Min Reading

Episode 250

The Back Porch short socks knit in It’s a Chard Sock Life from KnitSpinFarm The Front Porch Taking Back the River, a pattern for toe-up

May 23, 20201 Min Reading

Episode 249

Test Knitters Wanted! I have completed a draft for a toe-up sock pattern, the first in a four-pattern collection that takes its inspiration from Clarissa

May 1, 2020May 1, 20202 Min Reading

Episode 248

It’s all about the small pleasures this episode. A knitting project went bust, but I’m so enjoying my Moonrise pendant and some new spinning fiber.

April 17, 2020April 18, 20201 Min Reading

Episode 247

A finished spinning project, plus knitting, felting and a poem in anticipation of April’s Pink Moon. I’ve been thinking about cooking and baking with spice

April 6, 20201 Min Reading

Episode 246

April is National Poetry Month. US Poet Laureate, Joy Harjo claims, “Without poetry, we lose our way.” William Carlos Williams wrote, “It is difficult /

April 3, 20202 Min Reading

Episode 245

It’s another episode delivered blog style, but this time I do have some photographs and show notes. (mask)MAKER I’ve been very busy with sewing masks

March 27, 20201 Min Reading

Episode 244

Episode 244 was recorded blog style over the course of three days. Please excuse my lack of show notes, as my screentime these days is

March 20, 20201 Min Reading

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.