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

Episode 322

No resolutions: just renewing my commitment to what is already working. Is that your story this year? I don’t have the bandwidth for planning, so I’m looking forward to a year of working on the projects that have the most appeal at the moment. In this episode, I talk about two recently finished projects and an new cast on. Plus, beginning bojagi and a poem about Goya’s magnificent candle hat.

January 6, 2024January 6, 20241 Min Reading

Episode 321

Items not to scale is a certain path to charm. That is what I’m finding as I enjoy my holiday decorations this season. This episode contains an update on my test crochet of KORE, designed by Maysa Tomikawa. I’ve been doing some daily spinning and very much enjoying my advent puzzle. All this, plus a fresh poem by Naomi Shihab Nye.

December 20, 2023December 20, 20231 Min Reading

Episode 320

This episode contains an update on my recent knitting AND crochet projects. I’m thrilled to be working on a test crochet of Kore by Maysa Tomikawa. I talk about my visits to The Met and a local exhibition about the story of silk production in the Lehigh Valley. There’s more linocut — this time a Hare Moon. All this, plus advent excitement and a poem by Naomi Shihab Nye.

November 27, 2023November 28, 20232 Min Reading

Episode 319

I’m back from a weekend in Rhinebeck, NY and eager to share all of the fiber-y goodness of the weekend. Listen in for festival news, the details of my finished RB sweater, plus — how to win some NY Sheep & Wool loot! What have I been doing ALL wrong? Listen to find out. This episode closes with a poem titled “How to Listen” by James Crews.

October 30, 2023October 30, 20232 Min Reading

Episode 318

It’s all about sweater weather and pumpkin in this episode.

October 10, 2023October 10, 20231 Min Reading

Episode 317

Indigo summer is drawing to a close, and I’ve made time for indigo dyeing and improvising a version of Malaysian blue rice. Plus lots of progress on my Rhinebeck sweater and a poem by Lorna Dee Cervantes.

September 22, 2023September 22, 20231 Min Reading

Episode 316

Summer’s not quite over, and I still have some projects planned for an “indigo summer.” I share the details of my completed Holderness top, as well as the start of my Rhinebeck sweater and a blue poem by Laura Villareal.

September 2, 2023September 2, 20231 Min Reading

Episode 315

This episode contains the details of the Yarns at Yin Hoo Advent Puzzle Exchange. Listen on if you are interested or curious. I hope you will decide to take part in this very special gift exchange. Details, links and tips are contained in the episode an in the show notes. Regular segments will resume in Episode 316.

August 27, 2023August 27, 20231 Min Reading

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!

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.