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

Episode 291

In this episode, I provide a quick update on December knitting projects. Then, I share a conversation I had with Kelly Vaughn (knitswag), who is working to update Virginia Woods Bellamy’s Number Knitting for the contemporary knitter.
https://www.yarnsatyinhoo.com/episode-291/

December 19, 2021December 19, 20211 Min Reading

Episode 290

Holiday gift making is complete and I celebrated by casting on a bunch of new projects. In this episode I talk about knitting gnomes, making carrot bacon, my dismissive attitude toward swatching, and I share a new poem by Amanda Gorman.

https://www.yarnsatyinhoo.com/episode-290/

December 12, 2021December 19, 20211 Min Reading

Episode 289

It’s the launch of a new pattern — this time for a colorwork cowl with a clever grafting technique called “stranded donut grafting.” You’ll hear all about it from expert knitter and tech editor Ellen Silva. Plus, progress on gift knitting and the #100daydresschallenge. See shownotes at
https://www.yarnsatyinhoo.com/episode-289/

November 21, 2021November 21, 20211 Min Reading

Episode 288

My new cowl design is coming on November 22 — listen for details and enter to win a copy! I announce the winner of Pompom Quarterly Issue no. 39, and talk about holiday gift knitting, plus some projects in the planning stages and thoughts on collaboration. For complete show notes: https://www.yarnsatyinhoo.com/episode-288/

November 7, 2021November 8, 20211 Min Reading

Episode 287

It’s the Rhinebeck Review episode, in which I tell you all about my weekend at the New York Sheep & Wool Festival. There’s also a prize, so listen to find out how to enter and post a comment on IG or to my website. Plus, what’s on my needles and a poem by Gabrielle Calvocoressi, winner of the Audre Lorde Prize for Lesbian Poetry. For complete show notes: https://www.yarnsatyinhoo.com/episode-287/

October 24, 2021October 24, 20211 Min Reading

Episode 286

Fall is here! Sweater knitting is picking up and the NY Sheep & Wool Festival is just around the corner. In this episode, I’ll catch you up on the saga of my RB sweater and share chats with MJ Packer of Battenkill Fiber Mill and Carole Foster of Foster Sheep Farm. They are brimming with suggestions for your festival shopping.

October 12, 2021October 12, 20212 Min Reading

Episode 285

You know how it is: complete one pair of self-striping socks . . . cast on another! In this episode, I provide an update on

September 19, 2021September 19, 20211 Min Reading

Episode 284

It’s a catch-up on two recently completed projects, plus the announcement of winners for EZ’S BSJ KAL, and share some thoughts about mending.

August 29, 2021August 29, 20211 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.