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

Episode 344

I’m still knitting on the same projects as last episode, so I indulge in some dream knitting and talk about three patterns that have my attention for spring / summer knitting. There’s a lot of hand stitching underway, including my Alabama Chanin bolero and dress, plus a partial placket shirt with the help of Cal Patch. I include a recipe for black sesame cornbread and two poems by Poet Laureate Ada Limǒn. Plus, the winner of the Q1 prize is announced!

April 2, 2025April 2, 20252 Min Reading

Episode 343

It may have been more than ten years since I began knitting the Inspira Cowl with colorful, playful, frustratingly tangly Noro yarn. After a long hibernation, it is BACK and I’m determined to finish. Plus, casting on the Pressed Flowers shawl, continuing work on a hand sewing project, baking, and a poem by Margaret Ray.

March 17, 2025March 17, 20251 Min Reading

Episode 342

It’s a (late) review of my visit to Vogue Knitting Live in NYC and the details of a newly-finished knitting project. Plus, a poem by Ellen Bass, sewing another Amy Jumpsuit and giving woolens a refresh in the snow!

February 16, 2025February 16, 20251 Min Reading

Episode 341

You don’t necessarily need a sweater’s quantity of yarn to knit a sweater. My new Orbital Jumper used up most of my scraps and leftovers. It’s cozy, warm and uniquely mine. Plus, what’s on my needles now and I finally have a craft room instead of an office with an ironing board in the corner!

January 11, 2025January 11, 20252 Min Reading

Episode 340

My recently-finished knit is a REALLY good sweater. So good, I plan to knit another one very soon. This, and all my other project details, plus some boba inspiration for the holiday season are included in this episode.

December 24, 2024December 31, 20241 Min Reading

Episode 339

In this episode, I talk about overcoming obstacles like working colorwork flat by purling back backwards. Plus, more hearty recipes from Six Seasons.

December 8, 2024December 12, 20242 Min Reading

Episode 338

I finished a test knit using Tidal Yarns and some fringe. Plus, new cast ons, fiber-y events, stitching a self-portrait, the return of #powerpantry, and a poem suited to the times by Kay Ryan.

November 17, 2024November 17, 20241 Min Reading

Episode 337

It’s a review of my weekend in Rhinebeck for the New York Sheep and Wool Festival and A Woolen Affair. I talk about what I wore, where I shopped, and all the goodness of a fiber festival at peak leaf peeping in New York State. Plus, a life-changing loaf of bread, my clog obsession, and a poem to celebrate the season.

October 26, 2024October 26, 20242 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.