podcasts

Episode 12

October 27, 2013April 14, 2017 by Sara

This episode features an interview with Sherry of Spinner’s End Farm, located in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

On her blog, Sherry lists the animals who live at Spinner’s End: a herd of Shetland Sheep, English angora rabbits, two olde English babydoll southdown sheep, three rescue llamas, two pygora goats, forty some odd chickens (but who is counting?), two ducks, three dogs, two cats, three guinea pigs, and a goldfish, not to mention the rescue alpacas that were the beneficiaries of a Kickstarter project that concluded early this spring.

I had been looking for a Kickstarter project to support because Samuel’s band, Bovine Social Club, had recently been successful raising the funds for their first album with Kickstarter. I was overwhelmed by the generosity of people who gave money to a project they believed in. The band was able to hire Tim Carbone of Railroad Earth to produce the record. It was really special and I wanted to support someone with an innovative idea.

When I found out about Spinner’s End Farm and Sherry and Will’s desire to rescue some local alpacas, I knew I had to participate. So I contacted Sherry, who was generous with her encouragement of my spinning. I was just about to take a beginning spinners class and she sent me the fiber and spindle that I selected as my incentive so I had it for the first day of my class. My first several skeins of handspun are Spinner’s End specialties.

A few months later, I used some sari silk fibers from her Etsy shop to create a yarn that became my first weaving project. As soon as I launched the Yarns at Yin Hoo podcast, I contacted Sherry and asked if she would be willing to do an interview for the show. We exchanged ideas and mp3 files via email and Facebook messages and I’m excited to introduce Yarns at Yin Hoo listeners to Sherry and her family.

Teacher Tribute Challenge

There are still a few days left to enter. You could win one of two prizes I selected at the NY Sheep and Wool Festival last weekend. A darling project bag from rock, paper, flower, OR a set of enchanting cards printed from the batiks of Carol Law Conklin. Check out the show notes in Episode 7 or listen to any of the recent podcasts for more information.

Happy Halloween!

If you want to hear more of the Bovine Social Club’s, grassy, twangy, swinging breed of Americana music, check out their website.

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.

Episode 12

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