podcasts

Episode 200

July 1, 2018July 2, 2018 by Sara

Thank you for your part in the Yarns at Yin Hoo community. It has been nearly five years and I’m so grateful for the friendships, knowledge, skill, and inspiration I’ve acquired as a result of deciding to start a little audio podcast about the fiber arts and other post-apocalyptic skills. This week, I talk about returning to crochet with Cal Patch’s Boxet Bag. My entry into the fiber arts was the occasion of learning to crochet in a staff development workshop. I feel so fortunate to have discovered fiber arts through the lens of crochet because it has brought out the best in my technique and understanding. What is your foundation craft? How does it continue to influence your making? I would love to read about it on the Ravelry thread for this episode.

The Back Porch

Sew a Reversible Sun Hat tutorial on CreativeBug
Boxet Bag by Cal Patch

The Front Porch

Hog Island spinning project for Tour de Fleece
Uniform cardigan
Lotta dress
Iris tank

Ever-expanding Skill Set

Dori Sanders’ No-Churn Fresh Lemon Ice Cream

Off the Shelf

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 200

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