podcasts

Episode 24

January 27, 2014November 22, 2017 by Sara

This week’s episode features the following segments: Yarn Lover at Large, Double Happiness, and The Front Porch.

Yarn Lover at Large

On Saturday, I took a class with Tricia Weatherston. The class, held at my LYS, Mountain Knits & Pearls in East Stroudsburg, was devoted to the concept of swing knitting. The technique was named and developed by Heidi Liegmann, who offers a series of workshops to help knitters learn the methods and make a variety of projects. Swing knitting is distinguished by numerous segments of German short rows, made using the double stitch, as opposed to the typical “wraps and turns” method. While Liegmann uses musical vocabulary (stanza and melody) to describe the technique, our class at MKP used a pattern by Brigitte Elliot, who employs agricultural terminology (field and furrow) and a much less wordy, more technical set of instructions. If you’re interested in swing knitting — beware! You must be able to clear your life of distractions in order to work on these patterns. They are not difficult, but they do require your full attention.

Double Happiness

There’s nothing like the pleasure of starting a new braid of fiber on my wheel. This week, I’m fortunate to begin the gift of some fiber from Fat Cat Knits in the Valentino color way. This is PERFECT for the season — bright pops of pink and other candy colors, balanced by a luscious chocolate brown. The fiber was a gift and my first time spinning Ginny’s wares. It’s a pleasure to spin. Did I mention that I love the colors? I hope to have at least 4 ounces complete by Valentine’s Day.

The Front Porch

In Episode 23, I mentioned that I did make a purchase at Vogue Knitting Live. I met the beautiful, engaging Laura Watson at her booth, which was bursting with Full Moon Farm‘s Fabulous Fiber. Since one of my goals for 2014 is to purchase yarn from new-to-me purveyors, and since the farm’s location in nearby Gardiner, NY makes the yarn local, I decided to buy enough yarn for a project I’ve had in my queue for awhile. The Aggregate shawl by Jimenez Joseph of JimiKnits is the perfect showcase for the vibrant colors of Laura’s yarn. I’m really enjoying this pattern and the yarn, a 2-ply of Merino-Corriedale cross fiber.

Bulk Bins Cook-along

The spotlight on lentils thread on Ravelry will remain open, but on January 31, I will be choosing a winner from among those who have posted to win a pattern of $7 value or less. Next month’s spotlight is on oats. The Ravelry thread for discussion, recipe sharing and photos will open on February 1.

No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn. — Hal Borland

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.

Yarns at Yin Hoo

Episode 24

No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn. — Hal Borland

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