podcasts

Episode 309

April 1, 2023April 1, 2023 by Sara

Contributions to Clean Fleece NY will support the initiative of bringing a scouring facility to the Northeast region of the US. You can help this project move from an exiting idea to a reality. My fiber friends have collaborated on a plan to show me support when you make a financial contribution to a cause that is very important to me. Follow the links below to learn more and donate.

“Love for Sara” Common Threads podcast episode
Gofundme page for the CLEAN FLEECE facility –> contribute!
Hudson Valley Textile Project Annual Summit (info and registration link)

I’ve been working on the Bandit designed by Jamie Thomas, using some combo-spin handspun I’ve had in my stash.

Kathleen (craftbuzz) is the winner of this sweet clothespin bag that is inspired by a Taproot pattern. Congratulations. Each quarter, I send a prize to one of the Yarns at Yin Hoo podcast’s Ko-fi contributors. Make a one-time contribution or become a member!

I have selected nine projects from Taproot magazine and I’m planning to make them over the course of 2023. Next up is a recipe perfect for a spring menu — the Mushroom and Leek Tart from Issue 51: IMAGINE.

I keep posting photographs of scones to fill out my cover image, and I forget to talk about them on the episode. I love scones. They can go from savory to sweet, they keep in a tin for several days, and they travel well. I especially enjoy baking scones in this pan from King Arthur. It was a gift from my mother and so I treasure it. Each scone has nice, raised edges! There are some good recipes on the King Arthur Flour website; however, my go-to recipe these days is the Master Scones recipe from Sally’s Baking Addiction. I love it because it provides weight measurements — very important for flour — especially if you like to mix flours together. For these St. Patrick’s inspired soda bread scones, I added some buckwheat flour, caraway seeds, and golden raisins, then topped with Kerrygold butter and my homemade orange marmalade.

2 thoughts on “Episode 309”

Linda says:

April 4, 2023 at 9:05 pm

Sara,
I’m so sorry to hear about your cancer diagnosis. You will beat it again!
It was so nice meeting you at the NJ Sheep and Wool Festival over your Look at My Holes top.
Linda
Nancy S says:

April 1, 2023 at 9:20 pm

Dear Sara, thank you for that powerful poem, and for so generously sharing your post-apocalyptic skills with us in every podcast. Your handspun garment will be gorgeous!

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 309

2 thoughts on “Episode 309”

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