podcasts

Episode 54: Destination Rooftop

September 22, 2014 by Sara

This episode includes the following segments: Ever-expanding Skill Set, The Back Porch, and Yarn Lover at Large. I hope you enjoy this week’s interview with Laura Nelkin. Visit the Yarns at Yin Hoo Ravelry board for a chance to win a copy of Laura’s book Knockout Knits. There is one week left to post a photograph of your finished object in the Asymmetri-CAL, an asymmetrical garment and accessory craft along. And, I continue my Bulk Bins Cook-along adventures with barley this month.

LISTEN:

Ever-expanding Skill Set

I’ll be teaching spindling and writing workshops at The Inner Space in Highland Park.

Check out this short video of my spinning technique.

Lemony Barley Salad with Kale Pesto in Food & Wine

Butternut Squash and Barley Risotto in Cooking Light

Join the Bulk Bins Cook-along. Cook with barley in September. Contribute your recipes and photographs to the prize thread on Ravelry for a chance to win a pattern prize. Use #bulkbinscal to tag your posts to social media.

The Back Porch

Three Waters Farm polwarth/silk blend in Rooftop. 500 yards. 2-ply. Fingering weight.

Drop spindles printed on a 3D printer by TurtleMade.

Yarn Lover at Large

Laura Nelkin is the author of Knockout Knits and the extraordinary designer behind the M-Club, which is full of surprises and one-of-a-kind trinkets and treats. You can find out more by signing up for her mailing list, joining the lively Nelkin Designs group on Ravelry, or visiting her at Rhinebeck, where she will be signing books in Building B and selling pattern kits in Booth A25.

Trillium Yarns has relocated to Morristown, NJ.

3 thoughts on “Episode 54: Destination Rooftop”

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.