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Episode 60: Another Door Opens

November 17, 2014November 21, 2017 by Sara

This episode includes the following segments: The Front Porch, The Back Porch, Ever-expanding Skill Set, A Little Bit of Learning, and Gratitude Journal. This week, I talk about developing my very first shawl design, Another Door Opens. I’m so pleased that the pattern is complete and available on Ravelry. The Bulk Bins Cook-along continues — November is devoted to flour and we’ve been talking about pies. I’ll go into a little more detail about blind baking crusts, a topic my mother touched on in Episode 59, but which needs a bit more explanation.

A Shawl Design Comes to Life

The idea for Another Door Opens has been living with me for about a year. I am fond of visiting a very large ginkgo tree on my daily walk. The golden color of the leaves as they turn, their gently sloping ridges and scalloped edge, the way they form a soft carpet beneath the tree — every aspect of the tree and its leaves inspired me. This summer, I tried to bring my ideas together into a pattern, but grew frustrated. Finally, my beautiful skein of spindle-spun yarn, made with fiber from Three Waters Farm, provided the push I needed to try my ideas again. The result is a shawl that begins with a triangular shape, but finishes with a soft border. The wingspan edge is nice and stretchy. Slipped stitches along the spine create a strong visual center. Recording the sequence of rows and stitches was one thing; devising a method of presenting the pattern was another challenging task. I’m pleased to offer a pattern in table format, with written directions and stitch counts for every row, plus percentage information so that you can use every bit of your selected yarn. The pattern has three sections, plus a border. Adding additional rows in any of the sections will result in a larger shawl. After completing the shawl design with my handspun, I worked it again with Quince & Co. Tern in the colorway Dusk. I added a border in Claudia Handpaints fingering-weight yarn in the color Cabin Fever. I’m hosting a giveaway for a copy of the pattern, plus a beautiful skein of yarn (458 yards of 2-ply 80% fine merino / 20% kid mohair in the Wild Geranium colorway) from Beaverslide Dry Goods. Join the Yarns at Yin Hoo group on Ravelry and post a message in the contest thread for a chance to win.

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 60: Another Door Opens

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