podcasts

Episode 80: Wool Party

June 22, 2015April 11, 2016 by Sara

This episode includes the following segments: The Back Porch, The Front Porch, Chin Waggin’ (with String Theorists Selene and Courtney), and Off the Shelf. Thank you to everyone who has been in touch with me since the last episode. It is wonderful to receive your messages, packages, comments on the Ravelry board, Instagram likes, and other communication. There is so much to look forward to this summer. I’m eager to have more hours available for adventures in making things, and I look forward to keeping YAYH listeners updated on my progress.

The Back Porch

The Front Porch

Stash Dash Progress

Tour de Fleece Progress

plan your project for the Asymmetri-CAL (August 1 – September 30)

Chin Waggin’

Knitting a Community Together article & video

Handwork program at Philip’s Academy Charter School video

Off the Shelf

Our second read-along is based on the non-fiction work Color: a Natural History of the Palette by Victoria Finlay. Of the four titles I suggested, Color received 42% of listener votes. We will begin on June 24 and conclude on September 1. I will provide a reading schedule for the chapters and include a bit of discussion about the book during podcast episodes this summer. Post comments, questions, and ideas for discussion by responding in the comment box below or by participating in the read-along discussion on Ravelry. I plan to record my thoughts about color using #yayhcolor on Instagram.

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 80: Wool Party

The Back Porch

The Front Porch

Chin Waggin’

Off the Shelf

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