Tag: spinning

Episode 329

Quarter 2 Ko-fi prize winners, an update on current projects, a trip to Maine, summer reading, and a poem by Teri Ellen Cross Davis.

June 30, 2024June 30, 20242 Min Reading

Yes, I swatched and lived to tell about it! In this episode, I give the details of finished socks, Rhinebeck sweater planning, making simple syrups, and a poem in celebration of Pride Month. All that, plus an update on the Q2 Ko-fi prizes that will be drawn and announced in the next episode.

June 16, 2024June 17, 20241 Min Reading

Episode 327

This episode is chock full of finished projects and pining for the spring festivals. I’m scouring some fleece and trying to find just the right pattern for my handspun Lenore yarn.

May 12, 2024May 12, 20242 Min Reading

Episode 326

The winner of Q1 Ko-fi contributor prize is Jennie / Salmon! Jennie wins a pair of custom made socks by Woolen Waves. Check out Sarah’s

March 24, 2024March 24, 20242 Min Reading

Episode 325

My finished Eun is the coziest sweater in my closet, and knit just in time for a few days’ wear before the temperatures rise! In this episode, I also share the details of a completed spinning project, spindle spinning for 100 days, and returning to the knitting of my colorwork sweater in Tidal Yarns. Plus, a poem by Wendell Berry.

March 2, 2024March 2, 20243 Min Reading

Episode 324

This episode is anchored by my intentions set over the first two weeks of February: honor creative impulses and open your heart. I share a number of new works, talk about my continued spinning progress, and read a poem by Andrea Gibson, poet laureate of Colorado.

February 14, 2024February 14, 20243 Min Reading

Episode 322

No resolutions: just renewing my commitment to what is already working. Is that your story this year? I don’t have the bandwidth for planning, so I’m looking forward to a year of working on the projects that have the most appeal at the moment. In this episode, I talk about two recently finished projects and an new cast on. Plus, beginning bojagi and a poem about Goya’s magnificent candle hat.

January 6, 2024January 6, 20241 Min Reading

Episode 321

Items not to scale is a certain path to charm. That is what I’m finding as I enjoy my holiday decorations this season. This episode contains an update on my test crochet of KORE, designed by Maysa Tomikawa. I’ve been doing some daily spinning and very much enjoying my advent puzzle. All this, plus a fresh poem by Naomi Shihab Nye.

December 20, 2023December 20, 20231 Min Reading

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!

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