podcasts

Episode 182

October 29, 2017November 19, 2017 by Sara

It’s all about my visit to the New York Sheep & Wool Festival in this episode.

Emilie Wohlscheid of Bricolage Studios teaching us how to spin wirecore yarn and make jewelry. We got to use these amazing drumcarders from Clemes & Clemes.

Emilie had really great tips for spinning fiber onto fine gauge wire. Here you can see the spool of wire in her right hand and a strip of fiber batt in her left.

These photos show my progress from selecting fibers, blending them with a drum carder, and finally the dimension and color of my wirecore yarn.

Wow, everyone in the class was creating wirecore yarn within a few minutes.

We used our yarn to create three different pieces of jewelry. Plus, we took home lots of our yarn and fiber supplies to create more! Emilie’s class was incredibly enjoyable and informative.

Day 1: Marybeth in her Birkin and me in my Bressay Dress. What a thrill to find this photo on MasonDixon Knitting’s Instagram feed.

Day 2: I’m wearing the Tea House Dress by Sew House Seven and Batad by Stephen West. Marybeath is wearing Merchant & Mills’ Dress Shirt and Stephen West’s Speckle and Pop — fresh off the needles.

I just love visiting the Going Gnome booth. This felted Hedwig was incredible.

Ella took third place in the Leaping Llamas contest. She’s an amazing spinner and a member of Cashmere Kids 4H program at St. Mary’s on the Hill. Congratulations, Ella!

One thought on “Episode 182”

Karen Juliano says:

October 31, 2017 at 2:14 pm

I enjoyed listening to your podcast, and your experiences at Rhinebeck. The class you took sounds very interesting! I’ve been this year and last, but as a vendor employee, have not really had the time to explore. Actually, I was across from Foster Sheep Farms in the Windy Valley Muskox booth; the ladies at FSF are very nice, it was great to hear what sets them apart from some of the other vendors. Your dress is beautiful, how fun that you found a picture of it!!

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 182

One thought on “Episode 182”

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