podcasts

Episode 223

May 5, 2019 by Sara

THE FRONT PORCH

Summer by Ankestrick
Yoga Socks by Jennifer Wang
Yell by Marie Wallin

MARIE WALLIN KNITALONG

Use #mariewallinkall on IG and post photos, questions, progress notes to the Ravelry thread. I’ll be giving away prizes based on participation on RAV and IG. If you would like to contribute a prize, please send me a PM via either of these platforms.

YARN LOVER AT LARGE

Knit Local Getaway & Washington County Farm and Fiber Tour

LINK to more information about the Hudson Valley Textile Project.

A very special purchase: 2 yards of crepe weave fabric from Lilly Marsh (center).

Thank you Selma for getting our group to take this photo — a first for the getaway.

Romney mother and lamb at the beautiful Wedding Hill Farm, a new location on the tour this year.

I got to hold a lamb! This is Halo, a lamb at Foster Sheep Farm.

This massive spinner, imported from a mill in Portugal, will be able to spin thread-fine fiber to be used in textile production.

Mary Jeanne Packer of Battenkill Fiber Mill and I are wearing sweaters knit from the same yarn! The mill shop has been relocated since the arrival of the new spinner.

I got to drive around the county with these beautiful women. Marybeth, Jessie and Jennie were awesome dining and shopping companions. The weather was perfect for knitwear!

Retreat craft: these adorable chicken pin cushions are so much fun to make. I’ll be giving one away in the #mariewallinkal

KNIT LOCAL

Middle Brook Fiberworks Farm & Studio Tour June 30

OFF THE SHELF

Women Rowing North by Mary Pipher [link to interview with Terry Gross]

AND SEW FORTH

Highlands Wrap Dress by Allie Olsen
Fancy Tiger raw silk noil

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 223

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