podcasts

Episode 258

October 5, 2020 by Sara

We went apple picking near Kerhonkson, NY. Determined to remember what we picked, I asked Samuel to photograph apples with their markers. The Cox Orange Pippin was new to me and a tremendous find, with sweet and tart in each bite and a very nice texture for eating out of hand.

October is National Bullying Prevention Month. Use your social media platform to share healthy messages, amplify the posts of others, or make a contribution by taking meaningful action.

THE BACK PORCH

After quite a bit of un-doing and re-knitting, I got a good fit on the Tokonatsu sweater (RAVELRY LINK) designed by Bernice Lim. I love wearing it with this very special shisha necklace.

THE FRONT PORCH

This eco-printed sock blank dyed by ninjachickens has been sitting in my stash for a few years. It’s the first time I’ve knit from a sock blank and I took out my Blackthorn dpns for the task. I’m enjoying the colors — like knitting the clear blue sky with colorful leaves falling in the breeze.

EVER-EXPANDING SKILL SET

Sheet Pan Dinner with chicken, apples and Brussels sprouts

AND SEW FORTH

I finished the Moon Phases Cloth Book I’ve been working on all summer, and dyed up some linen in a walnut bath — destined to become a second Amy Jumpsuit.

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 258

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