y u not utf-8

blog.rb

# encoding: utf-8
class BlogArticle                                                                                   
  def initialize(file)                                                                              
    f = File.read(file)                                                                             
    puts "the encoding: #{f.encoding}"                                                              
    y = YAML.load(f.split("---\n")[1])       
end

# output:
#   the encoding: US-ASCII


blog.rb:26:in `split': invalid byte sequence in US-ASCII (ArgumentError)