Breathe With Me

My happy little heralds of spring always create joy when I see them poking up their beautiful heads.

I have been hearing a lot about Marie Kondo lately and her goal of helping people create an environment that sparks joy.  I feel that is a beautiful thing.  Creating a happy place where you can thrive is empowering.

We used to have a sign on our fridge at my Mom's house that said, "Be happy you have a house to do chores around."

In truth, we are all very blessed.  It is a fact that is easy to forget when we are hustling from one place to another and rinsing and repeating another workday.  If we stop for a moment to look around us, at all we have, at all we take for granted, it is huge.

The biggest thing that we take for granted is this amazing body that carries us everywhere and allows us to exist in this world.  Yes, all of us have things that might not work to perfection all the time.  We all have our struggles and things that we either live with or have to work through.

Have we taken time to thank this body of ours?  Ever?  I know that I have spent most of my life focused on my imperfections instead of praising my body for getting up each morning.

That stops now.  I love my body in its state with all its imperfections and though I don't have to love the issues I can embrace my body and be thankful for all it has given me.

As a woman, I am thankful for the babies that I could bring into the world.  What an amazing thing to carry a child and then hold that child in your arms.  My body did that.  I know that women give birth every day but it is always a miracle to me when a new soul comes into this world.

Our bodies do so much and take such a beating each day.  I think doing something to give back to them only seems proper.

I feel that taking a moment when you come home after you kick off your shoes and toss your car keys to just be, is so important to your body.

Stop where you are and take a moment to breathe, really take a breath, fill up your lungs and feel the oxygen course through your system.

Relax.  Just like Marie Kondo says to surround yourself with things that bring you happiness, reach into your day and sort through the moments.  If you had a bad day, hold the image of them for a moment, glean what you can from their lesson and then let them go to the Universe.

Then find the good parts of your day and celebrate them.  I try to find three things each day that stand out above the rest and I record them in a journal and then expand on being thankful for them.  This way I can create a focus based on happiness instead of starting a negative spiral.

When I think about them I smile.  I try to feel how they made me feel happy and brought me joy.  I constantly work on cultivating this feeling of happiness so I can call it up when my mood shifts and I start to focus on the negative moments more than the positive.

While I am still smiling I roll my shoulders and my neck.  I drop my shoulders and let go of the weight of the world for a moment...this is my moment.

During this ritual, I consciously breathe from my belly like a baby does.  If I have to I place my hand on my belly so that I can push against it with my breath to remind myself what it feels like, then I do that.

Each time I tense up, I look to see what emotion is causing the stress to return and lovingly acknowledge it, learn from it and then let it go.

If I am thinking about what comes next, I am missing the point of being in the now.  Being present in the moment connects me to my breath.  

At this moment, I feel calm and centered.  If I do this practice throughout my day I feel more connected to my self.  The more I take these little time out moments, the easier they become for me.

Just 10 good, deep belly breaths a few times a day followed by rolling the shoulders up and down and then rolling the neck gently until you feel a little calmer can make a huge difference.

The hope is that you will take more deep breaths even when you are not doing the relaxation ritual.  Deep belly breathing massages the internal organs, lowers blood pressure and your heart rate, improves your core stability, lowers the effect of stress hormones and reduces stress in general.

And something I truly believe in is breathing.  😀

So many times when we panic, we hold our breath and this is when we truly need to just breathe.

In knitting, your emotions can be the key to your tension.  So before I begin, I always take a deep belly breath and try and relax.

Bright Blessings!

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I realize that not everyone reading this blog will be at a point where your life is even near a happy place, and to those people I ask the powers that be to bless you and uplift you and grant you a safe, happy, healthy place to live where you can thrive and find happiness in the mundane.  

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Here is a stitch that has been dropped in garter stitch. 
My finger is pointing to the stitch just poking up that is behind the ladder strand.

Now that we are relaxed let's talk about dropped garter stitches.

Last week we explored fixing a drop-stitch in stockinette.  Today we will be looking at fixing a dropped stitch in garter stitch.

In garter stitch, you knit both rows.  But every stitch is not the same.  There are purl bumps and smooth knits that look like vees and each of these stitches must be dealt with in a different manner.  

For practicality’s sake when talking about the two different looking stitches we will call them knit and purl, even though in garter we will have knit every row.  The vees represent the knit stitches and the bumps represent the purl stitches.  

You will need to determine if your drop starts on a knit row or a purl row by looking at the stitch next to it then choose the corresponding section below that you need to follow.  

My example here starts with a knit stitch. 
You can tell the last stitch made was a purl because of the purl bumps all being uniform.

The first stitch on the hook is the ladder and the second is the working stitch.
Pull the ladder stitch through the working stitch.

 Section A Knit Fix:

The stitch we need to fix here is a knit stitch, this means you want to end up with a vee on this stitch.  In garter, you can't see the vees in between the purl bumps very easily but if you pull the bumps apart those vees are there.

Make sure your dropped stitch is situated in front of the ladders.

Insert your hook through the dropped stitch from the front towards the back (making sure that the stitch is not twisted) and then pick up the bottommost strand in the ladder going under it from the front to the back and then catching it on the hook.  

Then, pull the ladder strand through the stitch on your hook to form a new knit stitch.  

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When making a purl stitch the ladder strand must be in front of the working stitch.
From this setup, pull the ladder stitch through the working stitch.

Section B Purl Fix:

The next stitch that we need to fix is a purl stitch, this means that you want to end up with a purl bump on this stitch. 

Make sure the ladder stitch is in front of your dropped stitch.  

Place your hook through the dropped stitch from the back to the front and pick up the bottommost strand in the ladder.  Then, pull the ladder strand through the stitch on your hook to form a new stitch.  

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Continue alternating techniques for knit and purl and rows until you have laddered your drop all the way up.

Ladder your dropped stitch back up to the current row you are working on.

Give your newly rescued stitch a gentle tug to make sure it has been absorbed back into your fabric.

Awesome job!

Note:  If this is a new drop then you will have no trouble in laddering it back up using the strands of yarn between the stitches.  If it was dropped a while ago, you will need to borrow a little room to ladder it back up; thus making this section a little tighter.  Give the fabric a little tug or block it to help the stitches even out.

Next week we are going to take a break from fixes to talk about circles.

Thanks for reading!

If you have any questions regarding this or any of my other tutorials, please feel free to leave a question in the comments.

Happy crafting!

Ruinwen

😀