Falling Into Place

I've been looking back a lot lately and accepting that I have come really far on this knitting journey.  😀

It's hard to remember when knitting something new scared me, but it did and I conquered each one of those fears by knitting through them.

I've realized that all those dreams that I talked about for years have happened.  I am so blessed to be here and able to work on my dreams.  I do not take any of this for granted.

I am very, very grateful, to the Universe and my family and friends who have always supported me and cheered me on.  I am thankful to all my teachers and students who have always helped me to see another view and perspective in creating knitting, classes, and patterns.  I am thankful to you, dear reader, be you here today or in the future, may you be blessed by creativity and light.  Thank you for visiting my blog, it is a labor of love, sweat, tears, and discovery.

Woven through all these years is my journey to heal or at least make peace with my anxiety.  Most of the time my fears make no sense or have no bearing on what is actually going on, but I can't always see that.

I have so many patterns that are half done or just missing something because I think it gives me an excuse to validate that "not good enough" crap that my mental monologue goes through.

And...well, I am tired of it.  I have been firing back with a child's "why?" every chance I get and usually there is this vague feeling but no real truth.

I can get behind my fear of mouse droppings since they can actually be dangerous.  I can get behind my desire to have a safe environment with Covid out there still.  But I can't get behind my inner fear storytelling me I'm not good enough anymore or that I can't do something, because I can.  It may take work and I may not be amazing at it the first time but that is okay.  Everyone learns their craft or skill in a way that makes sense to them.

I talked for years about wanting a YouTube channel and now I have one.  I put out whatever I can't show in three pictures to help provide an alternate way to view what I am teaching in a tutorial or stitch pattern.   My video creation knowledge is still in a stage of infancy but I have learned so much and I am proud of what I have been able to share and create.   Do I still have a lot to learn, yes...but that is okay.  I am going to enjoy every part of the learning process.

I only talked for three weeks about wanting an Instagram account and I did the research and set it up and I feel that it has been so wonderful to have this connection with like-minded crafters and yarn creators.  Again, I am learning lingo and hashtags and such and it is fun.  I am enjoying the journey.

I'm done dreaming about the things that I could have done and I am starting to do them.  It took a while to get things set up but now I feel that I am in a good place to start going through my to-do list.

First on that list is to look at my Ravelry patterns which there are only a few because I have 60 in my computer here that need testing or knitting or something that should be in there...but I digress...

I want to reknit and rebrand each of those patterns.  I want to see if they need videos or I can hook them up to blog posts.  I want to spend a little time which each of them and then I can move on knowing that I have done my best with what I have out there.

One of Vixenpath's goals is to create patterns that have all the steps that a beginner might need to stair-step up to the level that the pattern is on.  A lot of times you see patterns on a rating system and I understand that is necessary for the formats that they are presented in.  These patterns might be missing steps that will help beginner knitters to partake in the pattern without going to YouTube and doing research.

I've read that this frustrates people and I know that I can't accommodate everyone but I do try to add as much information as I can to a pattern.  When I publish a pattern, I like to make it accessible to anyone that can knit and purl.  I agree that adding videos and tutorials to help fill in these gaps can be very helpful and I am working on that as well.  But in the end, my patterns are more like little tutorials and that could be because I started as a teacher. 

*steps on soapbox* 

But more so it came from hearing, "I can't make that because I am not good enough," and that hurts because everyone is good enough.  You may not have the skills yet but your worth does not come from a pattern or how well you knit.  You are worthy just by being the amazing being that is you.

*steps off soapbox*

I want to provide instructions to empower people to be able to enjoy the process of their knitting step by step.  If you can knit and purl you can knit linen stitch.  Linen stitch is simply moving the placement of the working yarn to the front or the back depending on the row combined with knits or purls,  and the end result is magical

So, I am starting with Frederick.

I've talked about Frederick before and it makes me think of Mom and Dad because they would read me Frederick and I just loved the whole idea of it.  Even now as an adult, envisioning this little mouse grabbing colors and things to say so that the mice have sustenance on a cold winter's day always touches a place in me deep down.

I was paging through my Instagram when I came upon a yarn that really grabbed me in Miss Babs's feed.  

This beautiful yarn reminds me of English manicured gardens full of roses, hyacinths, and of course irises.  I immediately thought of Frederick and his colors and I knew that this was the moment that I would actually go back and edit anything that needed it, rebrand, and re-knit a new cover photo for my Ravelry patterns.

right side

wrong side

I am really excited to knit with this yarn.  It is so soft between my fingers and so very lovely to look at. 

Linen stitch has always fascinated me how it looks woven on one side and bumpy and beautiful on the other.  I made this pattern to showcase the beauty in yarn that appears when you use slip stitch patterns like this one.  This is about eight hours of work and I think the way the colorway is dancing through the stitches is gorgeous!

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My friend made another beautiful baby blanket and I had the pleasure to block it for her.  The yarn is Mandala by Lion Brand and it has such lovely pastel color changes.

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Happy crafting!

Ruinwen

😀

**************************

Safe socially-distanced hugs  🤗

**************************

Sending love and light to everyone being affected by this virus.  

May you be safe.  

May your loved ones be safe.  

🙏

**************************

Sending love and light to everyone facing discrimination, hate, prejudice, inequality, or racism.

🙏🙏💖💖🙏🙏

**************************

Vixenpath is a safe space.

If you are:

LGBTQ+

Black

Brown

Asian

Any race

Coming out

Anything.

I am a safe person and I will always hold space for you in love and light.

Panel II - Or How Designs Can Change in an Instant

So, when I swatched the angels I realized in my desire to see them knit that I put the cart before the horse and all that.  Designing a garment even one like this is full of...challenges.  Some are easy to overcome and others take so much math that my head begins to wonder if 2+2 still equals 4.

But this part is what I love most about designing, that challenge to make things work out and still look pretty.  I love a design that has a special element or tip and trick that makes the knitter say, "Hey, that's pretty clever."

But before all that cleverness can reveal itself the trial and error and the long hours of staring at numbers to make everything work has to be completed.

The problem started when I realized how the angels pulled the fabric in a wavy sort of direction and that nothing should come after them but something should come before them.  I realized this of course after I had finished the angel repeat and was all happy with myself.  But that is okay.  

look Ma, no needles :( ripping back

These undulations add interest in the way they changed the bias of my fabric and I wanted to accent that and add to the feeling that this shawl is energized with hugs.  Waves feel energetic to me and nothing is more wavy and full of little bubbles of energy than feather and fan (old shale).  This pattern allows a colorway to draw the eye and adds interest.

Feather and fan uses a formula.  Here is a common sample that needs 18 stitches for each section:

*K2tog 3 times, (YO, K1) 6 times, K2tog 3 times*, repeat ** across row

You could change up things a bit like this:

*K2tog 4 times, (YO, K1) 8 times, K2tog 4 times* repeat ** across row

or this:

*K2tog 5 times, (YO, K1) 10 times, K2tog 5 times* repeat ** across row

You get the idea...

We ended with 276 stitches in Panel I and that divided by 18 (a feather and fan repeat) does not divide evenly so this pattern does not work as is.

We need to increase the pattern by 18 stitches to end with a total of 294 stitches.  This minus the three stitches on each end is 288 which is divisible by 12, 18, 24, and 36.  This makes it a glorious starting point since all variations of how I might go forward are possible.

And at this point, my inner self told me to put off this pattern until I had worked it all out but then I couldn't figure it out with you.  I couldn't be authentic and show you that ideas need to be explored and design is like tweaking a recipe so that it works for you.  The first few times something may be a bit off, but add a dash of this and a tad of that, and voila!  Everything meshes together and works.

The first thing I do when I'm trying to suss stuff out is to chart it or write it out.  The second thing I do is knit it.  Sometimes these two methods are in perfect harmony and other times, the knitting looks nothing like the vision in my head.

For Panel, I will need more stitches...I will bop back in time and put a warning not to cut your yarn.  If you already have, I am sorry.  I did too.  If you did cut your yarn it is easy enough to add back in and secure using this method that I use a lot from Stephen West.

We will need to continue in pattern for 9 more rows to achieve our goal of 294 stitches.

I will write down the actual pattern below for panel II, this section is my thought process, trial, and error and swatching along the way.

Okay, so now we have 3, 288, 3 - this is what we wanted so now we can mark off the feather and fan.

I could break the feather and fan down in 18 stitch increments but that seemed like a lot of markers so I chose to put two repeats together for this pattern.  There will be 36 stitches maintained between the markers for the feather and fan pattern.

The first row of feather and fan is a knit row so it will be easy to add markers. 

Row 1:  K3, pm, YO,  K35 pm, *K36 pm* repeat ** until last 37 stitches, K35, YO pm, K3  - this will only be for this Row 1.

Row 2:  Knit all stitches

Row 3:  *K2tog 3 times, (YO, K1) 6 times, *K2tog 6 times, (YO, K1)  6 times), (YO, K1) 6 times K2tog 3 times *  repeat ** across row

Row 4: Purl all stitches

As I worked up the feather and fan I needed to keep in mind that the end result would have to be divisible by 24 and I came up with 360.  360 is divisible by 18, 24, and 36!  And there was much rejoicing!  😁 (These totals do not include those 6 side stitches)

yay!  YOs line up

The last factor in creating this pattern was to make the edge where we are doing all these increases to be pleasing to the eye.  that was solved by using a repeating formula that grew each time:

Row 7:   K3, YO, K1, (YO, K2tog) 2 times, K1

Row 11: K3, YO, K2, (YO, K2tog) 3 times, K2

Row 15: K3, YO, K3, (YO, K2tog) 4 times, K3

You get the idea.  We reverse this for the end side of the row and edging solved.

Whew!  After all that number-crunching and swatching I think it is time to begin panel II!

Thanks for holding space for me while I worked.  🤗💖

Panel II Pattern:

Continue in pattern for 9 more rows with MC:  

Rows 1 - 8:  K3, YO, knit until last three stitches, YO, K3

Row 9 marker set up row:  K3, pm, YO,  K35 pm, *K36 pm* repeat ** until last 37 stitches, K35, YO pm, K3

294 stitches

On all rows that are knit or purled in the center, I didn't use "sm"(slip marker), because it seemed very distracting.

Change to CC or keep knitting in the MC, whatever you prefer.  You will need approximately 200 - 220 yards depending on how tight or loose you knit.

Row 1:  K3, YO, knit to last 3 stitches, YO, K3

Row 2:  K3, YO, K1, knit to last 4 stitches, K1, YO, K3

Row 3:  K3, YO, K2, sm, *K2tog 3 times, (YO, K1) 6 times, K2tog 6 times, (YO, K1)  6 times, K2tog 3 times, sm* repeat ** until last marker, K2, YO, K3

Row 4:  K3, YO, P3, purl to last six stitches, P3, YO, K3

Row 5:  K3, YO, K4, knit to last seven stitches, K4, YO, K3

Row 6:  K3, YO, K5, knit to last eight stitches, K5, YO, K3 

Row 7:  K3, YO, K1, (YO, K2tog) 2 times, K1, sm, *K2tog 3 times, (YO, K1) 6 times, K2tog 6 times, (YO, K1)  6 times, K2tog 3 times, sm* repeat ** until last marker, K1, (K2tog, YO) 2 times, K1, YO, K3

Row 8:  K3, YO, P7, purl to last 10 stitches, P7, YO, K3

Row 9:  K3, YO, K8, knit to last 11 stitches, K8, YO, K3

Row 10:  K3, YO, K9, knit to last 12 stitches, K9, YO, K3

Row 11:  K3, YO, K2, (YO, K2tog) 3 times, K2, sm, *K2tog 3 times, (YO, K1) 6 times, K2tog 6 times, (YO, K1)  6 times, K2tog 3 times, sm* repeat ** until last marker, K2, (K2tog, YO) 3 times, K2, YO, K3

Row 12:  K3, YO, P11, purl to last 14 stitches, P11, YO, K3

Row 13:  K3, YO, K12, knit to last 15 stitches, K12, YO, K3

Row 14:  K3, YO, K13, knit to last 16 stitches, K13, YO, K3

Row 15:  K3, YO, K3, (YO, K2tog) 4 times, K3, sm, *K2tog 3 times, (YO, K1) 6 times, K2tog 6 times, (YO, K1)  6 times, K2tog 3 times, sm* repeat ** until last marker, K3, (K2tog, YO) 4 times, K3, YO, K3

Row 16:  K3, YO, P15, purl to last 18 stitches, P15, YO, K3

Row 17:  K3, YO, K16, knit to last 19 stitches, K16, YO, K3

Row 18:  K3, YO, K17, knit to last 20 stitches, K17, YO, K3

On the next row, we will be creating a half repeat by adding in the 18 stitches from the edges on each side and placing new markers after the first three stitches and before the last 3 stitches.  

Row 19:  K3, YO, pm, K2tog 3 times, (YO, K1) 6 times, K2tog 3 times, sm, *K2tog 3 times, (YO, K1) 6 times, K2tog 6 times, (YO, K1)  6 times, K2tog 3 times, sm* repeat ** until last 21 stitches, K2tog 3 times, (YO, K1) 6 times, K2tog 3 times, pm, YO, K3

Row 20:  K3, YO, P1, purl to last 4 stitches, P1, YO, K3

Row 21:  K3, YO, K2, knit to last 5 stitches, K2, YO, K3

Row 22:  K3, YO, K3, knit to last 6 stitches, K3, YO, K3 

Row 23:  K3, YO, (K2tog YO, 2 times, sm, K2tog 3 times, (YO, K1) 6 times, K2tog 3 times, sm, *K2tog 3 times, (YO, K1) 6 times, K2tog 6 times, (YO, K1)  6 times, K2tog 3 times, sm* repeat ** until last 25 stitches, K2tog 3 times, (YO, K1) 6 times, K2tog 3 times, sm, (YO, K2tog) 2 times, YO, K3

Row 24:  K3, YO, P5, purl to last 8 stitches, P5, YO, K3

Row 25:  K3, YO, K6, knit to last 9 stitches, K6, YO, K3

Row 26:  K3, YO, K7, knit to last 10 stitches, K7, YO, K3

Row 27:  K3, YO, K1, (K2tog YO), 3 times, K1, sm, K2tog 3 times, (YO, K1) 6 times, K2tog 3 times, sm, *K2tog 3 times, (YO, K1) 6 times, K2tog 6 times, (YO, K1)  6 times, K2tog 3 times, sm* repeat ** until last 29 stitches, K2tog 3 times, (YO, K1) 6 times, K2tog 3 times, sm, K1, (YO, K2tog) 3 times, K1, YO, K3

Row 28:  K3, YO, P9, purl to last 12 stitches, P9, YO, K3

Row 29:  K3, YO, K10, knit to last 13 stitches, K10, YO, K3

Row 30:  K3, YO, K11, knit to last 14 stitches, K11, YO, K3

Row 31:  K3, YO, K2, (K2tog YO), 4 times, K2, sm, K2tog 3 times, (YO, K1) 6 times, K2tog 3 times, sm, *K2tog 3 times, (YO, K1) 6 times, K2tog 6 times, (YO, K1)  6 times, K2tog 3 times, sm* repeat ** until last 33 stitches, K2tog 3 times, (YO, K1) 6 times, K2tog 3 times, sm, K2, (YO, K2tog) 4 times, K2, YO, K3

Row 32:  K3, YO, P13, purl to last 16 stitches, P13, YO, K3

Row 33:  K3, YO, K14, knit to last 17 stitches, K14, YO, K3

Row 34:  K3, YO, K15, knit to last 18 stitches, K15, YO, K3

Row 35:  K3, YO, K3, (K2tog YO), 5 times, K3, sm, K2tog 3 times, (YO, K1) 6 times, K2tog 3 times, sm, *K2tog 3 times, (YO, K1) 6 times, K2tog 6 times, (YO, K1)  6 times, K2tog 3 times, sm* repeat ** until last 37 stitches, K2tog 3 times, (YO, K1) 6 times, K2tog 3 times, sm, K3, (YO, K2tog) 5 times, K3, YO, K3

Row 36: K3, YO, P17, purl to last 20 stitches, P17, YO, K3

You should have 366 stitches at this point.

Time to celebrate, Panel II is fini!

As always, if you have any questions please leave them in the comments and I will respond promptly.

Happy crafting!

Ruinwen

😀

**************************

Safe socially-distanced hugs  🤗

**************************

Sending love and light to everyone being affected by this virus.  

May you be safe.  

May your loved ones be safe.  

🙏

**************************

Sending love and light to everyone facing discrimination, hate, prejudice, inequality, or racism.

🙏🙏💖💖🙏🙏

**************************

Vixenpath is a safe space.

If you are:

LGBTQ+

Black

Brown

Asian

Any race

Coming out

Anything.

I am a safe person and I will always hold space for you in love and light.

WIPS [Work(s) In Progress]

 I never really thought of myself as a content creator until a few years ago when my sister mentioned it.  I just had a blog and wrote about life, some "to ponders" and my knitting.  But after that conversation I realized, well, yes I am a content creator.

Being a content creator is a wonderful job and love it.  I treasure my blog and the friends I made along the way.  It is a snippet of moments in my life and I refer back to it for dates when important things happened because they are usually recorded in its pages.

Lately, I have been really pushing the creative narrative, commissioned content (which I can't show), and projects (I can't show either).  This leaves me little time for personal projects and it makes me a bit sad.  I see them on the shelf in their little bags and I feel a pang of regret that I have abandoned them.

I am grateful for my design projects, I really am.  I love creating something new or figuring out a new way to do something.  I have tried during the pandemic to shift my knitting section to more tutorials to help inspire people who are looking for something new or some tips or tricks.  I have a lot of fun with those posts especially since they challenge me a bit with design or in filming which I have been doing a bit more of lately.

For a while now I have been working on a weekly schedule with Creative Tuesday. On Instagram that was taken so I use Creatrix Tuesday.  On Tuesday I sit down with my designs, colors, nature, art, music, and any other inspiration and just listen to my authentic voice.  This has been working really well for me and I have a slew of new ideas and directions to work with. 

On Friday I schedule a CEO day.  On this day I work on the business and attend to stuff on Ravelry and focus on design calls and what I am going to focus on for the next week.  It has really helped me to pinpoint my direction for Vixenpath.

During my last Friday session, I also talked with my sister who is full of good ideas and I added them to my minutes.  One of the things we talked about is that I need to address not having any time for my personal projects.

She suggested a Circle Back Week that would entail just working on all those projects that I have been neglecting.  This way, they have a time dedicated just to them and I can ease off designing for a week just to let my brain reset.

So, the first week of every month I will be showing you my Circle Back projects.  I don't want to overwhelm myself, so I will only focus on four projects at a time.  Two of them are from weekly knit-a-longs so only two of them will be neglected projects so don't worry about me taking on too much here.  lol

the edges are so clever

The first one is Rosy Blooms, by Steven West.  Yarn:  Expression Fiber Arts, Cherry Blossom.  Knit Picks, Stroll Glimmer Black (I think neither of these yarns exists anymore 😭) Expression Fiber Arts dyes in lots, and then they are gone, but she is always creating beautiful new themed stuff. 

I am knitting on this with a friend, though we took a little break on it to do some other things lately.

 stockinette next to the dropped stitches for contrast

The second is Clapotis, by Kate Gilbert.  Yarn:  Knitpicks, Chroma, Manzanita.  This color is not available but chroma has some lovely colorways.

I am knitting on this with a friend and we are almost to the decrease section.  Loving this yarn and pattern together!

love all this color!

The third one is a feather and fan blanket with some homeless Red Heart yarn in the colorway Favorite Stripe.  I am on my third skein out of five and I am loving the burst of color in this blanket.  I plan on using it for meditation and chakra work.

beautiful optical illusion as the colors blend

The final project for this Circle Back week has been this Gingham, crocheted blanket from Daisy Farm Crafts.  If you crochet, please check her out, she has some beautiful and innovative patterns with web and YouTube tutorials.  Yarn:  Carron Simply Soft, blue, white, and country blue.

I love this pattern, the whole idea of it, and how it looks as the yarns blends together.

So here is the hard part for me.  These projects will be my four Circle Back personal projects each month until one is completed.  Only then can I begin or work on finishing something new.   This is my transparent accountability promise to you all and especially to myself.  

You are more than welcome to join me in giving some attention to your personal projects.  I'd love to hear what you are working on!

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To all you Mothers of children, animals, or people you watch over, have a Blessed, Beautiful, and Happy Mother's Day!  🤗💖

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Happy crafting!

Ruinwen

😀

**************************

Safe socially-distanced hugs  🤗

**************************

Sending love and light to everyone being affected by this virus.  

May you be safe.  

May your loved ones be safe.  

🙏

**************************

Sending love and light to everyone facing discrimination, hate, prejudice, inequality, or racism.

🙏🙏💖💖🙏🙏

**************************

Vixenpath is a safe space.

If you are:

LGBTQ+

Black

Brown

Asian

Any race

Coming out

Anything.

I am a safe person and I will always hold space for you in love and light.