Into Each Life A Little Snow Must Fall

More snow this week...this seems like the norm now.  My son has hardly had a week where he has attended all five days this whole winter season.  Our office at work has been closed more than in any other year; and my boss doesn't just close at the drop of the hat either.  (I wish people would stop dropping those hats!)

Side note: that phrase is said to come from the Old West.  When someone dropped a hat there was going to be a fight because a challenge had been issued.

I'm an Aries and I start things.  It is hard to finish anything and I am easily distracted.  I felt like the Universe dropped a hat on me this week.  I have been fighting to stay on track with my projects and inspired to start new ones in so many areas I feel almost scattered.

I started a new pattern and have been just doodling with my knitting needles as I go.  I'm not sure where they are going to take me or if I will even like it.  I put in some lifelines just in case.  Usually, I share everything with you all from start to finish but this project feels different to me and I just want to hold it close for a while before sharing it.

I haven't really felt the creative urge in my knitting for almost six months and it was starting to get to me.  This idea took me by surprise and it isn't something I would normally do.  I am totally on autopilot here and yet it feels so right to be making something new again.

I balance my emotions by pouring them into my creations.  This is what has kept me sane over the years and allowed me to function on a day-to-day basis; it is also why I love Minecraft so much. The problem is once again I am an Aries and I can't seem to stay focused and there are always new things to create.  My spirit tree needs to be finished and then I will create it again on our family server.

My family and I play together all the time.  We help each other achieve our goals or sit back and watch as someone creates something truly beautiful.  This endears me to Minecraft even more; sharing it with my family.

I've wanted to build a temple on the family server totally different than my personal spirit temple on my world for a while now.  I had no ideas about it until this weekend; and then it just hit me, bam.  For the last few weeks we had been cleaning up our spawn area and then going to the Nether to get supplies for my son to build his gorgeous castle in the sky; literally, when you reach the top you are in the clouds.  I am awed by his skills as a designer.  He had an idea in his head and just created it and we all helped gather supplies as we do for any member of our family.

The temple I am building has taken on a life of its own now.  My sister and I brainstormed ideas about a Minecraft Pantheon and came up with a pretty logical list of deities.  I already had the temple design in my head and sketched it out on graph paper to make sure it worked.  My son spent the other day in the Nether gathering quartz for me.  My sister watched my back as I prepared the land, and let me say, she is an awesome shot.  She hit a hostile mob from an island away.  My son is also programming the buff effects.  I originally thought wouldn't it be great if you prayed in the temple and the deity blessed you with an effect? My son wanted to be in charge of that project and has matched the deities with their effects.  We created it so even the mobs can come and pray if they want.

The construction of this temple is not that difficult.  The gathering of the supplies is quite another matter; anything in the Nether is fraught with danger.  This is the first dome I have ever attempted.  I really like the way it looks.  And I love the fact that we created it together.

BTW since I didn't mention my DH in the temple construction, he is busy gathering supplies for my spirit tree on the family server.  Which is one of the reasons that I took a break on my world.  You have to grow the huge trees, cut them down and rinse and repeat until you have taken down enough to work on another layer of leaves and branches.

Oh, and I finished my Skeleton spawner grinder in the Nether.  Remember I started playing at the end of December and I am new to a lot of things so when I figured out the /setblock command to make spawners it was truly a joyous thing.  Now I can make Wither Skeletons.  Um...yay?  After watching a video of a Wither which you put together from 3 Wither Skeleton heads (which are rare drops...hence the grinder) destroy everything down to bedrock...I question my excitement.  But it is always fun to make something new and learn a new skill to boot.

And...remember when I talked about the ice a while back?  Ice allows one to see a situation or moment frozen in time and the onlooker can really view that situation or moment from all sides.  This creative project is one that I keep putting away in a drawer and mean to get back to but since all the things that have happened over the last year starting piling up, I have been ignoring it.  This creative urge that has hit me so strongly in all the other areas of my life has extended to me and my well being as well.

I'm the first to admit I really let things slide when the depression of last summer set in.  I stopped counting calories and was just happy to find a food I could eat.  I totally undid years of cultivating a healthy lifestyle and just tried to stay afloat.  My excuses have piled up like my WIPS (work in progress) and I am just over my old self.  I honor the fact that I had to get to this point and I'm not judging my past mistakes...I'm just ready to change and the fact that I have all these other things is not going to stop me from reaching my goals.

First I need to forgive myself.  I have felt over the past year that my body has betrayed me but that is not true.  I am what I am and that includes all the negative as well as the positive.  Each stage is a learning process and creates a foundation for growth.  I need to learn to love and accept myself again.

There seems to be a switch in me that once it goes off everything changes for good or bad.  The switch has been stuck in the negative position for a while now and today I've flipped it to the positive. I'm an Aries, when I decide something it is law.  I've always been that way.  So starting today I will try to make healthier choices and create more movement in my life.

Ironically, I actually love to exercise.  I love the feeling of moving my body and getting stronger or more flexible with each workout.  DH and I bought this wonderful Total Gym machine which uses your body weight to help you get in shape.  It has been hidden away for a while when we had guests you couldn't really find a room it would fit in.  But now with the basement clean and beautiful, we can set it up again.  DH and I are in this together.  We both want to be healthier and are going to support each other along this journey.

I know that I can't do it alone.  We've been looking into those bracelets that hook into an app and remind you to do stuff and you can track workouts and movement and different aspects of a healthier lifestyle on them.  I think this would be a tremendous help for both of us.  It would give us some kind of guideline to adhere to.

I actually ate portions this week and paid attention to my calories.  I made sure to drink my water; at least that is one thing I never slacked on!  And as in the past, I've noticed an automatic weight loss and my clothes a bit looser too.  I don't really have that much to lose; maybe 10 pounds...so the weight isn't really the most important factor here for me.  I just feel...loose...for the loss of a better word.  I want to feel...tight...not jiggly.

I know that with my eye I can't do exercises that make me strain or hold my breath; so there will be a learning curve as I figure out and retrain myself how to do things.  And exercise is only part of it.  I'm really trying to eat healthy in season and that is proving hard since we are still in the grasp of winter.  I've been enjoying some nice winter squash that I baked in the oven with garlic this week.

All these changes take a bit of my time so there will be less time to knit and /or play Minecraft but that is okay.  These activities that I enjoy so much can be my reward for reaching my daily goals.  I'm making lentils with pork shoulder this weekend.  I'm going to slow cook the shoulder and then add in the lentils when it is falling apart.  There should be plenty of leftovers.

Speaking of leftovers, we are getting rid of all of our plastic containers.  We have slowly been changing over to a healthier lifestyle over the years.  We got rid of toxic personal products and cleaning agents and replaced them all.  We buy local and organic fruits and veggies as much as we can.  We order our meat and dairy from an organic farm.  And, now we are going through our cupboards and weeding out the plastic.  I'll let you know next week what we chose and how it is holding up.

There are so many new things brewing it is hard to contain them all.  I feel like seeds that have laid dormant through the winter got a little sun and burst forth everywhere in my life.  Also, I finished the cowl for Nana and I need to block it and then I will show you.

But unfortunately, this creative surge of knitting came with a price.  I didn't finish my layer of squares this week. Sorry, Sis!

Next week I should have lots of knitting to show you.  Won't that be a nice change?  :)

Happy crafting,
Ruinwen
:)

It's Snowing...Again...

Last week it was ice.  This week it was snow.  It is hard to measure exactly how much we got since the wind was pretty fierce and made drifts, but the first storm dropped somewhere in between 20-26 inches.  I was off for Thursday and Friday.  We had cleaned most of it up and another small storm came in and since we hadn't done the walks yet, I took the day off to shovel.  There was more snow on Friday night into Saturday.  Yep, Phil and I have to have a little talk.  I hate the shoveling and the danger of driving but here in the backyard, you can really see the beauty of a world covered in white.  It truly is lovely.

As you can see, it is snowing in my game too!  :)

I know I haven't mentioned my tree for two weeks now.  It is a huge project and I've been working on it on and off.  Truth be told, I needed to do some home remodeling.  Hubby built me a beautiful animal pen and I created a new garden.  I also discovered both a Jungle Temple and a Desert Temple purely by dumb luck.  The Desert Temple is my new teleport hub; which is awesome since the room I was doing it in was just a bunch of signs...like sticky notes in wood.  I reorganized my kitchen area and the basement is filling up with chests just like I wanted.  I have been dying the sheep around my home and then breeding them which is so much fun!  I found two Villages filled with Clerics and Librarians and both of them had no church; so I build one.  In case you ever need blueprints for the villages, they are here.  And I made a little fishing nook that is really great at giving you enchanted bows, ink sacs, lily pads and sometimes fish.  :)

The grey lace is the Nana Knit Lace Cowl I've been working on this week.  Every day I have been doing two full repeats.  Nana wanted one in wool and I thought this wool with a bit of silk in it would be perfect, and I was right.  It has just a bit of give and the definition is lovely.  I'm wondering how long I actually need to make it.  Nana had mentioned that she wanted it a bit longer in the back.  It is hard to judge without blocking it.  So I've decided to knit until the grey one matches the length of the sky-blue one.  When I reach that length I will block it and see how much it grows.  Regardless, I need to make a Knit Picks order....oh darn.  ;)

I will be back to squares next week and a new color scheme to boot.  I need to work on the cowl as much as I can before then...at least until I run out of yarn.

I have no witticisms this week.  The ice..snow...sleet...whatever keeps falling from the skies is wearing me down.  I ache and now I leave you to go and soak in a tub of goodness.  My bathroom which was started in October is now almost complete.  I don't have jets yet or my chromatherapy, but a tub of hot water sounds delicious right now.

Happy crafting,
Ruinwen
:)

Isa

After our sweet little furry prognosticator said that we would have six more weeks of winter, our weather just went crazy.  Monday we had a snowstorm that was mostly slush.  Shoveling slush is much harder than snow but I wanted to make sure the driveway was clean so it didn't turn into ice. And ice my friends is what followed.

In the above shot, you can see my work driveway blocked by 2 major tree limbs that had to be hauled away by a truck (thank you rescuers!) and a whole lot of littler limbs that I managed to move.  I had been given the go-ahead to leave because the power was out; it was out pretty much everywhere in our area.  The tree stopped me and I had plenty of time to sit and look and listen to what was around me.

First of all, it was beautiful in a staggering way that fine crystal is.  Everywhere was full of prismatic flecks of light; everything was covered in ice.  Second, it was dangerous.  As I sat there I heard the crashing of limbs as trees could no longer bear the weight of the ice.  Later that ice would fall from all the trees and rain down shards that sounded almost eerie and made an unearthly din.  Never had I witnessed such a thing as this ice storm.

It made me think about the Norse Rune Isa.  Isa means just what you think; ice...standstill.  Ice can be cold and unforgiving or beautiful and inspiring.  When you freeze something in ice you can see it from outside of itself and from all angles.  Ice is as effective in fire at pruning away those things that no longer serve their purpose within us.  As the ice overcomes them they become to heavy for us to bear and we have no choice but to shed them from our being.

I've always believed that winter is a time for introspection.  Ice freezes things in a snapshot sort of way. You can see the trees through the ice; so too while we are in the grasp of Isa's changing we appear the same until the metaphorical branches start to fall away from us.  Isa's transformation is a slow one that is full of ponder-some moments and deep inner reflection.  The first shift feels strange like something has occurred but one can't quite put their finger on it.   New thoughts seem to surface and moods may change as Isa is readying us for spring.  The whole process is methodical and barely can be noticed until one day we wake up and we just feel different and just a little more whole.

Everyone has had one of these transformations in their life-time.  One cannot grow without a little pruning here and there.  But these moments can be easily missed and dismissed as just a "good day" where everything seems to flow and be right with the world.  The message of Isa is a good one. Stopping once a day to just be still and listen lightens the soul and helps to relax the body.  It should also be noted that the rune of Isa can be found within 17 of the other 24 runes which says to me the message it carries is very important; slow down because ice can be dangerous, beautiful and wondrous all at once.  All one can do when Isa has graced your path is be patient.  Eventually, the ice will thaw and new growth will occur.

I found it hard to knit again this week.  The shoveling of slush made my hands hurt.  I managed to have just enough light to knit when the power went out during the ice storm.  Regardless, here is my first block.  It is a slow patient journey of fiery colors interwoven together in a beautiful play of hues that merge and meld to form something new.  I see colors in this block that aren't there; which, is the magic of this pattern.  It tricks the eyes by gradually shifting the hues into thinking that the colors are just a bit more yellow or red or whatever. This blanket truly is magic.

Happy Crafting,
Ruinwen
:)

A Breather

Here is our neighborhood during the 2nd blizzard.

Here is Widdershins chillin' with the boys.

The winds crafted some wicked icicles.

These are my favorites. These icicles have been there since just after Christmas...and I suspect they will not be going away any time soon.

Here is my completed scarf for Spring Fest. It feels good to finish a project that is not due for a while. I've really been trying to keep to my goal of three projects on the needles; one for me, one for charity and one for Vixenpath.

I rewarded myself by casting on this. Knitnana really inspired me to give this scarf/shawl a go. This is super yummy Araucania Ranco in color 105. I must say even though I struggled with this pattern because I can't count...no really...I'm totally in love with the subtle change in color and the delicate lace vines starting to emerge.

I want to thank everyone who wrote to me cheering me up. I think this season is a test of my will...more then others passed. I did do my reading and I was gifted with this wisdom.

• The ice that covers everything symbolizes a transition between the conscious mind and the subconscious mind.
• Quality time with your family will assure them of a secure future.
• Whatever you begin or straighten out now, will last for years.
• Discover future cycles in your life.
• And the God and Goddess will always care for all of their children.

A lot to ponder. But being snowed in with your family for two days gives you time to think.

My essence came UPS...in the snow...FES rocks! So I have been using it and I feel a bit lighter...but that could be because I lost another pound! My clothes are fitting better and better and I'm really proud of how much I've accomplished.

Baby steps...

I can't believe it is Friday already. I can't wait to sit and knit tonight in front of the fire.

I wish you all a wonderful, safe and happy weekend.

Ruinwen
*hugs*
:)

*Oh, a shout out should go to DH who photographed all my pictures. Which reminds me as Valentine's Day rounds the bend...Thank you, honey, for always doing my photoshoots...it means so much to me to have pictures to post again. I love you!

Is it Spring Yet?

"Knowing others is wisdom; knowing the self is enlightenment."

-- Tao Te Ching

I feel lost today. This weekend I felt really blah and stayed cuddled under a blanket while it snowed. I figured the world was under a mantle why not me?

This morning I woke from a dream as my alarm went off…very reluctantly.

I was searching in the dream for a tarot deck because mine had been sold and I was now missing certain cards. Every time I looked at them they were shrouded in mist and impossible to read.

I had just figured out how to get to the tarot store and gotten the nice lady’s attention when I was forced to wake up in the real world.

I feel like I am missing something…

something important…and I just don’t know what it is.

I think I will do a reading tonight before bed and see if I can find some answers.

But for now, I’ll muddle through as I usually do.

More snow is on the way…any snow will be enough to close us down again…most schools are out today…the Govt is off…side roads are disastrous…

*sigh*

I did get some knitting done and I got in three loads of laundry. I stayed on points and even had a loss again. I’m trying…really I am.

Where ever you are I hope you are safe and happy.



Oh, and those of you who are jealous of my snow...we left a big pile at the end of the driveway that you can come and take at any time...really. ;)

*hugs*
Ruinwen
:)

The Blizzard of 2010

Just wanted to show you a peek of how awesome this storm was. I'm not sure what total inches were...because of drifts.

*winter hugs to you all*
Ruinwen
:)

Happy Blogiversary!

The Stillness of Winter

I remember a time
When the icy crust
Of Bridgit lay upon
The land like a
Crystalline calling
Of things to be.
Meditate with me now
On hues of ivory
Blessed by a grip
Of relentless indifference.
Invite the stillness
Within the quickened
Rhythm of your pulsing heart.
Feel your mind solidify
With each passing thought.
Allow the chilled air
To penetrate the deepest
Concealed places of your essence.
Tolerate your body losing
Its warmth to the unfeeling
Handshake of Winter.
Become numb in the tranquility
And experience in your core
The essence of being.


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

Today I've been blogging for 4 years! Can you believe it?

The winter winds are whipping through here with the power of a freight train. But those snows are from years past. I just felt I owed it to Winter which is not anywhere near done even though yesterday was sunny and warm...it was just a lull.

So in honor of the groundhog being right and a wonderful 4 years of blogging...I'm having a contest. Leave a comment in this post and on Sunday I will have my son draw names out a hat for some goody yet to be determined...but it will be nice.

Thank you to all of you who have made blogging a wonderful experience. I've made so many friends and learned so many things. Blogging has truly blessed my life because of all of you! :)

In love and light,
Ruinwen
:)

Of Mice and Impossible Charting

Winter's Fury. We had more ice than anything else this winter. This was a day that I stayed home with my son and was sick while he played video games all day. Ice in the Norse Runes stands for Isa: Reflection. It is a time of going within and finding all the resources that you already have carved on the tablet of your soul.

I think that I have done this. I have found a balance between family, obligation, hobbies, work and nurturing of self. I have found the voice to say no when it hurts to do so. I have spoken up when I feel walked on and abused. And I have found time to ruminate and renew when it all is too overwhelming.

Of course, my DH is my rock, my son my sunshine and my knitting my saving grace. But knowing what you need is half the battle to getting where you are supposed to be. So as cold and bitter as winter was this year, I learned many lessons that I will use for the rest of my life.

Spring's beauty. Time to think about the seeds I will plant. Spiritually I am asking for patience and compassion. Physically I think I will plant tomatoes since I love them in the summer. Little changes make a big impact when done with a clear intent.

My caplet is at the edge and I wanted to do something special for the bottom edge. So I poured over pattern books until I found the Windblown Leaf border.
So this chart is from Knitting on the Edge and it was the hardest thing I've ever charted. There are so many no-stitches in the pattern that I felt like I had entered a black hole. But after 5 tries and more hours then I'd like to admit, it is ready for testing. Best to put it away for a day or two before attempting the dreaded swatch.

These mice are from Kitty Knits and they have yet to be stuffed or given noses and eyes. This is my first intentional felting project and I really enjoyed making these cute little critters.

So I've been trying to figure out which direction I want to go with this blog. A good friend told me to do whatever I want since it is my blog. I've been only posting when I have knitting...but with my limited time, I don't knit as much as I used to. So please forgive me while I figure this all out.

Anyway, have a super weekend!

Happy crafting,

Ruinwen
:)