When Life Gives you Pluots...

 

my rainbow/chakra/pride feather and fan banket 

I finished a big project this week and I had to share it with you all.  My rainbow/chakra/pride/feather and fan rainbow made of bright and happy colors blanket is finally done.  It took 5 skeins of Red Heart Super Saver Stripes in the Favorite Stripe colorway.

I adore this blanket so much.  It is so bright and cheery; I can wrap myself in it to help me absorb colors while meditating.  

So that means a new project can be started now that one of my old ones has been completed.

I was going to show you something else but if I want to get this out today it will have to wait until next week.  You see I ordered 3 pluots from our CSA and I got 3 dozen.  We barely had room in the fridge for so many little apricot/plum hybrids.  

tartlet of pluots

I didn't know what to do so I made little tarts.

You basically take your pastry dough and add a little vanilla, cinnamon, and maple syrup for sweetness and then add the filling and pile any leftover dough on top.

I could have rolled out the dough and encased them but I wanted to leave room for a lot of pluots so I just piled the little pan till it was full.

I used a glaze/drizzle of balsamic vinegar, maple syrup, and cinnamon and it was really good.

So when life gives you pluots, make some little tangy tarts.  🤗

Have you made anything new this week?

Happy crafting!

Ruinwen

😀

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Safe socially-distanced hugs  🤗

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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:

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Anything.

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

I Finished Something!

 

my little Kitsune was very helpful in making sure all my wires were secure

I love the mix of blues and whites in my clapotis

My clapotis is finished!  I am so happy with this yarn and how it looks in this beautiful pattern!  This means that I can cast on something new with my friend but we are waiting a week instead of jumping into a new pattern.

this is my friend's clapotis, I just love the mix
of pink and orange sherbert colors in cotton

this rainbow blanket is such a joy to work on, it is about four feet now

This is a Circle Back week and I am choosing to focus on the rainbow blanket.  I love working on this blanket with all the bright and beautiful colors.  I am on the last skein and an end is in sight.

What are you working on this week?  Did you finish any long-term projects?

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.

A Little Personal Progress

 

So where I am pointing is where you saw this blanket the last Circle Back week.  

I feel like I made some progress in-between other projects but not as much as I would have liked because I ended up ripping back a lot.

Sometimes you rip more than you care to even when you are an advanced knitter.  There are just days that your count is totally off because your head is elsewhere.  That was me this week.

Hubby had a horrible reaction to the second vaccine and basically got the flu and I was really worried...because that is my superpower, and I ended up ripping back the blanket past the green under my fingers, twice.

Miraculously when he was feeling better my knitting finally made it past the green point and now I am finally making progress again.

But wow, that was some rough knitting there.  Although when it was time to rip I just took it off the needles, no lifeline to be seen, and ripped it past the green like a pro.  I got all my stitches back on the needle and none were lost and it made me feel like at least I could handle all this chaos in my knitting.

So there is that.

And that really does make the difference between rage-quitting your current project and knowing what needs to be done and doing it...

Since then I have been playing it smart.  Just because I teach knitting doesn't mean that I can't make a mistake...and believe me I do.  It is how I handle the mistakes that show my true mettle as a knitter.

After that whole crazy part where I K1, YOed for quite a long time, and threw off the whole rhythm of the pattern, I have sworn to count my stitches again.

I had been doing it up until this week and I'm not sure why I stopped, but I think it was my mind wandering and I was worried and really, I was human and we do things like that.

So, don't feel that there is some level cap in knitting that you are trying to break where you don't need to do all the little things that keep your knitting on track like markers, lifelines, counting, and such.

If you need them, use them. 

Sorry, that's all I got in me this week. 

What strategies do you like to use to keep your knitting on track?

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.

Charlotte

In December of 2013, I had a posterior vitreous detachment.  A floater joined my right eye and I named her Iris.

Last week I had a PVD in my left eye and a new floater has joined my field of vision and I have named her Charlotte.  It was the name that came to me as my eyes were numbing and dilating and I think it is a beautiful name.

Once again the Doc said that everything looks good I just have a new floater which is bigger than Iris and I say, that is great!  Praise the Goddess!

I happily welcome in a new floater friend.  They teach me how to slow down when I have worked too many hours on bright screens.

So I have been knitting more and taking more breaks.  When my eyes were super dilated I started working with this rainbow yarn and thankfully I can knit feather and fan (old shale) practically in my sleep.

My friend gave me this beautiful homeless yarn that a friend gave her.  I love rainbows and color and working a few repeats of this simple pattern has given me such great joy.

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One of the things that I got back to during the pandemic was making herbal blends.  It has been hard to find blends that don't add one of the foods that I am allergic or sensitive to.  This led me to a trial and error with the family and I am happy to say that I worked up a new spice blend which I want to share with you all.

Herbal Steak Seasoning (though it works for chicken, hamburger, venison...)

3 tsp black pepper

2 tsp salt

1 tbsp garlic powder

2 tbsp onion powder (or grind up dried minced onions)

2 tbsps of each: oregano, rosemary, and thyme (Can you tell I'm Italian?)

1 tbsp smoked paprika (my secret ingredient)

1 tbsp smoked chipotle

I grind the whole kit and caboodle until it is really fine using a mortar and pestle.

I have tried it with a bunch of meats (including venison) and it really lends itself to waken up the flavors.  

When our CSA has herbs I get them and then dry them so that I can use fresh spices as much as possible.  Sometimes our grocery store has fresh herbs too and we will buy those so I can dry them.  I love when the house smells like rosemary or thyme (my favorites) when they are drying.

Let me know if you try it and what you think.

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

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.

Learning New Things

I have been totally transparent with our Covid experience.  We stay home and only grocery shop every two weeks and get cat food once a month.  

So, I keep finding that I don't have enough of something to make a new recipe I see and when we do get to the store that one thing is usually out.

This is not me complaining, this is me adapting and learning how to cook without things and have it still turn out really good.

For instance, I wanted brownies but there were no gluten/dairy-free mixes left at the store.  So we took a cake mix and instead of doing what it said, I used:
1 egg
1/4 cup oil
and 1/2 cup water

Fold everything together.  It will look like sludge.  If there is still a floury look to it add a bit more water a tsp at a time.

Bake 30 minutes at 350 degrees in a greased pan

Ta-dah!  Yummy brownies

Then I made this:

There was no baking powder at the store or yeast.  But there was a bread mix that had a yeast packet so I made Focaccia!

1 bread mix
1 tsp rosemary
1 package instant or rapid yeast
1 1/2 cups warm water
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp salt
4 tbs olive oil

Put the bread mix and rosemary in a bowl and fluff it up a bit for good measure

Warm your water to between 120-130 degrees

Add yeast and honey to the water and let bloom for 3-5 minutes

Fold yeast/honey water, salt, 2tbps oil to dry mixture until it becomes like a thick paste if you are using a gluten-free mix.  

(If you aren't...you will get a nice dough that will need to rise for a bit before putting in the pan.  Then lay it out.  Poke holes.  Season.  Fill and bake.)

Pour the paste on a lined baking sheet use half the oil on the bottom so it doesn't stick.

Spread the mixture the best you can and then make dimples in the bread by poking your fingers into it.  Let the pan sit covered for 30 minutes.  The dough will not rise like gluten dough but it will get more substance to it.

Optional:  you can fill the dimples with tomatoes, olives, pepperoni - anything your little heart desires.

Brush oil on the top and sprinkle with anything you want.  I used garlic and Italian seasonings.

Bake for 25-30 minutes and then let cook for 10-12 minutes while amazing smells waft through the house and call family members to the kitchen with their enticing aroma.

Enjoy!

Or...dip in some olive oil that is seasoned with anything you like, garlic, crushed red pepper, Italian seasonings...

Then again, you might want to make soup to dip it in.  I made Split Pea Soup which was much easier then I thought.

• Take a cup of split (green/yellow) peas - I didn't know there were yellow peas and they add a bit of color to the soup.  Soak them as directed. Rinse them after soaking.
• Dice onion and grate a carrot (a cup each)
• Garlic to taste - we like a lot
• Some kind of meat - we had pancetta
• A tbsp of butter mine is the non-diary kind which makes it really more like oil
• Water or broth

Cook down the garlic and veggies until they are mushy.  

Add the meat - I cooked mine mostly first and drained off the grease.

Add soaked and rinsed peas and broth/water to cover - I used chicken broth instead of water because that's how Mom taught me.

Set it to simmer.

Check on your soup every 15 minutes and give it a good stir making sure nothing has burned on the bottom.  Add water or broth as needed.  

Everything will break down over three hours and become nice and creamy.

I tasted everything at the end to see if salt was needed but the pancetta seasoned the soup nicely so I only added some freshly ground pepper to tie all the flavors together.

So, yeah...been really enjoying cooking again and learning a lot in the process.


🤗 (socially distanced hugs)

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Sending love and light to everyone being affected by this virus.  
May you be safe.  
May your loved ones be safe.  
🙏
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I am always learning new things.  Our world is shaped by how we have learned to see it and when something challenges that reality, it can mess with a person's head for a bit.

So, I wanted to do a simple tutorial this week and I picked one of my favorite stitches called Feather-and-Fan which uses decreases and increases to make a piece of lovely lacy fabric.

Or so I thought...

I have always heard that Feather-and-Fan and Old Shale are the same Shetland pattern, but they are not.

In WWII someone used them interchangeably and then it just caught on.  It isn't clear if Feather-and-Fan is a simpler variation of Old Shale and since most stitches were orally taught we may never know a clear answer.

Old shale isn't even really called that.  It was originally Old Shell named after the tracks left by the sea on a pebbled shore.  Shael is how the Shetlanders pronounced shell.  

So, the pattern that I love is really Old Shell.  It is easy to see how one pattern could have sprung from the other if someone wanted to really shorten Old Shell, but they look totally different as I will now demonstrate.

Abbreviations


K - Knit
K4tog - knit 4 stitches together at the same time

K4tog tbl - knit 4 stitches together at the same time through the back loop
P - Purl
YO - yarn over

Old Shell - a repeat of 18 stitches 

Row 1:   Knit
Row 2:   Knit
Row 3:   K2tog 3 times, (YO, K1) 6 times, K2tog 3 times
Row 4:   Purl

These three projects are from various years in my knitting career.  I have always loved this pattern.








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Feather-and-Fan - a repeat of 14 stitches

Row 1:   K4tog, YO, (K1, YO) five times, K4tog tbl, P1
Row 2:   Knit1, P13

I added an extra P1 to make the row more have more continuity IMHO.  So my rows looked like this:

Row 1:    P1, *K4tog, YO, (K1, YO) five times, K4tog tbl, P1*  repeat ** until end
Row 2:   *K1, P13* repeat ** until last stitch, K1

I also wanted to note, be careful to get all four stitches.  Sometimes I missed one and sometimes I added one since they were hard to distinguish especially when knitting them through the back loop.  Sometimes I needed to wiggle my needle a bit to get it to fit as well because it can be super hard to make it through all those stitches.

If I had to pick a favorite it would be Old Shell.  I like the paired increases and decreases as they flow in a wave-like motion.  It is easy to memorize and becomes almost like a Zen mediation.  

The actual Feather-and-Fan pattern is hard on my hands.  The K4togs are really tough.  The pattern is easy to memorize but I can't find a groove as I have to stop to make the decreases.

But that is my opinion you may find otherwise.  They are both beautiful with variegated yarn.

Next week we will talk about a really cool textured stitch the Woven Basket Stitch.

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

😀

If you would be interested in an in-depth article on these stitches, this is a great link with many Shetland historians and knitters chiming their two cents in the comments.