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

😀

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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.  

🙏

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

🙏🙏💖💖🙏🙏

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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.

Snowballs and Things

I had grandiose plans at the beginning of the year.  I was going to clean up the Basement and work on past designs and get a lot done.  I was doing really well too until COVID struck the world.  And then, well...I just couldn't seem to do a lot of anything consistently except plan meals for the family and do the daily stuff. 

But, secretly...even to myself...I was...

You see I believe in using the "snowball effect" whenever possible for tasks that are just so huge that I get a panic attack just thinking about them.

In the snowball effect just doing the small parts of a task eventually leads to being able to do bigger parts until everything is rolling along and you find yourself at the half-way mark without as much hassle.

I used this technique to get out of debt many years ago.  First I paid the minimum on all the bigger debts, then I paid as much as could to the small debts.  As the smaller debts went away, then I allocated that amount to the next debt with the least amount on it.  It took about three years but I kept with it and then in the end that money got allocated to savings.

Real change takes time.  I have been watching what I eat since last July when I just couldn't move right anymore and everything hurt at the end of the day.  It is a long process and can't be called a diet because I can eat anything up to my calorie allotment for the day.  I just hit my second goal and I am so happy!  Everything feels better.  I sleep better and I move better.

So, at least with everything going on I never stopped working on me.  I've been chipping away at this diamond in the rough enjoying myself at each point of the process of becoming something new.

But the Basement...that is a different story.  I got so disheartened after finding the mice again and again.  It kept me away from organizing and doing all the things I had wanted to do in the Spring.

But to amazement, that wasn't really true.

Over time my hubby and I had been grabbing this or that from the kitchen boxes and they had become much lighter over the years.  When I went down to find something to make apple tarts I found something else I wanted upstairs.  This led to me rummaging around in the box and bringing half of the items in it up with me.  

At this point, I realized why not just clean out the box?

So I did.  I washed everything and found new homes for the items.  

I've never understood why I have to get so freaked out about big tasks that I just abandon them altogether.  

After my success, I decided to make a snowball effect chart for the Basement and list every task from small to big.  I'm dedicating most of my time to the small ones.  The bigger tasks I have broken down into smaller tasks so I can chip away on them just like I did with my bills.

As of today, I have cleared out two boxes and thrown away all the broken items or outgassing plastic that I don't need or want in our kitchen.

In the process of all this cleaning, I found something that gave me an idea for my next project for TKGA.  I never would even have thought of this without the help from the Basement project!  I feel like my snowball is rolling already and I just started last week!

😀

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So, the last post I was working on Thorny and I had gotten really far...I even ordered this yarn from TheWoolyCabin:

This yarn was specifically picked for how it meshed with my memories of Sis and me at our cabin in the Shenandoah.  We would roam the woods in hues of green and brown and then sit by a roaring fire with orange embers dancing on the logs.  The cranberry color was my favorite color of leaves in the Autumn.  It is one of the reasons I have a Japanese Maple tree because I love those beautiful brilliant jewel tones of red.

It is soft and beautifully dyed.  I can't wait to see my pattern knit up in it.  But for now, that will have to wait.

I received a design call and my knitting had to change gears.  I spent the week swatching and trying out ideas.  

This is another of those projects I can't share with you until publication.  

I feel like this is always how these things begin.  I have an idea, I don't know if it will work but I feel inspired and curious...so we will see how things work out.

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I have missed knitting with friends during COVID so now I have two virtual meetups where we are making a project together and I am using stash yarn.

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

Rosy Blooms caught my eye because it has lace and brioche.  I love the whole idea of it.  Stephen West is such a brilliant designer.  He is always thinking outside of the box.

Clapotis by Kate Gilbert, yarn Knitpicks: Chroma Manzanita (This color is also not stocked, but chroma has many beautiful colorways and it a joy to watch shift colors.  This yarn has really long color stretches...I just adore working with it!

I have made so many Clapotis over the years.  It is such a fun pattern.  Dropping the stitches is scary...then fun...then freeing.  

I hope you are making something that brings you joy!

Happy crafting!

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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.  

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

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Thanks for reading!

Happy crafting!

Ruinwen

😀