It's A Brand New Day!

Have you ever woken up and felt...different?  You can't quite name it but something inside you has changed.  There is this feeling of bubbly goodness that makes you want to smile but you don't know why.  It is so freeing in a way that only might make sense to you.

But something has changed.

The world is somehow a bit brighter or the edges are a little sharper.

It is hard to describe.

You see, I burned myself out by forcing a post each week for so long.  I guess my inner workings are more like a flowing tide.  Sometimes I have things to say and show and sometimes I don't, and that is okay.

But for a while, I felt I had to post or the algorithm would swallow me whole never to be seen again.  So I pushed because I felt that is what you do.

But it has never been what I do.  I post because I have something to share with you.  Maybe it is a picture or a technique or something that I am working on.  It has always been an organic exchange and felt almost sacred to me.

I want to get back to that excitement I had when I posted before.

Normally, this is the part where I apologize and get hard on myself for such a long break, but when I woke up today I knew that something had changed and a shame spiral is not good for any of us.

If you need a break, take it.  Goodness knows that some people are going non-stop 24/7 and just taking a breath...a real breath...seems like a major accomplishment.

Remember you are worthy of taking a moment for yourself just because you are.

In the "moment" that I took to pull my head together after the pandemic had ramped up my anxiety and fears to a 10, I found peace.  For so many years I have been trying to banish my fears, and breathe away my anxiety and it never worked because that is not the way.

I have been working with my ancestors and reiki guides and what they taught me was to walk with fear and anxiety because they will always be a part of me.  They showed me that listening begins a positive inner dialogue that allows me to move forward while still being afraid and feeling that weight in the pit of my stomach.

Since that "ah ha" moment, I have been able to do things while being afraid that I had been previously paralyzed me; and I am really proud of myself.

The perfect Halloween accessory!

One of the things that I have wanted to do for years now is update my Beginner Brioche pattern.  I hired my sister and she has been an angel in helping me test and edit week after week.  We finally squashed all the bugs and created a really powerful tutorial from my old pattern.

There is now a one-color only, two-color only and, a one-color to two-color to one-color section.  That way if you want to make a different scarf later on you have all the tools to do it.

Also, a huge shout out to my wonderful friend and model who looks perfect for the season!

There is more stuff in the works as sis and I have been knitting and editing all summer long and I can't wait to share it with you.

Bright Blessings!  🤗

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Happy crafting!

Ruinwen 🤗

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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.
🙏🙏💖💖🙏🙏
**************************
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.

Ruinwen

🤗

On the Edge Part I

I was asked by someone what is your design process?

There is this post that really summed it up when I was working full-time.

But lately, I have been hyper-focused on figuring things out in a design to make it work or add that special something.  For the last two weeks, I have been re-working my brioche tutorial pattern.

I thought this would be an easy process but as you saw last week, there have been many changes that need to be really pondered before proceeding.  I am happy to say that I think I have edited the pattern in a way that allows for flow and cohesiveness.

a little swatch to look at edging

The problem I have been facing this week is putting an edging on that flows from the one color to the two-color brioche.  This would seem such a simple thing, right?

It has not been.  Whether it was my brain going away to Hawaii for a vacation or me just missing the simplest thing, it has really been a struggle.

But the struggle is part of the thing that I love about designing.  It forces me to think outside of the box and to create something that is a part of my unique vision.

Edges are really important to me.  I slip the first stitch a lot and I talked about it in this post here.

For one color brioche what I am using in the pattern is pretty simple.

Setup Row (RS):  

K1, *yf sl1yo, K1* rep ** to last 4 stitches, yf sl1yo, K1

Row 1 (WS):   

sl 1 wyif, *brk1, yf s1yo* rep ** to last 4 stitches, brk1, bring the working yarn to the front before slipping the last stitch purlwise

Row 2 (RS):    

K1, *yf sl1yo, brk1* rep ** to last 4 stitches, yf sl1yo, K1

This makes a simple, nice neat edge.

The problem is when the two-color brioche starts.  Each row is knit twice with two different colors, one is designated as the edge color or the main color (MC) and the other is the contrasting color (CC).  

This means that the CC cannot be worked on the first or last stitch of the row so MC edge stitches must be slipped on CC rows.  You can see this in the swatch picture above.

It is amazing how many ways that you can slip the first stitch.  There is knitwise or purlwise.  The working yarn can be in the back (wyib) or in front (wyif).  You can slip through the back loop or the front loop.  There is a lot to consider.

So yeah, this is what I've been working on this week, and I think that I'm almost there but I think after I finish getting the blog out then I'm going to take a little mental break to have some fun.

Part of working from home for me is being able to do some housework or self-care during the day and I alternate between the two.  

I will be back next week with the answer to this edge puzzle.

For now, I think I will answer the question that was posed in the beginning: what is my process?

• Look for inspiration everywhere - any moment can inspire you if you are open to it
• Be consistent with your creativity - make a time to be creative and stick to it, if you can't do your set creative task, do another.  Creativity is not limited to that one action, it permeates all of your life.  Any task where you come up with new ways to do something or find your way to tackle something from cooking to masonry to everything in-between is using your creativity.
• When ideas strike, write them down somewhere.  They may or may not be relevant now, but one day they might be.
• Some of your best ideas will come to you when you are doing something relaxing like taking a shower, meditation, or a walk because your mind is not focused on them.
• Don't compare yourself to others, you and your vision are unique
• Failing a thousand times does not make you a failure.  Your worth does not come from your creative endeavor.  You are worthy just by being the amazingness that is you.
• I like to swatch with soft lovely yarns that inspire me to want to knit with and create with them.  Yarncraft is about the color, texture, and how the fiber feels as it flows through my fingers.
• You will swatch a lot.
• Use lifelines.
• If a design doesn't work out, that is okay.  You are not your design.  You are awesome and a new design/idea will come your way before you know it.
• Don't rush the process.  The journey is half of the fun.

What are you all creating 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:

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.

Updating

I know it has been a bit since we last talked.  I had a video that I was working on and I didn't really have anything that I could show you.  But that is all done now and when it comes out I will post a link in a few months.

Just a bit of brioche

I am so excited to start this project! 

I am updating my brioche tutorial pattern on Ravelry. After teaching it a lot, my students have shared how I could improve it and I want to incorporate these changes as well as add video tutorials for visual learners. 

I was watching a Minecrafter on YouTube and she is colorblind and she couldn't differentiate between the colored blocks since the colors weren't in her spectrum.  

Chat had to tell her what colors she was picking up and it was then that I realized all these accent colors that I use to define notes or important stuff may not be able to be seen by others.

Accessibility is something that I have been trying to really incorporate into my patterns and something that I never really thought about before was colorblindness.  I use color all the time to accent or show notes and people may not be able to see those colors and that is not acceptable.

To illustrate this:  here is my knit sample without a filter

Deuteranopia - green-blind

Tritanopia - blue-blind

Protanopia - red-blind

I'm using a free app Color Blind Pal which you can get on your phone or computer that can help you to see if something you are publishing can be seen by everyone.  

So that is one aspect that I am looking into, the next is all the notes I have gotten from students over the years.

I have a "cheat" sheet that I use in classes to help students to know what comes next in two-color brioche and they said I should add that to the pattern.

I had a bunch of people ask for a different edging, which is as simple as changing a K3, to a K1 but I am adding that as an option.

The sections on the bind off and weaving in ends need to be rephotographed.

The main photos need to be updated which is why I am using the fabulous soft and squishy yarn is Audubon Sock in Crab & Corn Bisque and Maci Grey by the talented Mitchells Creations.

What yarns do you love working with?

Happy crafting!

Ruinwen

😀

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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 Day of Slipping

This week we got a bunch of ice and things are quite dangerous around here today.  We needed to clean up stuff enough for our local farm delivery tomorrow and it was super slippery out there.  

Right now it is still sleeting or as my phone's weather app calls it, ice pellets.  Ice pellets sting a bit after being pelted with them for a while.

After my son and I tackled the driveway, I am back inside.

We have been talking with a gaming friend in Texas who only gets 45 minutes of power every hour and a half.  

Our prayers go out to all the people without power and or water across the globe.  🙏 

Did you know it is snowing in Athens, Greece?

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So what do you do on an icy day...knit of course.  lol

I was thinking about what I would write about this week as I was shoveling.  The ice if nothing else, is very soothing as it falls.  But I had to be very careful not to slip.

And then it came to me...slipping.

Slipping is something that we do all the time in knitting and it is totally safer than ice.  😀

Stitches can be slipped knitwise or purlwise with different results.

Usually, a pattern will denote which way to slip but if it doesn't you can usually sus out which way to slip.

Terminology

WYIF / WYIB

It is important to note that the working yarn placement is also very important to how a slip stitch is worked.

The yarn will either be WYIF - with the working yarn in the front or WYIB - with the working yarn in the back 

Some patterns carry the yarn across the front when slipping to create a different sort of motif.

Gulls and Garter

As you can see from the Gulls and Garter stitch pattern that the yarn has been carried across the front of the work to create this interesting motif.

Purlwise

Stitches slipped purlwise or tip-to-tip do not change at all.  The front leg is still on the right-hand side of the stitch as normal stitch mounting dictates.

This is usually what is meant by sl 1.

To slip purlwise you insert the right-hand needle into the stitch on the left-hand needle as if to purl.  Your working yarn can be in the front or the back of your work as the pattern dictates.  The stitch is moved to the right-hand needle without working it.

Purlwise slipping is usually used in stitch patterns that will be worked in the next row.

Knitwise

Stitches slipped knitwise are changed.  The front leg is now on the left-hand side of the stitch and the stitch is twisted.

Knitwise slipping is used in some stitch decreases such as the SSK (slip, slip, knit) or the SKP (slip, knit, pass the slipped stitch over [PSSO]).  

These two examples are left-slanting decreases.

To slip knitwise you insert the right-hand needle into the stitch on the left-hand needle as if to knit.  Your working yarn is in the back for the above-mentioned examples.  The stitch is moved to the right-hand needle without working it.

Knitwise slipping is usually used in stitch patterns that will be worked on the same row that they are slipped on.

CDD / CDDP

the vertical lines going through the lace
are using the CDD decrease

In the case of a CDD or central double decrease, two stitches are slipped knitwise at the same time WYIB.  This decrease as well as its sister decrease, the CDDP, does not slant in either direction and is vertically centered through the three stitches.

These stitches also go by S2KP2 and *SSPP2

* Note the Craft Yarn Council has a different version of how to do this stitch than I use, but recently when I submitted a pattern it seemed that this stitch had been revised to be more of an S2PP2, though this is my abbreviation for the process and is not used anywhere else.  It seems that CDD and CDDP are considered the "terminology" used for these two stitches more often than not.

My two cents: from swatching the two versions SSPP2 and S2PP2 seem to pretty much end up with the same result.

CDD - sl2 stitches together knitwise, K1, pass the 2 slipped stitches over

In a CDDP or central double decrease purl, two stitches are slipped through the back loops purlwise at the same time WYIF.

TBL

To knit through the back loop (tbl) you insert the right-hand needle through the back of a stitch on the left-hand needle from right to left.

A purlwise version (p tbl) is achieved by inserting the right-hand needle through the back of the stitch on the left-hand needle from left to right. It is a bit tricky at first to get the hang of IMHO.

CDDP - sl 2 stitches together purlwise tbl, P1, pass the 2 slipped stitches over

Some Slip Stitch Patterns

Linen Stitch

linen stitch

Linen stitch uses slipped stitches to make a woven pattern.  The stitches in linen stitch are slipped purlwise with the yarn in different positions.  The wraps create the woven type fabric.

The pattern for one color linen stitch is as follows (I included a slip stitch edge in the pattern):

Row 1: sl 1 WYIB, K1, *sl 1 WYIF, K1* repeat ** until the end

Row 2: sl 1 WYIF,  P1, *sl 1 WYIB, P1* repeat ** until the end

Brioche

here is an example of one and two-color brioche

Brioche is a two-sided squishy fabric that uses slipped stitches, yarn overs, and a bunch of other specially named stitches.  You can read about brioche in this past post.

Mosaic Knitting

this sweater uses slipped stitches to create a motif of cats

Mosaic knitting is knitting with two or more colors to create a motif.  Mosaic knitting often uses high contrast colors to make the design really shine. 

Mosaic knitting provides a nice foray into colorwork as you only knit with one color at a time while slipping the other color.  Each color is used for two rows.

All rows are slipped purlwise.  The knit rows are slipped WYIB, the purl rows are slipped WYIF. The purl row will mirror the knit row in yarn color placement.

Most mosaic patterns are worked from charts.  

Slip Stitch Edging

A slip stitch edge can really change the way your finished item looks and it is super simple.

Here are two ways to work a slip stitch edge:

Slipping Every Row

In this method, you slip the first stitch of every row purlwise but the working yarn is either held in the front or the back depending on the fabric you are creating.

If you are using a knit garter stitch edge where every stitch is knit, you would sl 1, WYIF.

If you are using a purl garter stitch edge where every stitch is purled, you would sl 1 WYIB.

If you have a stockinette stitch edge where the first row is knit and the second is purled, you would work the knit side, sl 1 WYIB, and then the purl side sl 1, WYIF.

If you have a reverse stockinette stitch edge where the first row is purled and the second is knit, you would work the purl side, sl 1 WYIF, and then the knit side sl 1 WYIB. 

I like this method because it is easy to remember to slip each row.  It does sometimes get confusing remembering where the working yarn is since it changes row to row.

Slipping Two Stitches Every Other Row

In this method, you slip the first and last stitch of every row purlwise but the working yarn can be held in the front or the back depending on the fabric you are creating.  On the second row, you will not slip any stitches.

If you are using a knit garter stitch edge where every stitch is knit, you would slip the first and last stitches WYIF.

If you are using a purl garter stitch edge where every stitch is purled, you would slip the first and last stitches WYIB.

If you have a stockinette stitch edge where the first row is knit and the second is purled then you would slip the first and last stitches WYIB.

If you have a reverse stockinette stitch edge where the first row is purled and the second is knit then you would slip the first and last stitches WYIF.

I like this method because you have one side that you are slipping on and you can mark it with a locking stitch marker or piece of string to act as a reminder.  Also, the working yarn will be in the same position so it is easy to keep track of.

What Happens When the Slipping Slips Up? (say that 10 times fast)

Mistakes happen to everyone.  The first thing I always tell students is to breathe, then put their work down, and finally make a plan for recovery.

That horizontal bar three stitches down is a mistake

You could be blissfully knitting away and when you get to your edge it looks like this.  Somewhere you should have slipped and didn't or slipped in the wrong direction but that is okay.

The thing about this edge is that it is mostly separate from your work and is easy to fix.

So let's make a recovery plan.

You want to start by removing the last stitch off of the needle.  Let it drop and take out the working yarn, it is not going anywhere.

the three unraveled edging slip stitches

Now your slipped stitches are free to work with.  Unravel each carefully even though they are not going anywhere.

Each stitch is inside the last.  Pull out each stitch until you have undone the mis-slipped stitch.

Then re-ladder then up with a crochet hook.  If you never have done that - here - is a post on re-laddering.

Put the resulting loop on your left-hand needle and rework it.

Ta-da!  

Happy Slipping!

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If you have any questions or comments on this or any of my other tutorials, please leave me a comment.

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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.
🙏🙏💖💖🙏🙏

Fear and Faith

"You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step."

-- Martin Luther King, Jr.

I found that this weekend I was struggling here and there to get some rows on the shawl in and you know what?...the shawl is done.  We blocked it last night and I think it was gorgeous.  It was soft and airy and I'm glad I could help someone out who has given so much to me by just being my friend.

So how did I manage to get so much done in such a short time when my own projects seem to lag?  Did the equinox cause some flux in my knitting that created a hole in the time space continuum long enough for me to accelerate my knitting speed this weekend?  Well in a way, yes.

I knew that my deadline was Wednesday, and I knew how many rows I needed, plus a day of blocking, in order to achieve that goal.  I knew that I had to bring it with me and knit on it during the day and during movie watching in order to achieve this goal. I did what I could here and there...and here is the truth of it that is so simple, but so hard to see when you are looking at the entirety of the project...doing something on a project every day pushes it forward; doing nothing...does well, nothing.  There can be no growth without effort on my part.

So all those projects in the drawer down in my beautiful new Craft Room are not going to grow without my help.  They are like little acorns with all the potential in the world; but without the elements of air, fire, water and earth...they are still just acorns instead of mighty oaks.

This was one of the parts of our Mabon ritual last Sunday.  It was such a blessing to have a ritual again with my family out in nature.  It has really invigorated me and helped me to feel more balanced which, helps with my sense of flow.

We also celebrated the duality in things; sun / moon, hot / cold and so on.  We each drew a mask that touched on what ever aspect of duality we wanted to expand on and the above picture is my sister's creation.  Isn't it fabulous?  We all have our aspects of creativity that run in our veins and you know where mine lies...but my sister has always been so talented with drawing. The shirt she is wearing may look familiar...it is the Vixenpath logo she designed!

While she was wearing this mask it was hard to match the voice to the face and it really helped to drive home what you see on the outside doesn't really show you what is on the inside.  I have a friend who always says, "yes" to everything and last weekend she put her foot down.  She had taken on too much and she was at her breaking point and she didn't want to let anyone down but she was afraid that if she took on one more thing she would shatter into a million pieces.

When she said, "no" everyone didn't understand since this was not the usual mask she wore...the always helpful one that suffers in silence because that is the way it has always been mask. They tried to get her to change her mind but that was not going to happen.  She needed to take some time for herself or she would not be there for anyone else; even her Doctor had told her this.

I for one, was proud of her.  I have listened to her talk about how she couldn't handle it for years now.  But even I had to look again because the face telling me the story was not the one I was used to seeing.  Her face was radiant and the dark circles under her eyes were receding as the light emerged from within her.

We all wear masks.  One of mine is my confidence mask.  When I am doing something new I usually have a panic attack even when I don't want to.  I've tried very hard to hide this fact over the years and it is just in these last few months that I have opened up to people about it.  After I lost Mom I just fell apart and all those masks that have served me well over the ages just fell away.  I lost all my defenses and the inner and the outer bled together and this is the "real" me.

When I design a pattern; I try so hard to test it.  I usually test it three times myself and then I teach a class and test it again before I even think of putting it out there.  I have also been having my sister read through for grammatical errors as well as of late.  I am so afraid of doing something wrong and having someone have a bad experience through my patterns but you know what?...all designers feel this way.  They all have testers for this reason.  They all dread a mistake...but that is life.

I can either be like a project that is never worked on that sits in a drawer and never grows or I can be like the project that I bring everywhere and grows little by little.  The first rows you really can't tell what the project will be.  But as the piece grows the fabric takes shape and you start to become excited by the way the colors play in the light.

I choose to take the next step and claim a little more of my potential.  The fact that I am a designer is not a mask; it is a truth that permeates me.  As I take these next steps there is fear but that is okay because there is faith as well.  Without the fear, I couldn't claim the faith. Without the fear I wouldn't necessarily put the care I do into my patterns.  They are dual to my nature and both are necessary for my growth.

So I give you two new patterns:

The first is my journey into brioche, one and two color knitting.

The second is my journey into linen stitch and textures with color.

I learned so much creating these two patterns.  I have been blessed to be able to create two new patterns this year and teach them as well.  This has been a powerful journey; both patterns were created while I was in different stages of loss.  I was knitting on the Beginners Brioche the day I found out Mom wasn't going to be with us much longer.  You can read about the brioche here. Frederick my linen stitch shawlette / shawl was born from the love of my parents and a book that they used to read to me.  I wrote about it here.

Here are the patterns on Ravelry; you don't need to be a member to purchase / down load them.

Beginners Brioche which is free -  download now

Frederick, new pattern priced at $2.50 -  

These are both active links that will download or send you to Pay Pal.  If you would like to look at either of their pattern pages on Ravelry; here they both are.

Beginners brioche

Frederick

So, my life is bound in those stitches, in these offerings that I am putting up on Ravelry. There is both fear and faith but that is okay since it is in my nature.

May you have the blessings of an abundant harvest,

Happy crafting,

Ruinwen

:)

Stranded

I know that you will understand the feeling as I write about an WIP of mine that has been just waiting for me to pick her up again.  It was a gift from my parents when they lived back at the house; which should tell you how long ago that was.

I saw the Sipalu Bag at Knitpicks and I fell in love.  I'm the kind of Aries that jumps into everything with cannons blazing and only when I am knee-deep in chaos do I stop to ponder my actions.

This kit came with 16 balls of Palette which were all so lovely to look at and I pet them lovingly...and that was it.  After reading over the instructions I put the kit away.  Yep, that's me...or was me...but I digress.

Now and again I would pull out my kit and then I would find a reason to not knit it and back into the recesses of my UFOs it would go.

In 2011 I had played with Fair Isle a bit on my own; as I do most things, and enjoyed it enough to take a foray into "the kit".  This time I looked at the Fair Isle as an adventure and created a provisional cast on and began to knit Fair Isle.

Now mind you I moved balls back and forth to strand and switch colors but my strands or floats on the back looked pretty good and my fronts did too.  I was pretty darn proud of myself and knit the entire sideband.  Now, all that moving of balls had become second nature and I could switch those colors pretty fast.  I breezed through the little side welt and cast on my 4th side provisional and began to knit the bag itself.

About six rows after the welt in I dropped two stitches and put them on lock ring markers and put "the kit" away.

And then it was excuses and this and that and really I didn't remember why I had stopped knitting, but I was constantly reminded of "the kit" because the bag of yarn is right by where I place my purse.

Fast forward to 2013 and I finally take a two-handed, two stranded knitting class in Fair Isle.  Now there were no more excuses.  I teach picking up stitches; I can handle some drops and I pick them up easily making sure the color sequences follow and I am back to knitting.  No more ball moving; I just knit with a color in each hand and strand as I go. The whole thing flows without effort.  I am back in the game.

My goal is to knit on "the Two Side of Me" as I now will call her, at least once a week,  This is only the bag front that I'm currently working on.  And it still needs to be blocked.  There is still a back and a top and a cord of some sort to tie it all together.  So I have a ways to go but that is okay.

I decided on that name because I will knit the other side in the opposing color chart that they included.  I liked them both and I thought why not?  Not sure how I will do the welt yet...but that is a long...long...way off.

I have an FO to share as well.  Here is the brioche scarf all posed and looking very Halloweeny IMHO.  This was a really fun project and I hope to make lots more.

Have a beautiful day,
Ruinwen
:)

P.S.  Thank you for all your kind comments regarding Mom; they mean more then words can convey.  She passed in her sleep last night; she went peacefully into the next world where Dad was waiting for her.