Color Me Blissful

When I was a little girl, maybe 8, I went to a birthday party and I won a prize.  It was a box of colored bath fizzies.  I adored those fizzies.  My bath could turn hues of blue and green gold and even red.  There was something about bathing in colored water that seemed magical to me.  It is an experience I have always remembered and cherished.

Flash forward to five years ago when the chromotherapy tubs started coming out and it became a dream of mine to own one of these tubs.

Color originates in light.  The light from the sun is colorless, as we perceive it.  When the sun shines on an object the surface of that object absorbs all the colored light rays except those corresponding to that object and reflects this color to the human eye.  The eye receives the reflected light and sends a message to the brain and we see color.

If you take a dispersive prism you can break light into its spectral colors or the ROYGBIV colors of the rainbow.  My sister and I used to shoot the hose into the air to create rainbows; it always seemed like a bit of magic when they would appear and shimmer in the air.

Color has always played a large part in my life.  Being a healer, the 7 chakras (energy centers that correspond to the colors found in prismatic light; they allow the force of life to flow through our arteries, veins, nerves and organs and they connect our mind/body/spirit) system is sacred to me.

One of the reasons I craft is to play with color.  Color is a central part of my being.  This is why I wanted the chromotherapy tub.

Last night I soaked in my tub of magical changing lights and effervescent warm bubbles and I was filled with so much joy as I simultaneously melted into a relaxed puddle of bliss.  I had the colors on scan so they faded gently into the next and each one was a revelation.  I used the lights to clean my chakras, to meditate and then I just relaxed.  It was one of those moments where you are in the "now".  There was no thought beyond the bliss of the bubbles and the changing colors.  I let go of everything until my cycle ended and I left the bath feeling like I had experienced some mystical transformation.  Even now, writing this days later, I am still smiling thinking about my next spiritual night soaking in my tub of color and bubbles.  :)

And on to more color...here is layer 2 of block 2.  The blues are so soothing; they remind me of our trip to Florida this last Summer.  Ah....so many happy memories!  :)

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
:)

Creativity Takes on Different Forms

This an actual view of my temple at night, I decided to add vines and change some minor things with the side structure.  I must admit I really love the way it turned out.

For those of you that play Minecraft, I mined all the ore and such and everything is legit.  I spent hours in the Nether playing tennis with Ghasts mining Nether Quartz crystals.  I spent hours gathering materials up to trade with villagers for the Emeralds, and I still have a few to go as well as one diamond ore block.  But this is the way I chose to do it.

Everyone has rules that they play by and that is the great thing about Minecraft; you play the way you want to.  Each world I have played in has had different rules that I have adhered to.  In the Temple world everything I build, I gather myself.  I don't use Creative or spawn things in.

Each project takes resources and I must think about the impact of my taking of those resources on the world around me. When wood is harvested, seedlings must be replanted for a new forest to grow.  When ores are depleted, they are gone.

The Emeralds in the Temple I get by trading with Villagers but I still needed to harvest sugar cane, make paper, kill Zombies, shear sheep and kill Spiders to be able to make these trades.  I know that I am still quite a few short in the picture, but this is a work in progress.

This temple has truly taken a lot of planning.  I know it wasn't really huge but if you consider that each Chiseled Quartz Block takes 4 pieces of Nether Quartz to make a Block of Quartz.  You then take  3 Blocks of Quartz and create a Quartz Slab (you get 6 of these which is nice).  You then take 2 Quartz Slabs to make 1 Chiseled Quartz Block.  That my friends, is a ton of Nether Quartz.

I really enjoy the satisfaction that comes with each new area I complete or resource I am able to gather. Sometimes it is the simple things which bring the most profound pleasure.

In my vision, this temple area has always had a giant spirit tree so this is my next project.  I have chosen spruce wood since I like the look of it, though I will not be making a spruce tree because I wanted something with branches.  I took the temple picture standing on the top of the trunk portion of my spirit tree.  And the above picture is only a work-in-progress shot of the tree.  I still need to work on the inner branches.  I added a few leaves to flush out where the branches should be to give loft to the structure.

Building this tree is a challenge because it is so tall.  I hollowed out the middle and put Glowstone up the center to keep out undesirables.  I put vines down the sides of the middle so I can climb up there and get to my branches.

Everything is slow patient work since I am up there at cloud level and it is a long way to fall.  Each branch is built out by sneaking and peeking over the edge of the previous block.  Somewhere in this project I lost my fear of heights and started enjoying the view.  It really is beautiful up here.  Later on, I will be able to climb to the cloud level and mediate up here.  I'm putting in a hidden door that vines will cover the entrance on the outside of the tree.  I really love using vines since I am right by a swamp Biome and they grow on the trees anyway.

The wood for this project was not really an issue.  I gathered enough saplings to plant 8 2X2 Spruce trees. These trees practically hit cloud level themselves and each was just a bit different from its neighbor. These trees provided me with more than enough wood and I used shears to get all of their leaves as well.  Being four blocks they were easy to stair-step up, which made harvesting the wood easy.

This project teaches me patience; there is a time to gather and a time to build.  There are things that will need to be changed and things that I will like right away.  Ideas need to be flexible so that they can be seen from all views and improved upon as new sparks of imagination take place.  This tree may take me months, weeks or days depending on the fluidity of my building.  The time that it takes is not important as long as the finished project gives me joy.

Here is a project that is giving me joy, the Hue Shift Afghan.  Last week we took a pic of our blankets side by side to show how different our blocks are.  The jewel tones in my sister's blanket are rich and deep and my block is almost like shades of fire or a sunset.  They are both gorgeous in their own right.  Each week a new layer is formed in our squares and slowly we are creating a blanket; the journey is a delight and every week adds a new dance of color in our squares.

Here is this week's block layer; 1 layer to go until square #1 is done!

Happy crafting in whatever you choose to create,
Ruinwen
:)

Walking With Spirit

This is the new elemental shrine I designed in Minecraft.  My son helped me create in the creative world to figure stuff out and now I am building it in my homeworld.

I'm not so good at the building of stuff.  My son, my sister and my hubby make the most amazing structures. In fact, my hubby built me a house after I gave him my ideas, and it looks fantastic.  My sister would say that I just need practice, but I think you either have an eye for how these things flow together or you don't...and I don't.

But that isn't really important here because I wanted to do something to honor spirit in my game and this is my creation as I saw it in my head.  My Dad always said that he made a "joyful noise" unto the Lord because he couldn't really carry a tune.  But his heart carried in his song and that made it beautiful.  So this is my heart in blocks making a little place to honor spirit within my game; it is beautiful because my light shines through it as well as a lot of glowstone.  :)

Walking with spirit is as easy as that...making a place and or a time to devote to the stillness and just...be there.

It doesn't have to be a grandiose gesture; a word of blessing before you start your day, a word of thanks for the blessings at a meal and an attitude of gratitude at the close of the day for all the beautiful things you saw and did in another wonderful day on Earth.

Your way of walking with spirit may be to honor the house that you live in by doing laundry or cleaning something.  Maybe you honor spirit by cooking a meal for your family to provide nurturing and nourishment. Being with your family in a joyful way and just enjoying their presence in your life honors spirit.   There are endless ways to honor spirit and most of them are just being loving, kind, compassionate and considerate of your fellow man.

A smile may brighten someone's day.  A hug can warm someone's heart...and lower their blood pressure! An act of kindness has ripples that continue long after your part is over.  One person can make a difference just by letting that light in them shine out and touch others.

Another row is completed and I love this project more and more each day.  This week has been really confusing with holidays and snow closings.  When it got so cold I really didn't feel like knitting, but the minute I picked up the yarn...everything changed.  The Brava is so soft and brilliant with color that I found it easy to finish a square while watching the colors merge and change with the different accents in the blocks.

I went to the eye doctor and she said that Iris is fully formed and clearly obscuring my vision which, is the reason I haven't been knitting as much or writing full tutorials as of late.  These squares have been such a blessing to me because I can handle one a day and my eyes don't strain too much.  Not only does this give me great joy it allows me to create something special with my wonderful sister since this is a KAL.  Since we are only doing a row a week I can't push myself to do more than I can handle.  This project is just perfect in every way.

I was talking to a friend and she was saying when she got older she didn't want to lose her ability to knit.  I understand that.  Knitting is more then a craft to me; it is more like a religion that ties me to everything.  I know that I've said this before; but this is something I feel in my soul...knitting is my vocation.  My life's path is intertwined with fiber and community.  Every square connects me to my ancestors and my Patron Goddess.  Every stitch allows me to walk with Spirit.

Bright Blessings to you and yours,
Ruinwen
:)

Ever Feel Like This?

Do you ever feel like my poor Minecraft character who was shot by skeletons?  Sometimes it just seems that there are more challenges then I can handle...but I pick myself up and go forward anyway.  I lived through that Minecraft experience and for quite a bit of time I had those arrows sticking out of me.  But did that stop my character?  No!  She hoed and farmed and did all the stuff she had to do. She is very inspiring to me.

Because some days with the eye sensitivity and the food intolerances and all these aches and pains that I've had lately it seems like I just changed the difficulty on my life setting to "hard" or something. But I haven't stopped and I don't plan to either.  Yes, I'm taking it easy and I'm eating what I'm supposed to and blinking every 10 minutes and such; but it just feels more challenging lately.

I have been keeping to my 5 squares a week on Hue Shift.  Now you can start to see why I fell in love with this beautiful melding of colors.  My sisters is equally lovely just more jeweled toned and rich while mine is happy giddy rainbows of color.

Since I am only knitting 5 squares since this is a KAL with my sister, I have been making these as well. Zoom Looming is quite easy and addictive and I can make a few squares here and there and soon I will have a whole bunch of them.  I do the weaving more on feel than sight, but that is how I've been doing a lot of my crafting lately.  I can close my eyes and knit a row and my fingers can feel when the tension is wrong because I split a stitch or missed a stitch or whatever might be "off" in the row.

My friend who can't knit right now asked me to help with finishing her projects and this has been an ongoing thing I have been doing for her.  I have another one but it will take me a long time and I will only do a little at a time.  My friend knows this and she is totally okay with that because a row here and there actually makes progress, even if it is slow.  If it sits in her knit basket it will remain undone forever.  There is a lesson there...slow progress is better than no progress.

My MIL wants another Nana Cowl which, is just wonderful.  She wanted a warmer version this time so I chose this.  It is a blend of silk and merino and sounds just yummy.  I can't wait to work with it.  :)

I'm not rushing things.  I'm taking my time.  When I need to stop I rest a bit but I'm not giving up and arrows or not...I'm just going to keep going forward one step at a time.

Happy crafting and many hugs,
Ruinwen
:)

Illusions

This is a view from Minecraft.  When I look down from this height I get a knot in the pit of my stomach just like it was a real vista.  I've been working through this imaginary fear that feels so real by testing my limits and building over chasms.  Each time I get too close to the edge that shiver of fear runs through me as if it was a real experience.

When we watched some very real spiders on the big screen they really disturbed me and my sister (bless the Goddess for her) held my hand.  Normally I love spiders.  I could even deal with the Harry Potter ones...even in the game when you can feel them coming with the vibration of your controller...but these...nope...no way.  I was actually afraid of these spiders.  If you know me, you know that I love spiders and take them outside instead of killing them.  So why was I afraid of the spiders on the big screen?

The truth of the matter is that fear is an illusion.  You could say my fear of heights keeps me safe from dangerous heights but that would not be the truth.  When we went to Diamond Head in Hawaii years ago, you hiked up a bunch of stairs until you got to this little (and that is being generous) pitch-black tunnel that you climbed up to emerge on top of a rock face that overlooked everything.  And I did it.  I faced every fear and did it.  And there was no fence around this rock face; it was truly one of the most exhilarating and terrifying moments of my life.

I have quite a few totally irrational fears and while they feel real to me, they really are just illusions. I am afraid of cranes; not the birds but the big metal construction types.  Why?  Rationally...they have heavy stuff that they haul around and it could drop it...on me.  But that is silly.  Yet, I see a crane in the distance and I get that feeling in my stomach.  Now tell me what purpose does this silly fear serve?

I am afraid of T-Rex and velociraptors.  I have had nightmares about a T-Rex for as long as I can remember...probably back to my Krofft Superstar days and Land of the Lost...yeah go back in your Way Back Machine for that one.  Will I ever face a real T-Rex?  Golly, I hope not, but really yeah that would be a resounding "no."  Yet I get that feeling in the pit of my stomach every time I see one.  Go figure.

So fears can be totally irrational and you would think I could desensitize myself from them if they are truly illusions but that isn't the case.  Instead, I face them head-on and still get the heebie-jeebies every time.  But that is the trick; face them and embrace them but don't let them stop you from something you really want to do.

Truth is I am always afraid of doing something wrong or saying something wrong and sometimes it just overwhelms me into an abyss of doubt, and doubt can eat away at your soul.  I need to work through it the way I face cranes, T-Rex and heights.  I need to see it for what it is, an illusion.

The thing about illusions is they are as real as you perceive them to be.  You can allow them power or banish their power.  You can be in control of them or let them control you.

Is this easy?  No, yes, sometimes...maybe.

I guess in many ways fear is like happiness...maybe the flip side of the coin if you will.  Happiness is not tangible it is an illusion as well.  It is a choice we make for one reason or another.  It is the squee that comes out of nowhere when we see something that induces a happy reaction.

This is another row and it makes me happy.  It may or may not make you feel happy.  But it fills me with colorful...frog singing rainbow happiness.  And this bubbly feeling of good will that shimmers through me is just as uncontrollable as the fear that shivers through me.  It is just as much an illusion and feels just as real.

So what is the point of today's post.  This was a week of facing some dark fears and I learned a few things. While fear is an illusion, it feels real.  And to deny that reality is to deny whatever the fear is trying to show you; so embrace it and walk through it and keep on going.  If you can only go so far; know that you accomplished something and don't beat yourself up about it.

If you can't find your happy place because your fears are too strong then you have to make one.  While this may seem hard when you are in your fearful state; remember fears and happiness are all illusions. Sometimes the only way to be happy is to fake it until it happens.  Maybe keep a mantra of happy things that make you smile, Google happy pictures, read happy stories and try to embrace moments of happiness.

This world is full of beautiful things you just have to find yours as I keep searching for mine. Happiness builds on itself and is easy to share with others.

Where ever you find your happy place isn't important...everyone has a different path...just be true to yours.

Hugs and happy thoughts coming your way,
Ruinwen
:)

BTW:  The texture pack I am using for the Minecraft shot is this.

A Sheep of a Different Color

Hi.  I know I missed a few weeks so I hope you had a Happy and Beautiful holiday season.  This year was different but it was nice to hang with my family.

I know you think that Minecraft swallowed me whole...and to an extent you are right.  My wonderful family let me use the world I had started and they all joined me there.  My sister gave me the gift of an account and a plush creeper and it has been so much fun to share this experience with them.

Above you will see my pen of absolute cuteness.  These are my colored sheep.  When you harvest their wool it retains its color...so crafters...this is the ultimate dream.  Every color...snip...block o'wool. Somewhere in our landscape, I am going to make a huge blanket one day.  :)

One of my friends gave me the Hue Shift Afghan and I gave my sister one as well...so we are working it block by block. A block is all I can manage these days. My eye has been so light sensitive after the PVD. It is like a knife in my eye socket. Everything is a bit harder to do.

I want to knit this blanket.  I want to see the colors merge and change.  So, I will take my time and just do what I can with no worries or negative inner voices.  As you can see I did manage to craft a row of squares.  I really am loving this yummy yarn.

A little snicker is in my head as I realize I could recreate this blanket with my color fantastic sheep in Minecraft.  :)  BTW Minecraft with its even level of light doesn't hurt my eyes.  They don't blur out the way they are doing now as I type this on this bright white background. Minecraft has actually been my saving grace because I can feel productive and part of something.

In the real world, I feel challenged all the time.  Even with my knitting which I know like the back of my hand, I keep asking myself if I am doing it right.  I feel like I'm floundering with every stitch.  The zen feeling is hard to maintain.

I find it easier to let my muscle memory take over and trust in my inner spirit which is connected to my ancestors, guides and teachers.  My hands have made hundreds of thousands of stitches and they remember. Just like I can close my eyes and type and the words appear without me having to see them.

I feel that there are many lessons to this new condition of mine that I need to step outside of my box to really "see".

The truth is that I am blessed in so many ways.  We all have challenges that we face each and every day; the trick is to continue to enjoy each and every day despite these challenges...at least in that, I can truly say I excel.

Simple things have always made me smile.  Hugs...cuddling...purring cats...rainbows...soft fuzzy things...the sound of rain and thunder...the ocean...butterfly kisses...shiny things...static under the covers...flowers...changing leaves...the smell of rosemary or thyme...good energy...happy people...these are just a few of my favorite things.  Even the list has me smiling.

Hugs and happy crafting,
Ruinwen
:)

Minecraft

This house has been a Minecraft family for as long as I can remember.  Years ago our nephew came to visit and showed everyone this new game and it was love at first sight for everyone...but me.

Sure I was awed by the scenery and amazed by the things my family built but I had resisted the urge because I knew I would like it...probably too much.

Those of you who know me, know I love to game to the point of obsession.  I've never ignored my family or missed a day of work or something like that...but I throw myself into my games and learn all there is to know.  I don't just play; I research and take notes and immerse myself totally into whatever world I happen to be in at the time.

Minecraft is more than just a game; it is an experience and you can choose to play it any way you like. During Thanksgiving, everyone was on our family server while I was Skyrimmin'.  And that was great, everyone was having a super time and I made headway on my Alteration magic...but listening to them talk about their experience and all got to me this time.  Which considering this is what happens whenever our family gets together...was strange.

So on Monday I got on the 360 and decided to see for myself how Minecraft and I got along.  My sister was right, I was better at it then I thought.  The tutorial world makes it easier I guess since you have the ruins of a place to stay and food and all.

Yep...just looking.  That is my story.  So, thinking that I have absorbed a huge amount of knowledge I did the online demo.  You have 5 Minecraft days to see what you think.  At the end of the five days, I had a little house, a bed, an oven, sugarcane, pumpkins, wheat and I had just found some iron.  I killed two zombies and learned firsthand about a lot of things that I had heard them talking about but never seen for myself.

What are the top 10 things I learned from this adventure?

1.  I think I'm in love with Minecraft; it has something for everyone and the biomes are amazing.

I've seen my sister's breathtaking houses and been awed, I've watched my son create parkour courses that really impressed me, I've seen my Father-In-Law make a really complicated obsidian generator, I've watched my hubby create these amazing and complex farms and basically seen over the years all the different things people like to do in Minecraft.  But nothing quite prepared me for being walled in a box with a window with the sun going down and no bed to make the bad things go away.  I could see a spider and a zombie in the distance and I huddled in a corner until day broke again and prayed. There was much rejoicing when dawn arrived and I was still alive!

2.  Baby animals are so cute and you can create babies through a fence.

3.  Mooshrooms are even more adorable; I want to live on a mooshroom island and live off of mushroom soup.

The seed lost (all lowercase) will give you an awesome mooshroom island with tons of mountains running with awe-inspiring caves, waterfalls and pools of lava.  I can't play there yet but hubby let me see it last night and the biomes were breathtaking.  There was an entire world of mooshroom too!

4.  Mining is really exciting; finding that first coal vein was really a happy moment.  I'm ready to dig deep now and follow my sister's shaft digging protocol.  I think I'm going to pack up my bed, crafting table and oven and live in a cave for a while in my demo game.  It has become a race to see how much I can do in 5 days.  In a cave, I won't have to sleep so I can dig...dig...dig.

5.  You never hear a creeper.  My wheat garden was blown to smithereens before I even knew what had happened.

6.  I love growing crops.  It is like Farmville without the need to send stuff all day.

7.  Birch trees are beautiful as are all the other trees, but birch trees are my favorite

8.  There is an ocelot in the jungle biome and I want to tame him and have a house cat

9.  Since I am terrible at directions I have made huge dirt pillars by important landmarks so I can find them quickly.  Next one will have a torch on top.  These pillars have saved me so many times when I lost my bearings.

10.  If you don't have a roof, spiders can get in your house.  If you leave your door open...who knows who you may find.  Some days it will be a cow...some days a zombie.  It is better to have a small house that can just fit a bed so you can have a roof; then to go without.  A crafting table can be built into the walls of your home as well.

I finished Holda and she is lovely.   I just need to steam her and then take a pic and I will have a new pattern to put up.

Happy crafting,
Ruinwen
:)

Iris

So this week I had something really scary happen.  I had a Posterior Vitreous Detachment in my eye. Suddenly there is a little gal that looks like a black iridescent worm dancing around my vision. The above picture was the closest I could come to what she looks like.  Mine looks more like a circle that has a bulbous head (probably where it was attached to my retina before it came loose) that is an opaque black color.

Mom had all kinds of eye troubles so I headed into the ophthalmologist right away.  After a long look into my eye with bright lights, the Doc determined that it is just a floater and no harm to the retina was done.

Praise the Goddess!  I can deal with this little gal floating around my vision if nothing else is wrong. Sure if I focus on the little worm then I can get quite agitated and having my vision blur out is a learning curve but they are both things I can deal with.

I told the Doctor that as long as I just have the floaters and flashers then I will give her a name and make her my best friend because we will be together for a long time.  I decided to call her Iris.  Yes, there is a bit of a pun in that name; but laughter is good for the soul.  Iris is also the Goddess of rainbows and I love rainbows and colors and such; so I think it is a fitting name.

I've read a lot about people getting quite anxious about having floaters as they are always in your face.  I was worried about it being worse then it was, but I don't feel anxious anymore.  I keep brushing away bugs that aren't there out of reflex and I find that when I write a curly little a seems to pop up and that is a little weird but my brain will adapt.

Bifocals were hard in the beginning but now I don't notice that line where it seemed like the world was bubbling up at all.  This too will become a part of me and then I won't notice it so much either.

Of course, the minute I got back from the eye doctor with my eyes all dilated I tried knitting a row. When I look at my knitting the floater hangs out on the right side of my eye and I barely notice it at all.  What a blessing!

This week in the US we count our blessings.  We take a moment to look deeply into our lives and see those things that we are so thankful for that maybe we take for granted the rest of the year.

The simple truth of the matter is that I am blessed.  I have an awesome family, wonderful friends, a job that I love and a career that brings me joy.

This is the first Thanksgiving without Mom and Dad and though we will always miss them; they will always be a part of us.  I am so thankful for the time with them, for the memories that will always be mine to treasure and proud that the Universe chose me to be one of their daughters.

As we spend our first year without our little Widdershins the same feelings lie in my heart.  I miss her but I have such wonderful memories of how she took care of my hubby and our family.  I know she asked the Universe to bring us Frost and he has brought mirth into our home.  He is truly a treasure. And my love-muffin Shadow has become his best friend.

So many blessings...I choose to focus on them instead of some of the little things that are out of place at the moment.  Every day you make a choice how to live, how to face the world...and I choose happiness over any worry or stress.  I choose to embrace my family and friends.  If I need help I will ask and not take the entire world on my shoulders.  I have unpacked my metaphorical knapsack that I carry that was filled with worry and strife and I have worked really hard to let each negative idea go that serves no purpose in my life.  For the things that remain that I still need to work on, I am thankful that I am learning and growing and striving to become closer to my soul's ideal.

Bright Blessings to all,
Ruinwen
:)

Holda

"When flowing water ... meets with obstacles on its path, a blockage in its journey, it pauses. It increases in volume and strength, filling up in front of the obstacle and eventually spilling past it....

"Do not turn and run, for there is nowhere worthwhile for you to go. Do not attempt to push ahead into the danger ... emulate the example of the water: Pause and build up your strength until the obstacle no longer represents a blockage."

-- from the ‘I Ching,’presented in

‘To Build the Life You Want, Create the

Work You Love: The Spiritual Dimension

of Entrepreneuring’ by Marsha Sinetar

Last week I was supposed to teach a class on Frederick, but a mix-up in the picture for my class led to an unanticipated adventure.  

It was the day before my class and I needed to have a pattern that 1) would work with any yarn, 2) was in the round and 3) was linen stitch.

At first, I was totally freaked out because I hate to be unprepared.  But then I took a breath and listened to what the students wanted and started to come up with ideas.

My son had been doing math problems that week to figure out specific things and I asked him to come up with a formula to figure out how many stitches needed to be cast on for each person. That proved to be an easy task for him and soon I had a formula that would allow anyone to be able to use this pattern with any weight yarn.  Check number 1 off my list.

That night I took off going to meet-up because I needed the time to write a pattern up.  I realize that I could have just slapped something together, but that isn't me. 

So I added a join I liked for the cable cast-on and the bind-off I liked from my other linen stitch pattern and put it all together and 2 and 3 were checked off my list as well.

I gave the pattern the name Holda honoring the Germanic Goddess of weaving.  I was printing up copies at 9 pm and felt pretty good about the whole experience.

I'm glad I didn't just freak out.  The Universe gave me a chance to see what my students wanted and I was able to deliver and that means a lot to me.

The class went well and my students were awesome and very understanding.  Some had to change their color choices since this pattern wouldn't allow switching between yarns that well. One of my students decided to spit-join the yarns as she goes for a beautiful effect.  

Each student's color choices were so lovely; I can't wait to see the finished products.

I need to finish one of these myself so I can have a cover shot and then I will put it up for you all on Ravelry.  :)

ETA.  I had the pleasure of meeting up with two of my students on Friday night.  I believe my class does not end with the close of the day; I feel that I should be available during their journey through my pattern.  I realize that not all teachers feel this way and this is my personal choice.

I really enjoyed chatting and getting to know these two wonderful ladies.  We had a really nice night and I look forward to seeing them again in the future.   Times like these let me know that I am on my true path.  I didn't realize that one could practice healing through a craft like knitting. Isn't the Universe amazing to prove me wrong and allow me to combine the two things that give me such joy?

If you live in the US, have a safe and Happy Thanksgiving,

Ruinwen

:)

P.S.  The Yarn is Maple Creek Farm and one of my favorites.  I have only been able to find it at Sheep and Wool so I have no link for you; sorry!  The pillow is also one of my favorites and it is in the 20's today and Eddard Stark's words seem very appropriate from Game of Thrones.  :)

A Day With Mom

Monday was Veteran's Day here in the US and it is the only holiday I get by myself.  I really had some good intentions when I started the day.  I put in a load of laundry and filed some papers.  I knit for four hours before I realized that fighting the kitten over my needles was a losing battle that I just didn't want to fight.

And then I just decided to chill.  I didn't need to be productive because I had a day off.  I had been productive and gotten a bunch of little things done and it was time for me to just enjoy the day.

I put on SALT because I love action/suspense movies like that; something I may have gotten from Mom. She would have really liked SALT.  The woman was kick-ass and not to spoil anything for someone who hasn't seen it but there is quite a bit of intrigue as you try to figure out just whose side she is on.

Mom was always watching movies.  She taught us to look behind the words and see the meanings. Being so smart she picked up on tells in an actor's behavior and things that didn't fit in the background.

Which is why I then watched The Tourist.  It was like Mom was sitting across from me and filling in little details about Venice as we watched.  Italy was one of her most favorite places in the world; she went there when she was younger and it really touched her soul.  Once, we planned a trip there for a school project. We had every day planned out with all the places she wanted to return to and share with me.  I had hoped one day to take her on that trip, but I never had the money and then arthritis made it harder and harder for her to travel.

I must admit I talked to her during the whole movie about how beautiful the marble walls were or the splendor of azure waters.  I talked to her about tells and plots and for the span of the movie she was there with me...more so than most times.

It was a really nice day and I was glad Mom could be there to share it with me.

Hugs!

Ruinwen

:)

Just Breathe

I've been having this feeling that something is missing for a while now.  It took me a while to realize that the something that is missing is not a hole to be filled or something I need to fix.  There is space now where before I was doing things for my parents; which wasn't a chore but it was a constant part of my life.  Just like having another family live with us was a mixed blessing, but now that they have found a home of their own...everything is different.  To lose two such big influences on my life in one year has changed everything for me and my family.

This is what it feels like to have less stress.   I can come home and relax and do things and still be able to wash a load of clothes or dishes or make dinner and not feel hurried.  There are breaths of space between everything that wasn't possible for me before no matter how hard I tried to carve the way for them.   This is new and it feels unnatural for me, but this is how my life is supposed to flow.

Space is a good thing.  It allows air and possibility to exist.  In lace, it helps to show how beautiful everything is with some distance between the stitches.  I am starting to be able to focus on individual moments again because of the light between them.  Simple things really have started to shine for me again.

I got that old rush I used to get when I did ritual this Sunday.  It had slowly been coming back to me these last few months.  Ritual for me has always been such an important aspect of my faith.  I married a man who believes as I do and loves to raise some good energy.

In the old days, I had a circle and we would feast and do ritual every holiday without fail.  I missed that.  I missed the simple act of sitting around a fire and the house smelling of a roast sprinkled with magic because for a while it was just something we couldn't do due to circumstances that were beyond our control.

But now...I feel like a kid again and it is like coming home to a part of myself that I really missed. My son suggested we re-bless our Nightmare Prevention Bags that we made in '08.  There was a really bad year where he would recite the words every night before bed.  I can't tell you how many bad dreams I pushed away with my little bag.  It was time.

So one of the things I really like to do is write spells, prayers, blessings...really anything spiritual. Back in the days of my Wicca 101 classes; the thing that stuck with me was the whole rhymes have power thing.  I like the challenge of making it rhyme.  It puts a little of myself into it and my time and energy which in my opinion, both add some good energy.

Here are the words since they blurred in the photo:

Little bag full of herbs and things that scare
Make a hedge boundary that reads beware
No evil can reach me when I sleep
No negativity into my dreams may creep
Herbs of protection circle thrice
May your scent good dreams entice
I welcome in good beings to watch over me as I rest
As I fall asleep I know that I am very blessed.
So mote it be.

I also like correspondences.  So for the NPB I got some punches and made little cats, bats, spiders and maple leaves to add the power of the season to the mix.  The herbs I chose for the NPB were: coriander, cumin, cinnamon, dill, salt and frankincense.  Almost everything I do has some herbs blended in.

My son helped mix everything and punch out bats, cats, spiders and leaves.  We had fun and it didn't take really long to prepare everything.  We got some cat whiskers (they had fallen off over the years and we save every one of them) for a blessing from our four-footed friends.

I mulled some cider with cinnamon, cloves, allspice and ginger.  A roast was crocking as we were working and the two smells were just divine.

My husband and I cleared off the pad in the back and it didn't seem like work.  This song was starting in my heart and I could feel it running through my veins and filling me with this incredible joy.

The whole ritual was simple but the energy of family and community and connection were so strong that I can still feel the effects.  I feel like a battery recharged.  It is like the lapse of the past had never been.

In knitting news I have been working on my friend's projects.  She wasn't sure where she left off in the pattern and I picked it up after a long Friday at work and I really should have known better to just rush into something.  But alas, that is where my tale begins.  It was a moebius and I judged wrong where she was in the Fibonacci sequence and I was five rows off.

Now, I pride myself on helping people and she had entrusted me to finish these projects correctly so I had two options; rip or fix each stitch.  Really the time expended would be the same so I began to drop five rows down on each of the stitches and ladder them back up again.  All told in the end I fixed 1,360 stitches. But the Fibonacci is back on track and now I don't have to reknit those rows.

This is such a lovely yarn to work with.  It allows me to move all the stitches around and then just snaps back into place.  The colors are beautiful and soothing too.  I will have to ask my friend what it is.

Happy Crafting,
Ruinwen
:)

BTW: No Nauga's were harmed in the making of this post.  :)

Starburst

So here it is; the starburst pattern.  I love it!  The blue, green and pink all glow which always makes me smile.  It really didn't take too long to make.

I improved a bit on how the band works that you make after you make the bracelet.  Normally you just do a single chain to extend the band, but I put the two loops back on the loom and made a fish-tail pattern.  I really like it better for looks and durability.  Those long chains quickly can get overstretched.  This is a nice fix for that.

Anyway, the trees sure are pretty here.  It definitively looks like fall now.  I am reminded that Yule is around the corner and I'm banishing that thought for now and trying to enjoy the now.

This is New Year for me and every year I make resolutions, if you will, that help to nurture my body,  mind and spirit.  I have been so lax lately...at least it seems so to me.  But I still manage to do what needs to be done which begs to differ that maybe my view of "what I should be doing" should be reviewed.

I think my resolutions should look something like this:

Air - Stop being so hard on myself - no one can do everything - be content with what I do achieve

Fire - Get moving - I don't have to do something formal every day as long as I do something

Water - Stop apologizing for doing things that I love - if I enjoy it then there should be no guilt in that

Earth - To continue to be thankful for all the blessings I have, the people I know and the creatures I share my life with

Spirit - Take 5 minutes each day for spirit by myself without a phone, TV or anything else distracting and take one night a week for spirit at least

I feel so blah right now.  The weather is changing.  We just had a raging storm and it rained through most of Halloween.  We made it out for about an hour before it got too bad and my son had a good time.  Now the sun is out and it is almost balmy; that really messes with my head.

So before I complain too much - I hope you had a blessed and magical Halloween / Samhain.

I'm helping a friend out who is unable to knit so I will be working on her projects for a while.  I'll show you when I figure out where she left off.

Happy crafting,
Ruinwen
:)

And Now for Something Completely Different

As an Aries, I am easily distracted by new and shiny things.  I've been looking at those Rainbow Loom band bracelets for a while now.  I thought they would be fun to make for our booth and apparently my son was thinking the same thing.  So we ordered the loom and bands and got to work.

You have to pay attention to what you are doing to make sure all your loops are secure is, of course, the first rule that I learned.   The second thing I learned is these bracelets are fun and easy to make if you are patient and I'm kinda addicted.

Being around Halloween they had a lot of glow-in-the-dark colors so I'm a happy camper.  There is something that always makes me smile when I see something glow.

When I first saw them I fell in love with the Starburst pattern.  I have wanted one of these for a while now. When my son and I watched the video it didn't seem to hard even though it was marked advanced.  But we had a good teacher.  I like Ashley's videos because she clearly shows how to layout the bands and she is really easy to follow.  Hopefully, I will have one of these to show you next week.

I'm looking forward to conquering new patterns with my son; it is nice to have a project that we can share together.  He is looking forward to making bracelets for his friends with his mad new skills.  It is a win/win deal.

The only thing bad about this hobby is the bands are little and we have a little white terror who wants to save us from the evil snapping rubber bands.  I ordered a case for the bands but it is running a little late so my son volunteered one of his Lego sorting boxes and it is perfect to keep the bands away from Frost.

Frost is an amazing kitten.  He has been pushing his limits a little more each day by jumping, climbing and winning every game of Cat Fishing.  Yes, my little kitten loves to play on the iPad.  He is ferocious as he hunts down the fish and he has learned to restart the game as well.  I think hubby found him eyeing Candy Crush the other day.  Frost really gives credence to the dog that ordered stuff on amazon; so we are watching his computer time closely.  lol

Frost hates napkins.  They are evil and he hunts them down and rips them to shreds.  You will hear this growl and suddenly Frost will appear with a napkin trailing behind him.  I keep taking them away and he keeps finding new ones.  I gave him a white towel that he couldn't rend and he seems happy to hunt that as well.

Shadow seems to be adjusting and they have started to play now and then which makes me really happy.

No knitting has taken place at home due to the fact that needles move and it is hard to make stitches with a kitten lunging at you every few stitches, but that is okay.  I knit Friday night at our meet-up and it was refreshing and nice to pick up my project again.

While I have not been knitting much; I have been working on a gift design for my secret Yule person.  I'm having a lot of fun with it and I think it will be a cool thing to knit.  But that is really all I can say right now.  I hope to be able to give you a peek later.

I also jotted down an idea for a Widdershins memorial pattern.  I always liked the way her contrasting fur made her beauty shine and I want to design something to highlight those aspects.

Lots of ideas gelling in my head.  Hopefully this weekend I will get some time to chart them out a bit. Maybe I can sneak in some swatching while Frost is sleeping?

Happy crafting,
Ruinwen
:)

Love is Infinite You Can Always Make More

"Love doesn't end with death."
a blurb taken from my Hospice newsletter

It has taken months for my mind to really believe this.  A loss of someone important in your life is devastating.  In the first few months after they pass you feel a hole that can't be filled.  And hopefully, other things slowly close that hole up a bit as time goes on.  You may not think of them as often and when you do it might be because of good memories that make you smile.  You will always miss them but the underlying truth is, "love doesn't end with death."

The moments you shared with your loved one are yours.  Your love for them is eternal.  Death does not change that.  When I hear a bird call that I know, I smile and remember Dad teaching me how to "talk" to them at the cabin.  When I watched Lethal Weapon this weekend, Mom was right there enjoying every minute with me.  I find myself still looking under blankets for Widdershins since she loved to hide under them. These are all precious memories that are dear to me and allow my loved ones to still be with me.

Do I still have moments of tears and sadness that bubble up from within me and rent me in two?  Yes, of course.  But the good memories and the love that I have for them outweigh the sadness more often than not.

Do you believe in Fate or Karma?  Widdershins loved my husband with her every breath.  I believe that she reached into the soul of the Universe and made a wish that her "person" would find someone new to take care of him.  She knew her passing would be so hard but she also knew that it was her time to go.

The day she passed there was a kitten that had been brought in that morning.  His Mom had been hit by a car and he was all alone.  He was sweet and white and tiny as kittens are.  But my husband couldn't even think of another cat, especially when he was losing his beloved little Widdershins.  He told me later that he had to take a peek through before he left the Doctor's Office to see who was mewing back there.

A week later I came to get Widdershins' memorial box and the Doctor put the little white kitten in my arms. It is hard to know what to do.  It is easy to say that one isn't ready for a new kitten so soon, but it is almost impossible not to fall in love with a sweet little face and big blue eyes.

So I went home and talked it over with the family and the next day everyone went to hold the little white fluff ball.  And he has enchanted us all.  So, please welcome the newest member of our family who has yet to be named but has already won our hearts.

Happy crafting,
Ruinwen
:)

Moving Forward

"Learning to be aware of feelings, how they arise and how to use them creatively so they guide us to happiness, is an essential lifetime skill."

-- Joan Borysenko

I've been feeling out of sorts as of late so my sister suggested turning back to something that I had put on the back burner; Linemen.

Usually, when I create a new pattern there is a meaning to why and who it is being made to honor. This time it is my family members who are part of the phone company. I have always seen them as helpers to Hermes the God of Communications. Communication is so essential in any relationship. We take the ability to press a button and hear someone's voice for granted since it is something that we do every day but the minute we can't...we notice.

My Grandpa, Pop Pop and my BIL all work(ed) for the phone company and kept (keep) communication flowing. I wanted to design something to honor them.

I usually turn to KnitPicks when I am designing; they have a beautiful choice of yarns and colors that really hold true to gauge. Their Swish is soft and vibrant with 220 yards to play with.

I haven't worked a lot with cables but now I feel my understanding of how they work is much broader. I took a cable I liked that had four legs and charted where each of the legs was going with different colors and then I took out the 4th leg and cleaned up the chart so the cable was balanced. I worked a few swatches and I'm pretty happy with the result.

When I dreamed about this cable originally, it had different colors. So I have been playing around with intarsia cables. After looking at the cable in a few different places, I think I really like the colored one to be the one in the middle. As you can see from the swatch the middle cable is the one that touches each of the others. I like that. I think this would look really neat with any combo that someone desires. I'm going to make a black and red one, a blue and white one and then one to keep for the shop in purple and green which have nothing to do with the phone company but I really like them.

This scarf could be used for teams or other things that have two colors like Hogwarts' Houses. I really like it.

Of course, the whole thing is starting to curl and that is an issue that I hope (pray) will block out.

I bought a book that was filled with things I could only hope to knit in 1996. It was my one day I hope to be good enough to make this book. I bought the book because of this sweater.  It is the Cromarty by Alice Starmore.  She is a goddess of cables and all things knitting.

I really think I could make this now.  I have come such a long way since the 90s.  lol  :)

Cables are very daunting when you look at some of them; all those legs can be very intimidating.  But if you break each cable down and treat each leg one at a time, they become so much easier to manage.


Linemen is just three cables but I really learned so much from cleaning up my cable legs.

Say you have this pattern:
Row 1: P6, K2, P6
Row 2: K6, P2, K6

The middle two stitches are your cable.  If you want to move those two stitches to the right it would look like this:

Row 3: P5, T3B, P6
Row 4:  K7, P2, K5

(Twist 3 Back- slip the next stitch onto a cable needle and hold at the back of your work, knit the next two stitches from the left-hand needle, then purl the stitch from the cable needle)

The (b) back or (f) front instruction tells you where you will be holding your cable needle.  The number tells you how many stitches are in the cable.

This cable moved the stitch over to the right by one stitch. It takes the purl stitch on the right and swaps it with the two knit stitches of your work.

If you want to move those two stitches back to the left again, it would look like this.

Row 5:  P5, T3F, P6
Row 6:  K6, P2, K6

(Twist 3 Front- slip the next two stitches onto a cable needle and hold it at the front of your work, purl the next stitch off of your left-hand needle, and then knit the next two stitches from the cable needle)

This cable moved the stitch over to the left by one stitch.  It takes the purl stitch on the left and swaps it with the two knit stitches on your cable.

If you wanted to take two cables and cross them you could do this:

Row 1:  P4, K4, P4
Row 2:  K4, P4, K4
Row 3:  P4, C4F, P4
Row 4:  K4, P4, K4

(Cable 4 front - slip the next two stitches onto a cable needle and hold them in the front of your work, knit the next two stitches off of your left-hand needle, and then knit the two stitches from the cable needle)  In this cable the right-hand cable leg goes over the left-hand cable leg.

A C4B, where the two cable stitches are held in the back, would do the opposite and the left-hand cable leg would go over the right-hand cable leg.

You can use these three cables to do this:













(the example is worked over 16 stitches, all of the abbreviations are listed above)

Row 1: P6, K4, P6
Row 2: K6, P4, K6
Row 3: P6, K4, P6
Row 4: K6, P4, K6
Row 5: P6, C4F, P6
Row 6: K6, P4, K6
Row 7: P5, T3B, T3F, P5
Row 8: K5, P2, K2, P2, K5
Row 9: P4, T3B, P2, T3F, P4
Row 10: K4, P2, K4, P2, K4
Row 11: P4, T3F, P2, T3B, P4
Row 12: K5, P2, K2, P2, K5
Row 13: P5, T3F, T3B, P5
Row 14: K6, P4, K6
Row 15: P6, C4F, P6
Row 16: K6, P4, K6
Row 17: P6, K4, P6
Row 18: K6, P4, K6

And there is a simple little pattern you can use to embellish hats and such.

Happy crafting,
Ruinwen
:)

Green Scales Feel Like Rain :(

Our sweet little girl is journeying the Rainbow Bridge.  She is free of pain and running and causing havoc on the other side.  I'm sure she is happy to see her brother Obsidian too.

Widdershins, who was named after the way she chased her tail counter-clockwise, was our little huntress. When she was a kitten she would zoom around the house, climb the curtains and pounce on unsuspecting feet.  She would position a toy mouse just so and then proceed to stalk and hunt it.  She loved curling up on her Daddy's lap, keyboard or anything that was between her and him.

I loved her tuxedo markings; little white paws and the white on her ruff and face.  She had the most beautiful expressive green eyes that could really look into your soul.

She loved to sleep with me and would pin me to the bed even though she was a tiny little thing.  She started doing it more after Dad died; I think she didn't want me to feel alone.

She always faced adversity with tenacity and determination.  Her arthritis made it hard to walk but did that stop her?  Nope, if she wanted something she would go after it with all her heart.  There is a lesson in that for all of us I think.

Farewell, our little Widdershins; you blessed our lives in so many ways.  We will miss our beautiful little girl. Thank you for taking such good care of Daddy and sharing your life with us.

We will always love you!