Mom's Lapghan

Up close and personal this crochet lapghan is sleek and stylish. Just perfect for a night out or an early bird dinner.

Slip Stitch Cats

Here is my first attempt at slip-stitch. I think it came out pretty good. I had promised this year I would learn some sort of stranding technique and I have! I am so excited!

I really like slip stitch technique is also called mosaic knitting which was coined by Barbara Walker in 1976.

In slip stitch, one carries only one color across a row so the piece is not as bulky as some Fair Isle but it does have a sort of texture to it where the slipped stitches are used.

My next attempt is a slip stitch hat with these cats which are from Slip-Stitch Knitting - Color Pattern The Easy Way - By Roxana Bartlett.

Happy Knitting everyone!

Ruinwen
:)

Harry Potter Personalilty Quiz

Harry Potter Personality Quiz by Pirate Monkeys Inc.

The Nature of Becoming

Have you ever worked on a piece and it just doesn’t come out right and you aren’t sure where you failed? Well, I began a simple scarf that had a diamond lace pattern in it and I frogged the whole thing six times and tinked back more times then I can remember. It really frustrated me. I had the knowledge, I understood the pattern and this wasn’t rocket science.

Then I read a post by a fellow knitter and it all made sense. This yarn was supposed to become a clapotis and here I was making it into a scarf. I think it was insulted and fought my new choice for its design. You can laugh and think I’m crazy but I’ve spoken before on the yarn teaching me and this time is no exception.

This beautiful patterned yarn wanted more then I was offering by my simple scarf. So I explained that in the months ahead my time might be limited by some of my choices and this scarf would be my Red Heart Knit project for Fall Fest. I also explained how the fringe would be beaded with Swarvoski crystals and it would sparkle in a rainbow of colors like the sun hitting new-formed ice at dawn.

Suddenly, there was no problem. The four hours I spent agonizing were erased by the ease that I now possessed. The 20 rows pinnacle that I never before reached was achieved in 22 minutes. The yarn had agreed to what it was becoming and together we are creating this scarf.

The teaching of this yarn brought me much as I reviewed the choices in my life that were ones that I had chosen because they rang true vs. the ones that to this day I struggled with. I realized that the ones that I didn’t enjoy were not harmonizing with my nature and my inner knowing self has been trying to show me that this is not me by any means necessary. But I ignored all the signs and plodded on.

In last night’s meditation, I took the strands of my life and looked at each one to see if it brought me joy and peace and if it didn’t, I no longer let it continue on in the tapestry that is my life. I thanked each strand for the good and bad and let it go. I also lovingly caressed the strands that were now shining like spun silver and invited them to grow. I watched as they filled in the spaces left by the things that I let go and I could feel my heart well up with love and happiness. I left that meditation feeling renewed and vibrant.

Today I continue to carry on that meditation by writing the letters and making the phone calls that will allow me to let go of those areas of my life that are not me. And as I settle into thoughts of the weekend I have created more room for the things that I love and that bring me pure unadulterated joy.

May you find your true joy,

Ruinwen
:)

Create a Beautiful Day :)

"Imagine a hot tub for the mind. That is what meditation is; it can bathe your mind in relaxing thoughts."

-- Eknath Easwaran

"Sometimes the most important thing in a whole day is the rest we take between two deep breaths or the turning inwards in prayer for five short minutes."

-- Etty Hillesum

There is a Buddhist practice of focusing on one body part throughout the day to bring you back to yourself. After all, we are not a mind with a body we are a body with a mind. But too often the mind runs the show and when you are always thinking it is hard to ever truly be. The monkey mind is always on churning which leaves us little time to be present in the moment.

But it is this never-resting mind that brings on stress. Stress is alleviated by the breaths in between the thoughts; the moments that we are actually showing up for our own life. I saw a car ad that stated, “I am not the sum of my errands.” But that is how we sum up our day; I went to the bank, picked up some groceries, swung by daycare, came home, cleaned the house and made dinner. This is a to-do list that doesn’t make one feel alive it makes one feel tired, stressed and ready for bed.

These things have to be done but how can we slow down the pace enough to be present while still getting the to-do list done? Have you noticed when you are rushing that it doesn’t really help? Try slowing down at the bank take time to smile at the teller and relax while they are working on your request.

At the store pick out something for yourself or smell a flower. Take a moment to focus on you and find something in the store that brings you a moment of joy. For me, that is a Mocha Light Frappuccino. I slip my coffee decadence while I shop and with each delicious drop, the stress melts away.

By the time I pick up my child, I am renewed. Since this is when my day truly begins, I need to be fresh and ready for the ball of energy that is my son. Now is our time when I get to be alone with my little boy and he tells me all the wonderful things he learned or experienced and I have found a Mother’s bliss.

When we get home the cleaning and the dinner gets done because I am blessed enough to have a house and a family and both need tending. My whole view has changed and with a little help from my son, everything is ready and on the table by the time Daddy gets home.

Did this all happen in a day? The resounding answer is, “No!” Bit by bit I told my husband I was trying something “new” and worked on changing the way I did things. When I used my mind all the time, everything seemed rushed and hurried and I was just happy for the day to be over. Now I can’t wait until my family gets home and I prolong going to bed as long as I can because I have this well of energy that fills up in me and allows me to do more by thinking less.

I guess it is like a new knitting pattern. You read the pattern and it is all mind. You work the pattern and refer back to it often but you aren’t really feeling it yet. Then you get to a moment when you know the pattern and you are knitting and confident and there is a flow, a rhythm to it all.

I’ve discovered that this flow, this feeling of serenity can be felt in everyday moments. There are things that I have done a thousand times before and yet I was putting all this thought into them. But now I enjoy the moment whether it be shopping or giving my child a bath because they are all the beautiful moments that make up my life and how I face them shapes me and who I am becoming.

Create a beautiful day!

Ruinwen
:)

The Prayer Shawl

"The successful man is the average man, focused."

-- Source Unknown

I’m sorry that it has been so long since I have written. My life seemed so unfocused there for a while…but now I feel reborn. :)

It all started with a prayer shawl request. Simple enough…But I just can’t make a prayer shawl. It needs to be full of prayers and well wishes and this cannot be accomplished without shutting myself away to work on it.

I had been trying for days to find some time alone to work on it but I wasn’t being successful. Finally, realizing that the yarn tangling and other events involving tinking were trying to tell me something…I listened.

I locked myself away and put on the I-Pod and chanted and prayed and worked. My husband tells me that I was there for two hours, yet time stood still for me.

For the first time in a long time in a week, I felt centered and totally serene. As I stitched and fringed something was being rewritten on my soul. I was changing deep inside and it felt so right.

Finally, the shawl was done and I felt as if I have woven all the peace, goodness and prayers that I could into it. But as I stepped back I realized that my inner weavings had changed too. I felt no need to do anything but watch the waves on the river. I was truly at peace.

I still carry that peace, it courses through me and wells up and over flows out of me from time to time during the day and I just have to smile. :)

Ruinwen
:)

Me at our Table

Hello everyone! We had an awesome time this weekend! The Fair was so much fun and we met some super people!

Here I am at our table which is full of my husband's beautiful chain mail bracelets!

To my right (your left) is the clapotis for Sallee's Red Heart Knit Along which I raffled off. A lovely little girl won who asked her Mommy to enter so she could have two chances! Also many people said what a great idea it was to have the info about heart disease...including an RN!

My sister joined us for both days and she got a lot of crocheting done as did I and it was so great to have her there! My husband made three bracelets over the course of the weekend! It was so relaxing to have nothing to do but sit and talk to people and craft.

My son was with us both days and he was very good for being cooped up in a 10X10 booth.

We're already looking forward to this Fall!

Ruinwen
:)

My Wares

Here are the blankets and scarves I have been working on since Feb.

Vixenpath at the Fair

Here is Vixenpath's booth at the Fair!

Rainbow Blanket

Warning: The following entries are about crochet and have no knitting content what-so-ever. Thank you for your understanding. :)

A friend of mine gave me a family blanket to fix because it had "dropped a stitch". The thing that confused me was that she said it was a crochet blanket.  Crochet does not drop stitches.

On examination I found the drop stitches to be chain ladders in between double crochets. I had never seen this pattern before and after fixing my friend's blanket, I had to try to make one of my own.

The result is this weekend's entry. I have left one drop ladder so you could see what I was talking about before I finished it into a neat braid. Also, the original pattern had tied the braid at the end but that is why it unraveled. I chose to weave the last chain through the finished braid thus holding it for all time.

I really enjoyed this blanket and I think I will make another. It crochets up very fast because of all the chains.

Thank you again for your understanding. Hopefully, my next post will be on some knitting. :)

Drop Stitch

Here is a close up of the drop stitch on the crochet blanket.

Braid Stitch

This is a close up of the braid stitch on the crochet blanket.

Side-By-Side Stitches

This shows the dropped stitches side by side with the braid stitch in my crochet blanket.

The Rhythm of the Needles

There is a time in knitting when I’ve memorized the pattern and suddenly I become one with my project. It is in that moment when my breathing slows and my heart follows the rhythm of my fingers.

It is a well-known fact that your heart will follow a sustained beat. In shamanic drumming, a beat can take you on an inner journey and reveal hidden knowledge. Rhythm is very powerful

In knitting, I find there is an underlying beat. A song forms from the sound that the needles make when they “kiss” as they create a stitch, the quiet “swoosh” of yarn as it moves from needle to needle and the unseen element of muscle memory as my hands follow the pattern’s journey. The result is a lulling quiet place where my mind starts to furiously fill the void with to-do lists and things I could be doing.

But I quiet my mind with a gentle, “Shhhh,” and ask it to enjoy the moment of serenity and it sits and waits and speaks up again and once more I gently urge it to enjoy the moment. This time and so many others it tries to break in and muddle my thoughts and I take its hand like a small child and lead it back to the place of stillness.

My mind may be stubborn but my body is more than willing as I feel my breath slow and each muscle gives up its stored stresses. Finally, my mind is quiet and I am totally serene and blissful as I sit and knit.

Soon my mind will wake up and begin again and this time I let it unload, surprised it cautiously hands me my to-do list but now it has changed. There are things that no longer need doing or the way they need doing has changed. I think secretly my mind likes our little sparring matches and is more than happy to be at peace for once in the day…but I don’t let on that I know that. :)

As much as knitting is to make beautiful projects it is also a place to come to think or to let go. Either way, take time once and a while to visit that place that comes out of the mists like Avalon when the knitter, yarn, and needles are one.

Ruinwen
:)

To Thine Own Self Be True

"Let the waters settle

you will see stars and moon

mirrored in your Being."

-- Rumi

I have nothing to show for my knitting efforts as of late since I have done nothing but frog my three attempts at lace. You see I forgot that knitting is my solace the balm that allows the stress to be erased from my being. I forgot the simple joy of creating and got caught up in the end result.

I could blame it on being an Aries because we are go-getters with no follow-through, but the cause of my forgetfulness lies not in blame but in falling back into old patterns where my needs come last.

I forgot about my needs being just as important as everyone else’s and that will not do. You see I crochet blankets (one a week) for my business and then I sell them twice a year at spring and fall festivals. I got so caught up in the joy of making my clapotis that I missed making four blankets. Now I am trying so hard to catch up that I have no time to knit. And with no time to knit, I feel the stress kicking up through my being eating away at all the good I have done. It is akin to fasting for a week and then devouring something full of grease and fat and feeling it seep into your cell walls and clog up every artery. With one bad choice, you can feel what you have done to your health.

This is what I have done to myself. Don’t get me wrong I love crocheting but I don’t do it for the same reason which is why I don’t usually mention it. It doesn’t give me the same joy that knitting does. I can’t explain it…but I find so much peace and connection in knitting and I really loved knitting clapotis. It was the finest thing that I have ever made and it taught me more than any other piece I have worked on has. I felt so in tune and serene (even when I was pulling my hair out) and my whole world seemed balanced.

But I haven’t knitted like that for a while and each time I try it is a “quickie” between an exhausting day and bed. The result is that since I have not honored my yarn and let it teach me, it creates a mess which needs to be frogged. When I was frogging for a higher purpose it didn’t bother me so, but now I am almost in tears.

So I have decided and you dear readers can be my witnesses: twice a week I will not even look at my blankets…even though I am behind…if I rush and suffer in the process then all will be for naught. So on Tuesdays and Thursdays I will give thanks, cast on and begin a new chapter in my life... Tuesdays and Thursdays will become devoted to my knitting so my life can have balance again.

When you find that one thing in your life that allows serenity to slip into your being and set your soul ablaze, hold on to it like a dear friend and cherish the gift you have been given…now I need to follow my own advice.

Ruinwen
:)

Broken Needle and Understanding Lace

Alas, my plastic needles that are older then I am broke today. The little blanket that I carry with me to knit in the car or in a line and now I have to mix needle types and hope there are no problems. *sigh*

I have begun making lace. I have frogged, tinked and otherwise started over three times but last night I think I got it!

I always have trouble with YO. Some patterns they tell you what stitch needs to contain the YO and others expect you to magically fathom what they are thinking. But after three tries I think I understand that the YO comes before the K2tog.

So when I have more than 6 rows I will post some of my lace. When I have a good enough grasp of it I will make a shawl out of actual lace weight yarn! My sister gave me some beautiful angora hand-spun yarn for my birthday and it begs to be something beautiful. Also in my stash (which is down to 201 skeins), I found six skeins of beautiful lace weight yarn that I want to make the Falling Leaves Shawl from Lavish Lace,

So, I'm slowly being enveloped by lace. It is consuming me. I love the look and once I understand the pattern, it seems to flow. I think making the clapotis helped me in that department because I learned so much that helped expand my knowledge of stitches.

A whole new world has been opened up to me and I bravely walk through the gateway.

Ruinwen
:)

The Feel of Yarn

"Too often, people focus only on results. But getting results without learning something or without having fun are incomplete. So is having fun without getting the results, or having fun without learning something new to help and empower you in the future. Accomplishment is all three: the result, personal growth and having fun."
-- Peter L. Hirsch

I was knitting away on a baby blanket today and suddenly I realized that my gaze was on the flowers coming up through the renewed earth and not on my project. Some how I had forgotten to look at my knitting and my hands knew just what to do.

I wondered if it was a fluke so I decided to “test” my new gift. Once again my hands knew how to finish the row. Suddenly it was if a whole new world had been opened up to me and the grass seemed a little greener and the world took on a brighter hue.

I’ve learned from knitting and watching movies how not really watching makes me hear things that I don’t notice when I am viewing the movie. Little sounds under the music come alive but when I try and find them again with my eyes, it is as if they have disappeared.

The same thing is happening as I knit. I suddenly “feel” the yarn. Now that I can’t see it with my eyes, my hands are seeing it as if for the first time. I can feel how it is thinner then my other yarns that I have been using as of late also it is not as soft. But it moves very well from the ball to the needles with little resistance.

I must admit I am drawn to a yarn by its color scheme. But now when I cannot see the color, I wonder if I would have picked it on feel alone. Maybe after my diet is up I will go to a yarn store and take home whatever feels good to my fingers…they deserve a treat after all.

I don’t know how much automatic knitting I’m going to do in the future but maybe once a day for five minutes I will allow my fingers the simple pleasure of sensing the yarn. Who knows what it will teach me tomorrow?

Ruinwen
:)

Yarn Diet

I have decided to follow my friend Sallee and participate in a yarn diet. You see I was blessed by two Grandma's giving me their stashes and that alone fills up 12 copy paper boxes. I also have other various sorters and a dresser filled with left over yarn from projects.

Earlier this year I gave away two copy paper boxes full to charity...but I didn't really make a dent in the stash.

So, I Ruinwen hereby solomly swear to not buy any more yarn until I have used up EVERYTHING in my 12 copy paper boxes!

I have figured a way to do this you see. I will learn Fair Isle which has been on my list of things to do and this way I can strand the colors in projects. I will also use the thinner yarns together in projects that call for two strands...but I will use up the old stash before I buy any more new yarn.

I have even put a Yarn Diet button on my blog to remind me of my promise. Speaking of buttons, I now have some thanks to my DH and my sister drew our Vixenpath logo and I turned it into a button all by my self!

May you all be my witnesses to my pledge!

Ruinwen
:)

Clappy Close Up

I was just so intrigued to see this all come together. Me and clappy have had some seriously tense moments but in the end, she came out beautifully! Here is a close up for your viewing pleasure!

The Knit Red Knit Along Clapotis is Fini!

After long last, my clapotis is done and I am so happy with it! I am going to make another in a few months with the rainbow Dreams Carron yarn in Rosy Forecast...but it will be smaller...this one is huge!

Ruinwen
:)