Adulting

tree branch downed in a storm from our maple

I spent the last few weeks doing things that needed to be done or as I call it, adulting.  We had a big storm and lost a huge branch off of our tree.  Our gutters got cleaned, which is fantastic since a tree had started growing in them. 

I needed to call AAA to get a new car battery.  The car is running great now and it is so nice to have her back.  We had some mice that needed to be relocated.  Kitsune was a big help with that.

Then we had our stay-cay and we alternated cleaning up areas of the house with fun activities and yummy food.  I am happy to say that we actually achieved quite a bit of organizing and the feng shui of the house feels calmer.

finished shawl in cotton

I abandoned my other kitting to help a friend make a prayer shawl for her friend.  This pattern, Falling Leaves by Carol Rasmussen Noble is from Lavish Lace and I just love the ease of it.

Now that it is done I need to regroup and figure out where I was and where I want to be with my knitting.

I have quite a lot of things that are on the needles that I probably should focus on first.

Oh, I made a thing that was really yummy and I wished I had taken a picture but here is my Spanish Rice and Chicken recipe.

Ingredients

1 cup of rice

2 cups of chicken stock

1 cup tomato sauce

1 1/2 tsps chili powder

1 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp oregano

1 pound chicken (can be cut up or with bones) (chicken with bones takes about 35 minutes to cook)

Recipe

Rinse rice, start the water boiling for rice, follow directions on the packaging for water and cooking times, 

When boiling, add rice, cover, and cook

If chicken is boneless cut it up into 1-inch cubes

Drizzle a little olive oil in a frying pan and cook the chicken until it is browned on all sides and cooked through

When rice is done, set aside off of the burner without opening the lid

Heat two cups of chicken broth and add to skillet

Add tomato sauce and all spices and mix well coating all the chicken

Let simmer for 20-30 minutes turning the chicken every 5 minutes or so

The liquid will render down and get a bit thicker

Add in the rice and coat with the sauce, serve immediately

Enjoy!

This smells amazing when it is cooking.  I just love using spices in my food.

Happy crafting!

Ruinwen

😀

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Safe socially-distanced hugs  🤗

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Sending love and light to everyone being affected by this virus.  

May you be safe.  

May your loved ones be safe.  

🙏

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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

😀

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

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:

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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

😀

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

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:

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Asian

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Coming out

Anything.

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

I Finished Something!

 

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

I love the mix of blues and whites in my clapotis

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

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

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

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

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

Happy crafting!

Ruinwen

😀

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

Safe socially-distanced hugs  🤗

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

Sending love and light to everyone being affected by this virus.  

May you be safe.  

May your loved ones be safe.  

🙏

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

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

🙏🙏💖💖🙏🙏

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

Vixenpath is a safe space.

If you are:

LGBTQ+

Black

Brown

Asian

Any race

Coming out

Anything.

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

I Never Have the Right Needles 🙃

I took a week off for Solstice to recharge and renew and now I am back and full of love and light and I can hold space again for everyone and everything.

I finished my goal of catching up on the clapotis and was able to knit with my friend and that was really something. We might actually be done by next week!

beautiful Knitpicks, Swish soft squishy yarn

This week I have been putting my energy towards making some PRIDE gloves for a dear girl that I have watched grow into an amazing woman.

Everything was going well until I found out that I didn't actually own any size 6 dpns.  I still can't believe this is possible!  But it was and I ordered them from Knitty Gritty Shop because we are Instagram followers of each other.

They saved me.  I ordered size 6, 7 and 8 Lykke dpns.  I have never used Lykke before and I am super pleasantly surprised.  They are smooth and feel great in my hands.  I just love these needles!  Thank you Knitty Gritty Shop for being there for me!

So, fast forward and I am here.

progress shot of glove

I want to be happy with these gloves, but the pattern is not fitting, well, like a glove if you know what I mean.

I think I need to rip back to the cuff and then continue in ribbing so that the fit will work regardless of the hand that goes in it.

I don't understand the purl line.  I think it would feel weird, ya know?  I want to get rid of that as well.

The fingers are formed straight and then seamed which I spent a lot of time trying to get as perfect as I could.  I would much rather knit them in the round and not have a seam at all.

So the question is dear readers, do I design my own gloves or look for a pattern that I can tweak a bit as a starting point?

I thought about it and found a wonderful top-down pattern by  Pamela Grossman, with ingenious construction and I am going to try it.  The only issue is it calls for dpn size 4s...here we go again.  lol

I did a swatch for the large size in the size 3 needles I do have and it came out to the medium size so I think that I am ready to go.

Excuse me as I rip out everything...

While I am doing that I was part of a conversation the other day about when do you get good enough to never have to rip, swatch, count, use lifelines, and other knitting processes.  My answer was simple, "never."

Doing these things has nothing to do with your skills or understanding of knitting, we do these things because we have been in a place where a lifeline made all the difference in not having to start from scratch, or counting lets us know right away when we miss a YO on a row.  Swatching may be the most annoying thing in existence, but IMHO will save you hours of work every single time you do it.

This is why I am ripping now instead of waiting until I finish to see if I like it.  I know right now I don't, so I am taking action now before I get any further and I am happy with my decision to do so.

Unfortunately, after getting my second dose of the vaccine I had a fever and my hands felt funny so I couldn't knit.

just a little heart swatch to make sure everything works right

Then my friend wanted to make a design I made for her like 10 years ago.  It needed updating and tweaking and I have learned so much about symmetry and design since then so I added all that in.

Just a peek right now, when she finishes the blanket in a few months I will show you as it is blocking per usual.  

five fingers with little cowls lol

With that done and dusted I got back to the gloves.  As you can see, the fingers are done for the first one and that is some progress which makes me happy.

What's on your needles this week?

Next week is a circle back week so I will be able to make some personal progress on my four projects.  Yay!

Happy crafting!

Ruinwen

😀

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

Safe socially-distanced hugs  🤗

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

Sending love and light to everyone being affected by this virus.  

May you be safe.  

May your loved ones be safe.  

🙏

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

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

🙏🙏💖💖🙏🙏

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

Vixenpath is a safe space.

If you are:

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Asian

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Coming out

Anything.

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

Can I Get An F in Chat?

Today's title is something you say when someone/something dies in-game and you are paying respects.  Can you please say it for my clapotis?

Everything was going so well, as you've seen in the pictures.  But you see I realized that as I knit into my new ball that it was sock weight, not DK.  It looked so thin and sparse so I ripped that back to the join which was at this point, 14 rows back, and doubled the yarn.  It just looked wrong.

I tried to just ignore it but when one section is obviously doubled yarn and the other is all smooth I just couldn't do it.  It had to go.

I even tried to rip back two repeats but the drops didn't look organic enough for me anymore and I still didn't have enough yarn.

So I ripped the whole thing out even though I was on the last repeat section, because what else can one do?

Meet my new clapotis which I cast on last Wednesday, made out of Brooks Farms, Duet, a sport-weight kid mohair, and wool blend.  I got this at MD S&W many, many years ago.  It is soft and I think it is perfect for this project.

I'm not upset.  These things happen.  I tried my best to make it work and now I have just let it go.  I am happy with my new yarn that is very soft and nice to work with and I know this project will fly off my fingers and I will be back to where I left off in no time.

What project could you not save and had to rip?  In the end, how did you feel about your decision?

Happy crafting!

Ruinwen

😀

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

Safe socially-distanced hugs  🤗

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

Sending love and light to everyone being affected by this virus.  

May you be safe.  

May your loved ones be safe.  

🙏

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

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

🙏🙏💖💖🙏🙏

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

Vixenpath is a safe space.

If you are:

LGBTQ+

Black

Brown

Asian

Any race

Coming out

Anything.

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

A Little Personal Progress

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

So there is that.

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

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

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

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

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

If you need them, use them. 

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

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

Happy crafting!

Ruinwen

😀

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

Safe socially-distanced hugs  🤗

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

Sending love and light to everyone being affected by this virus.  

May you be safe.  

May your loved ones be safe.  

🙏

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

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

🙏🙏💖💖🙏🙏

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

Vixenpath is a safe space.

If you are:

LGBTQ+

Black

Brown

Asian

Any race

Coming out

Anything.

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