Feeling Blessed

 

still playing with color and texture

This is one, two and three-color linen stitch.  You can create such lovely combinations with three colors.  This pic shows the lovely bumpy reverse side of the linen stitch modeled by the spice color.

The nice thing is the pattern never changes only the order of the colors do.

Abbreviations

sl - slip the stitch purlwise

wyib - with yarn in back

wyif - with yarn in front

One Color

All stitches with A:

Row 1:  sl1 wyib, *K1, sl1 wyif* repeat * to last stitch, K1

Row 2:  sl1 wyif, P1, sl1 wyib* repeat * to last stitch, P1

Repeat these two rows until you have the length you desire

Two Color

Row 1:  sl1 wyib, *K1, sl1 wyif* repeat * to last stitch, K1

Row 2:  sl1 wyif, P1, sl1 wyib* repeat * to last stitch, P1

You will knit two rows with each color

Knit Row 1 and 2 in color A

Knit Row 1 and 2 in color B

Repeat these four rows until you have the length you desire

Three Color

Please see last week's post since it is a bit more involved with color changes and such.

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I threw my back out last week brushing my teeth, which, IMHO should not be possible.  But the boys rallied and helped me do everything and I am so grateful to them for all the help.  😀

Then we lost power from 4 am until noon followed by loss of water from noon until 9 pm.  

I am so thankful to everyone that helped us get our electricity and water back.  They worked tirelessly throughout the day to get us up and running again.  

I am so blessed to have these essential utilities that I all too often take for granted.

This is the time of the year for me to start refocusing on how truly prosperous my life is so these "utility disasters" really got me reframing how I look at my personal world.

Someone asked what our focus word for 2022 will be and for me, the New Year begins on Nov 1st so I thought on this a bit.  Thriving.  I want to create a sustainable lifestyle that flows into all aspects of my life.

I already have many aspects of a thriving lifestyle like a great support system and close connections with friends and family, living my life authentically, and an attitude of gratitude.

But there are some areas of the thriving lifestyle that I need to work on:

• I want to get better at taking care of myself.  Self-care is a big topic this year.  My stance is that you have to take care of yourself or you cannot be there to take care of anyone else.
• I want to develop more positive ways to deal with stressful situations.  If I can let go of past fears and ideas around things then I can learn to work outside of the box and come up with new solutions to old problems.
• I want to be an empowering force of good in my own life.  If I could believe in myself the way others do then I would be an unstoppable creative force.
• I want to be better with change.  I am a planner and I have everything all worked out for each day and activity.  Sometimes nothing goes as planned and I get flustered.  A sustainable lifestyle is like a willow tree, you bend, but you don't break in a strong wind.  It is like the lotus flower that is deeply rooted in the muck but blooms vibrantly above the water.
• I want to change my inner response to resonate with a positive voice.  Many times I defeat myself before I get started and it is during these times when I need to ask: why not?  If not now, when?  Who do I need permission from?  What am I waiting for?  

I know it is early, but do you have a one-word goal to guide you through the New Year?

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

Ruinwen

😀

Color and Texture

 

these stitches look like little jewels

I love linen stitch, I think I may have mentioned that before. 😏

Linen stitch is smooth and resembles a woven fabric on the RS and then the WS side is full of small bumps.  Both are delightful in their own way.

For instance, if you were making a cotton washcloth, this would be an excellent stitch since the smooth side would feel amazing on your skin and the bumpy side would be great for exfoliating.

This stitch pattern uses three colors to create a reversible vibrant landscape of color and texture.  I added a one-stitch slipped selvage border on the edge to tie it all together.

It seems difficult, but it is really very easy to achieve this fabric.

You will need three yarns of the same weight and a needle that is the size recommended on the ball band.

Abbreviations

wyib - with yarn in back

wyif - with yarn in front

RS - right side of work

sl - slip the yarn purlwise

WS - wrong side of work

Pattern

Cast on in multiples of 2 +2 in color A

You will add in color B on Row 2 and color C on Row 3 and then they will just fall into place for the rest of the pattern.  

Always bring the old color around to the back before starting to knit or purl with the new one to keep a neat edge.

Row 1 (RS) in color A: sl1 wyib, *K1, sl1 wyif* repeat to ** to last stitch, K1

Row 2 (WS) in color B: sl1 wyif, *P1, sl1 wyib* repeat ** to last stitch, P1

Row 3 in color C: sl1 wyib, *K1, sl1 wyif* repeat to ** to last stitch, K1

Row 4 in color A:  sl1 wyif, *P1, sl1 wyib* repeat ** to last stitch, P1

Row 5 in color B:  sl1 wyib, *K1, sl1 wyif* repeat to ** to last stitch, K1

Row 6 in color C:  sl1 wyif, *P1, sl1 wyib* repeat ** to last stitch, P1

Keep repeating these six rows until you have the length you desire.

If you have any questions about this tutorial, please leave a message in the comments and I will happily answer you.

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In other news, I organized my needles and my WIPS (work in progress).  I feel super accomplished this week.

How do you organize your needles or 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.

Ruinwen

😀

Fixing A Little Oopsie

This week I got to go back in time a bit to a moment when a friend gave me knitting to fix.  It was in a huge heart blanket that I designed for her, and she had forgotten a YO in one of the hearts at their base.

This was in December of 2010 and I was pretty good at fixing things but this was something I had never attempted.  I was able to do it though and that changed everything for me.

Fast forward to last week and my friend is making that heart blanket again with a new and improved design and she forgot a YO.

This time, I knew what to do and I was able to do it quickly and she said you couldn't even tell where it was fixed!  Yay experience!  

YO is missing from Row 3

This little sample is missing a YO just like the blanket was.  It is easy enough to rip this back but in a blanket of over 250 stitches you don't want to necessarily do that if you don't have to.

This sample is 6 rows.  If you would like to practice this technique then here is my sample info.

CO 11 stitches

Row 1:  K4, YO, SSK, K5

Row 2:  K2, P7, K2

Row 3:  K3, K2tog, YO, K1, (this is where your YO should be, but we are skipping it), SSK, K3

Row 4:  K2, P6, K2

Row 5:  K2, K2tog, YO, K3, YO, SSK, K1

Row 6:  K1, P7, K2

If I had been counting then I would have seen that this section was only 10 stitches instead of 11.  Also, the fact that there were not enough stitches on the edge for my 2 stitch garter border would have been a clue that something was wrong as well.

But say, that this happened while I was binge-watching something that I probably should not have tried to knit during since my eyes were on the screen, or maybe the doorbell rang and when I came back I missed that YO.  Hey, it happens all the time and it is fine.  😀

So let's fix this.  

Tools I use:

• crochet hook
• locking stitch markers
• double-pointed needles

Normally you would have a bunch of other stitches on the needle and you would slide the stitches to where you need to be and then move that section to double-pointed needles.  But with a sample, you just put a locking stitch marker through the first two stitches and the last stitch on the needle to keep the working yarn from unraveling as you are ripping back.

Now you will slowly take out row by row until you get to Row 3.  Gently remove the working strands from each of the stitches as they present themselves.  You will have to turn the SSK stitches around since they will have left facing front legs and you want right facing front legs.

using a system to keep track of your strands can save a lot of hassle

You will also have to manage your strands.  You can do this with any method you like, colored stitch markers or little pieces of yarn.  If this was on a huge needle, I just lay them in order on the right-hand needle, but we can't do that here.

The last picture shows the strands all ripped back and identified to the row that we are fixing.  My thumb is where the YO should be created.

using the strand for that row, I have reknit the row

Here we can see that I have reknit Row 3, from right to left with the strand for that row and now that row is fixed.  Using a strand to knit with can get challenging towards the end so you might need a crochet hook to work the last stitch.

For Row 4 knit all stitches right to left with that row's strand.

Work pattern Row 5 with that row's strand.

Finally, work Row 6 knitting all stitches right to left with that row's strand.

the pattern is fixed

Ta da!  The pattern is fixed the YO is where it should be and the stitch count is back to 11.

Things to consider when fixing an area of lace like this:

• Be patient
• Use as many tools as you need
• Keep your strands organized
• The final result might need a little zhushing or adjusting to make it uniform

You got this! 🤗❤️

If you would like me to make a video of this process, please drop me a comment below.

all my spices have a place now

In other news, I organized my spice cabinet and everything is now super easy to find.  Yay me!

If you have any questions or comments about this or any of my other tutorials please leave a comment and I will be happy to get back to you.

Do you have a favorite spice?  Mine is smokey paprika.

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.

When Life Gives you Pluots...

 

my rainbow/chakra/pride feather and fan banket 

I finished a big project this week and I had to share it with you all.  My rainbow/chakra/pride/feather and fan rainbow made of bright and happy colors blanket is finally done.  It took 5 skeins of Red Heart Super Saver Stripes in the Favorite Stripe colorway.

I adore this blanket so much.  It is so bright and cheery; I can wrap myself in it to help me absorb colors while meditating.  

So that means a new project can be started now that one of my old ones has been completed.

I was going to show you something else but if I want to get this out today it will have to wait until next week.  You see I ordered 3 pluots from our CSA and I got 3 dozen.  We barely had room in the fridge for so many little apricot/plum hybrids.  

tartlet of pluots

I didn't know what to do so I made little tarts.

You basically take your pastry dough and add a little vanilla, cinnamon, and maple syrup for sweetness and then add the filling and pile any leftover dough on top.

I could have rolled out the dough and encased them but I wanted to leave room for a lot of pluots so I just piled the little pan till it was full.

I used a glaze/drizzle of balsamic vinegar, maple syrup, and cinnamon and it was really good.

So when life gives you pluots, make some little tangy tarts.  🤗

Have you made anything new 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:

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.

It's Starting to Feel Like Fall

I spent most of today in the kitchen but I am taking a moment to get this post out to you. 

We were running low on Rosemary Gladstar's Fire Cider so I made some more.  The Tumeric always dyes everything no matter what I do but at least it was super fresh.  I need to clean the rest of it and freeze it still.

My son wanted some pumpkin bread, it is the season after all for one of my favorite fruits.  We found a gluten / dairy-free brand that we really enjoy so we are trying their pumpkin bread.  We have liked Simple Mills pancake mix, pizza dough, and crackers, so I am sure this will be no different.

Then, I whipped up some pumpkin bread at the request of my son.  Finally, I spent 5 hours roasting cherry tomatoes.

tomatoes slow roasting

My friend introduced me to these "candy" tomatoes, and I just love them.  You can make a batch and freeze them, or you can eat them like candy.  I have put them on pasta and thrown them on my salad.

They are really easy to make.  

Ingredients

4 cups cherry tomatoes, cleaned, stems removed

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon Italian herbs of your choice (my friend uses oregano, I use a mix)

my friend adds in a 1/2 teaspoon of sugar but I found that I liked the savory herbed flavors better and I omitted it.

I have also made this with some garlic cloves cut in half and slow roasted along with the tomatoes when I used it for pasta.

Recipe

Heat oven to 225 degrees while prepping the tomatoes.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Parchment paper is heat-proof, moisture-resistant, and non-stick.

Cut cherry tomatoes in half.

Place the cherry tomatoes in a bowl, toss with the olive oil.  Add the salt and herbs.  If you are using the sugar add that now as well.  Carefully toss to coat the tomatoes with the herb mixture.

Spread the tomatoes on your prepared baking pan in a single layer and then place them in the oven.

Every half an hour turn them so they roast evenly and jiggle them a bit to ensure they aren't sticking to the pan.

Roast for about five hours or until they shrivel and are partly dried.

Let them cool.  You can keep the tomatoes in the fridge for three days or freeze them for up to three months.  Another option is to store them in olive oil in the fridge.  The oil will solidify but you can just heat it up and throw it over pasta and it will be fabulous!

I love this Halloween themed knit

This is me trying to be ahead of the game this year for Halloween.

Here is a design by the fabulous Knitspot called Boing!  Isn't that a fun name?

I'm making this scarf with Knitpicks Felici in the Spooky color-way which, isn't available anymore.  I know, I know, every time I make something it seems to be gone from the shelves but that is the curse of having a huge stash I suppose.  Sorry.

I have about two feet done.  I am really enjoying the curves as the lace forms, it is a really fun knit.  😍

Are you making anything special for All Hallows Eve?

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.

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

😀

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

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.

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:

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.