Hiya!

Hope all is well and happy in your realm Fae-folk and Creatives!  If you’re feeling down, that things will turn around soon.

It’s been a messy Fall and a mid-January kind of December.  One of those, I blinked and it’s almost gone kind of times.  On the cusp of new ideas and new promise with the coming year.  The coming decade!  I feel like we’re facing some immense change in the years to come but still hold on to that primitive human urge to just pick berries, make simple and practical things.  To stop looking down and look up, up, up at the night sky.  At the tree tops and notice all of the life that we share this earth with.  Embrace that we are all entwined in the dance of  life.

Lately I have been preparing for Christmas, getting our house figured out (this is constant), designing various patterns to release to you, reading, splitting wood, hiking in the cold.  Today, I finally pulled together the pattern for these B L A C K B E R R Y folk mittens!  Yay!  They are a very simple mitten pattern, meant to introduce beginners to working with fairisle and to promote confidence working with 2 colours.  🙂  Knit on 3.75 mm DPN and local 2 ply worsted wool (I used Briggs and Little Heritage but can easily be substituted for any similar weight wool).

Named after one of my favourite plants on the planet – blackberries.  Every August, I start regularly watching the progress of different blackberry plants.  We have them along the farm fields, on the Confederation trail, and along the forest roads in my most frequented hiking/running spot on the island.  Some years, the plants rest and don’t produce berries, while other years, you could pick cups and cups and still leave enough for the whole forest and any other eager berry picker :D.

Currently, our freezer is full of mason jars filled with blackberries that I collected this summer.  I haven’t found that afternoon yet to boil them down but will hopefully before the new year reaches us.  The plants themselves are beautiful with arching (prickly ow) vines and lush green ovate leaves.  The berry is the deepest purple.   The small fairisle pattern that I designed for these particular mittens only hints at a connection between the rich and healthful berries.  Can you spot the similarity?

 

The pattern is available in our Ways of Wood Folk Etsy shop!  It comes in 3 sizes: S/ M/ L.  The M/L pair are great for layering over a thing pair of gloves.  I also made a listing for all 3 of my current patterns that are up!  I love creating patterns 🙂

Currently I’m working on getting the Pangur Ban sweater ready for purchase.  I have a rust completed and am currently making a large size as well.  My aim at this point will be the end of January for release of the pattern.  Once this pattern is complete, it will be much quicker and easier for me to get out Olwyn and Woodland, both of which I intend to release in the winter of 2020.  It’s amazing to me that I designed these now 4-5 years ago!  I really go at a snail’s pace but that is okay 🙂  I still receive requests for patterns I designed ages ago so will really be working hard so that if I decide to go into a different realm than knitting – at least others can knit the designs and they won’t be lost to eternity (at least for  a wee bit)!