Set up your two pots between gnd and the 5V power rail. Take the wipers of the two pots into two pins of the uC that are configured as analog inputs. Use the ADC fuuction in the uC to convert the variable voltages into numbers, X and Y. Use those numbers as counter trip points.
Counter one will be blink rate. 1/2 second on, 1/2 second off, or whatever you need.
Counter two is how many blinks. This is set by X
Counter three is the 'no blink' period. This is set by Y
You can get rid of the pots if you can define X and Y as constants that are fixed at programming time. They can be changed by reflashing the chip many times.
For writing code, I use Microchips MPLAB. It also has a software simulator for testing code before loading it into hardware.
Microchips PICkit programmers are probably the easiest to use, as they integrate into MPLAB.
**broken link removed**
For more on Microcontroller programming in general, dig through this sub forum.
https://www.electro-tech-online.com/forums/microcontrollers/