Late January

Rode Pro in a "ride-a-test". You ride in an informal competition, get judged, then work with the judge to fine-tune/clean up problem areas. Sometimes you then go ride the test a second time, but we didn't. We had a horrible school on Saturday, so I was not very enthused and almost bugged out, but we wound up having a really fun ride Sunday and learned a few nice nuggets - pretty cool for a 30 minute ride. Here he is on the lawn after his post-ride roll in the dirt!

Shad's leg is still slowly slowly healing. I said I wouldn't post any more pics, but I fibbed! Here he is, 26 days post injury. Still very nasty looking, but granulation tissue is filling in. He is still on very limited turnout so that he doesn't break it open more and on antibiotics.

On the knitting front, bad news first :( I dropped another stitch on the Baltic Sea Stole and I am gonna have to tink back and fix it - the other error I just fudged and basically tied into place, but this one breaks the flow for sure. I guess I could leave it there and call it a big rock on the beach! LOL

Made nice progress on my sweater for the Red Sweater KAL. It's the "white gansey" from Beth Brown-Reinsel's book. I am doing it in sport weight from Lisa Souza, color garnet. I think it's gonna look fabbo.

Started some socks for Hub, but no pics - it's just the toe.

Peg's vest is on hold for a bit, I think I am going to change lanes in how I do the stripes, so have to think that through a bit.

I have been trying to teach myself continental knitting and am improving a lot on the knitting part. Haven't quite scoped out the purl part yet, so will have to do that next.

Productive week on both riding and knitting fronts!

Pro

FORCED myself to ride while I could even though it was cold cold cold. With snow forecast, (and it's snowing now), I wanted to get a ride in. And I weenied out yesterday with all the wind.

Anyway - here's the old man. Not bad for 24!

Knitting update - Jan 20

Ascot scarf finished. It turned out great! Made from 5 skeins of E. Lavold Silky Cashmere. It's warm and snuggly and oh so soft!

The entrelac scarf & hat set are also complete and boy I am glad to be done with that Angora! Never again! LOL I think I used 3 skeins each of the green and the yellow. It did come out very cute. The hat works like a little beret, but I poofed it out for the photo, so that you could see the entrelac. The change out of the entrelac back to straight knitting was a bit rough, but it's well disguised by the fuzzy yarn.





Both of the above were self designed.






The Baltic Sea Stole dropped stitch has been rescued and I have gone back to work on it. Now at 20 inches. Boy this is gonna take forever!




Started Peg's vest, but the picture turned out horrible, so will post on that later. I have about 1/2 of the right back done.

Hank's socks will go on the needles soon and then will be working these three for a while.

So for January so far, three FO's of approx 1100 yards , and about 500 total sq inches of knitting. Not so shabby!

This is a painting of Shadow that a friend did. The frame shop has this nifty tool to show how the final frame job will look.

It's a distressed wood frame with touches of gold, green suede textured mat with a distressed wood/gold filet and a pale green undermat. Very classy looking.

The software washes out the image quite a bit, it more than holds its own against the framing.

Shad's leg is still pretty ooky, but slowly slowly mending.

Is it spring?

Gorgeous, foggy morning today. Took some farm pics, but couldn't post them - gotta check my firewall settings.

Shad is improving. I will spare you all any more ooky leg shots!

Made good progress on the silk/cashmere ascot scarf. With any luck will finish up tonight.

The entrelac scarf is done and the hat is about half-way done. Since I am making it up as I go along, keep your fingers crossed that it turns out okay!

Did nothing on the Baltic Sea Stole - cogitating on how to fix the dropped stitch.

Once I wrap up the ascot, will put a vest for a friend on the needles. Some gorgeous worsted weight wool from MDS&W - black, shot with purples, teals, forest greens - very yummy. Swatched it earlier this year - it would be a good thing if I can remember what size needles I used!

Then when I wrap up the entrelac ensemble, will start some socks for hub.

And I need to start something for the Red Sweater KAL...

Shadow Update + farm pic

It's a bit of gray morning, rain coming in later today, but still beautiful IMO.










Shad's leg is not improving. Vet will be here in an hour or so.

January Update

Just catching up. To start with, morning on the farm...












Then on to knitting projects -


1. Baltic Sea Stole. This is a belated B-day present for my sister. It's in laceweight silk and is quite a project. It's at 17" now and I am hoping to get at least 48" out of the yarn I have. I just found a dropped stitch and am not quite sure what I am going to do to fix it.












2) Entrelac Scarf. I finished the scarf after I took this pic - at 48" for a short friend LOL. I had asked her if she wanted a long scarf or a short scarf and a hat and she picked the second option, so now I am working on an entrelac hat in the round - making it up as I go. Kinda "interesting"!









3) This will be an interlaced ascot type scarf for my neice. It's in Lavold Silky Cashmere and is TOTALLY yummy. I am using the Twin Rib stitch and will split the scarf into 5 sections and interlace them ala Teva Durham's laced scarves, but this will be a shorter scarf. If it doesn't work, I will just make an ascot type slide.















And on the horse front, Shadow sliced his leg open. It's totally a mess, he's on stall rest and antibiotics - ooky picture follows...

Man - I have been busy!!!

I have been too busy to blog!

Lotsa knitting. A fair amount of riding. Lots of socializing!

Will try to update with current project pics this weekend.

In the meantime - here's the farm in the morning mist.