Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Pie, Ponies and Pattern Perusal

Did you have a good Labor Day? My aunt and uncle were here over the weekend so we all had lots of lovely food. I absolutely love grape pie and Mom made one of those, numerous peach ones, apple and a birthday cake for my aunt. Way more food was consumed than should have been. :)

On Sunday, I rode all three of the horses I've volunteered to ride. I started with the one that is the most challenge to me, Capone. He tattles when I do anything wrong so it is making me a better rider. After working him in the ring for 1/2 hour, we went on a short trail ride. Once we got back, I got on my own horse, Java, and headed out again for the trail. I met up with some of the other horse people (that makes them sound like centaurs) from down the road and went out on a trail ride with them. It is funny that we went the same exact distance (actually a little shorter) that Greta and I usually do but it took so much longer because we walked the entire way. I ended up being on a horse from 9 am to 1 pm with only a 30 min break to hose one horse, catch the other one, and saddle him. Then, in the afternoon, I went to ride Brandy, the third horse. She is a fat little 20+ yr-old mare who still has lots of spirit. We wandered all over her owners' property until it was starting to get dark. She and I came face-to-face with 10 deer and she never even flicked an ear. If it was Java, we would have started running and not stopped until we reached the barn. By the end of the day, I could hardly move but it was even worse the next day! I ended up only riding Java on Monday even though I had the day off. He was the only one I could trust not to take advantage of my stiff state. I'm hoping to go ride Brandy tonight after work.

This working till 7 pm three nights a week and having class the other night is already getting old and I've only done it 1 week! It makes riding and getting to the yarn shop difficult. Hey, I have my priorities. ;)

Speaking of yarn shops reminds me of knitting. I've reached the doldrums of my lace project. The pattern is still nice, I love the yarn's colors and the beads are still crack but it is taking me 20-30 minutes to do one row. That makes for very slow progress. Also, because the pattern is the same, no one else can see what progress I do make. It just looks the same to them. At least I've reached the halfway point of the third and final chart repeat. It will be very nice to bind off and block this one.

I've already started thinking of other projects to do. It probably is time to get back to socks. They've been neglected for far too long. The Monkey socks by Cookie A. sound like a good project. A ton of people in the blog world have been making them recently. The Jitterbug I picked up in London might look nice but I'm worried there might not be enough yardage.

I'm also thinking of starting some sort of cardigan or sweater thing. I haven't made a sweater in a very long time. Maybe over a year or two? Ravelry is a bad influence because I've been looking at things in other people's queues and then adding those projects to my own. Interweave Knits doesn't help either. Did you see the Tangled Yoke Cardigan? Sigh Of course, any of these big non-sock projects will require yarn purchases. Why does it always work that way?

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