Episode: Season 1 Episode 3 The Knitting Equestrian Podcast Season 1 Episode 3
Hi, I’m Corrina and I live in western Washington state with my partner, two kitties, and two horses. I’m recording on May 15, 2022 and the weather is sporadically rainy. Spring continues to be unusually chilly.
Welcome everyone! If you’re returning, welcome back! For new listeners, my horses are Odin and Bragi the Mustangs. Odin is a gelding from the Cold Springs Herd Management Area (HMA) and Bragi is a gelding from the Warm Springs HMA. Both HMAs are located in Oregon. I adopted Odin from the Bureau of Land Management program in 2018 and Bragi in 2020. Odin is now 10 and is my riding horse, on nearby trails or we work on dressage training exercises here on the farm. Bragi is just 4 and is learning good horse citizen skills, like how to be a good patient for the veterinarian, walking with me, stop when I stop, go when I ask.
Recent life events:
- Main bathroom remodel, we have new toilets! More than one working toilet! We are back to 3 toilets for two people! The shower glass is going to take several weeks but the bathroom should be mostly functional hopefully this next week. If I didn’t mention it before, the reason for the remodel is that our shower leaked and popped up the tile over the radiant floor heating. We thought that the leak had damaged the subfloor but luckily it did not. And we get an updated bathroom!
- Gardening is slow because spring is reluctant this year. I have a few starts that are trying hard to grow but it is definitely not tomato planting weather yet.
- I took Odin for a walk on the local trails Saturday mid-morning. For now I just hand-walk him because we both need the exercise and I was going by myself. The trails are a couple miles away so I trailer him since the road between home and the trails can be quite busy. I will post some video of our walk in here somewhere.
- lesson with Bragi Saturday evening with my trainer Meghan Valenti (Valenti Horsemanship). We’re working in the round pen on basic maneuvers to prepare him for walking up to the front yard where I keep the trailer. It’s a bit of a journey between the barn and house, with a creek separating the two. The road back to the barn is good but narrow and goes over a creek. We need to work on trust and leadership and good following in order to even approach the trailer.
- The horses have been out on pasture and that makes them happy. Unfortunately it also makes Odin a little chubby so I will need to spend some time making sure he gets adequate exercise to keep him healthy.
- We are also getting ready to take a vacation in a week. We’re going to Oregon, mostly central and southeast. I worked at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge over the summer in 1994 and want to visit again. We plan to mostly camp so we need to gather our gear, make a menu, and generally get out act together. I hope to take a little video during the trip for future episodes
On to knitting:
Finished objects:
I’m wearing a sweater I finished in 2018. My partner gave me a couple skeins of this red yarn for Valentine’s day one year. He doesn’t know how much yarn it takes to make a project so I found a pattern on the Plymouth wool website and bought more skeins of the same yarn. The yarn I bought is a different dye lot but that’s very hard to tell. The pattern is by the Plymouth wool designers and is called #1574 Women’s Jacket (Search Patterns | Plymouth Yarn Design Studio – Knitting Patterns for Everyone). This was one of the first cabled projects I’ve knitted.
I also have a hat that I finished this morning. This is the second time I’ve knitted it, the first time it was too small so I ripped it out. The yarn is acrylic yarn I used in a sleeveless top for my sister a few years ago. She’s allergic to wool. The pattern is by Mina Philip of The Knitting Expat. Her pattern is for a cowl but I thought I would turn it into a hat instead. This was going to be another gift knit but the hat is a little snug. I have a small head so if it feels snug on me, it’s definitely going to feel snug on someone else.
My goal this year is to use as much stash yarn as possible so hopefully I won’t have too many new acquisitions but generally I can’t help myself if there’s a good deal or I’m sure I “need” more yarn. The caveat is that I get to buy yarn when I’m on vacation so I may find yarn stores during our trip to Oregon.
My project bags aren’t anything special, except for the two that were sewn for me by my mom and a friend. Otherwise, they are canvas bags or even plastic bags — whatever bags I have!
On the needles:
This is a raglan sweater out of DK Wool-Ease yarn, which is 80% acrylic, 20% wool. I bought the yarn online for another project and found out it wouldn’t work so I’m using a choose-your-own-adventure pattern from Knitting Fool (www.knittingfool.com), which is actually a nifty tool to help you figure out how many stitches to cast on based on your knitting gauge, yarn weight, and needle size.
Also on the needles is my Ghost Horses (Caitlan Hunter) project, that I need to rip out to the point where I divided for sleeves and add more to the yoke. This should be fairly simple but I have other projects I’m enjoying knitting.
The Arne & Carlos #Springalong knitted blanket squares. I have one square, the Faroe, finished, and the Dove on the needles..
I’m still working on socks by yarnspiration for Paton Kroy yarn; initially I used too small needles so I’m knitting the second sock with 2.75 mm needles and see if I like it better than the sock I started with 2.5 mm needles.
This week’s inspiration for horsemanship & knitting:
Karen Rohlf, Horse Training in Harmony (Dressage Naturally with Karen Rohlf – Learn to Move in Harmony)
Glenn the Geek, Horse Radio Network (many shows can be found here: Horse Radio Network | The Voice of the Horse World)
Marie & Michael, northeast US (Woolen Forest Knits – YouTube)
Tracy & Jodi, Edmonton Alberta (Grocery Girls Knit – YouTube)
Arne & Carlos, Norway (ARNE & CARLOS – Designers, textile artists and authors (arnecarlos.com)
Where I can be found:
Facebook: The Equestrian Nomad
IG: @Cmeqnomad
Blog: equestriannomad.net, which is where my show notes can be found