Explaining the Nomad Part of The Knitting Equestrian Nomad
Youtube link: The Knitting Equestrian Nomad, Season 1 Episode 5: The Nomad Part of my Handle
It’s spring and still rainy, although yesterday was a beautiful sunny day. I picked up hay for my horses, mowed the lawn, gardened, and planted 14 raspberry canes that a friend gave to me. I’m sure the newly planted raspberries appreciate the rain.
Welcome everyone! If you’re returning, welcome back! For new viewers, this podcast is primarily about my knitting projects, and my horsemanship journey with my two horses, Odin and Bragi the Mustangs, mustangs I adopted from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) wild horse adoption program. I’ll talk about them in more detail later in the episode.
First I’ll talk about knitting, which includes old finished projects, recently finished projects, and what’s on the needles now.
I’m wearing a project I finished I finished a few years ago. It’s a scarf made from 2 skeins of sock yarn, the red was a solid color skein and the other skein is either variegated or self-striping, I can’t remember which. The pattern is very easy. Basically you cast on as many stitches as you’d like the width of the scarf then the pattern is a simple repeat of knit 5, K2TOG, knit 5, M1, repeat. Knit two rows with the same color then use the next color until the scarf is as long as you like or you’re out of yarn.
This week I finished the pair of socks I was making from Patons Kroy yarn. If I make this pattern again, a free pattern from yarnspirations, I would knit the cuff, heels, and toe in a contrasting color.
On my needles are the raglan sweater I’m making from an acrylic wool blend DK cake yarn by Lion. I only have 3 more rows in the yoke! Also, yesterday I cast on a pair of mittens then had to recast them on because I kept getting the main color and the contrasting color mixed up. So I decided to cast them on so that those two colors made more sense in the chart.
I’m also trying to teach myself brioche so I checked out a book from the library called Brioche Knitting for Beginners and Beyond by Leslie Ann Robinson. I still needed help and found a YouTube Brioche Knitting for Beginners – Single Color Brioche Stitch by BHooked that was actually more helpful than any of the other brioche how-to videos I found.
I’m still working on the Arne and Carlos #springalong blanket but didn’t make any progress this week as I was working on the socks. The Ghost Horses sweater by Caitlin Hunter is still resting so I may not bring that up again for a while.
Recent life events:
- We returned from vacation and have been back at work for a week. I miss vacation but who doesn’t?! I hope to include a little more video at the end of this episode. We’ll see if I can make that happen.
- I’ve got sourdough bread going in the kitchen. I’ve used the same recipe for several years. It’s an easy mix together flour, water, starter, and salt then fold it every 30 minutes for a few hours. The 30-minute rest periods are important to develop the gluten I think. The bread turns out delicious as long as the starter is lively.
- This week I’ve focused my cooking efforts on things that need to be eaten before they go bad. I made a chocolate pound cake out of homemade butter that was nearing the end of its life as butter. I made a pear sauce out of an overripe pear that goes well on the pound cake. I made soup from radish greens and plan to make pesto from carrot top leaves. I’ll let you know how that turns out. It’s safe to say that I don’t like to see anything go to waste.
- Gardening — my little porch tomato, an orange hat plant, is doing well and I transplanted a couple tomatoes I got from the feed store to be its near neighbors. I hope they’re all happy together. I haven’t harvested anything yet from the garden but I think the greens and radishes might be ready this week. Some asparagus has come up from the crowns I planted a few weeks ago and there are a lot of strawberries that will be ready in a few weeks. Rhubarb should be ready this week.
The nomad part of my handle — I’ve loved horses since I was a little girl and often my school friendships were based on horses, which isn’t as bad as it sounds. I had one wonderful friend from 3rd grade who had two horses, which she was more than happy to let me ride. We didn’t understand horsemanship at all and sometimes spent hours trying to catch the horses in the pasture before we could ride. We always rode bareback and often with just a halter and lead rope or some kind of baling twine headstall. I got my first horse when I was 20. At the time I exchanged cleaning stalls for riding lessons and learned how to saddle a horse as well as the different gaits. I showed western pleasure with my Paint mare then eventually started working cattle, including roping steers with an Appaloosa gelding named Prince Pike. Eventually I sold those horses when I decided to go to college. What I remember most about that time was learning about cooperation with horses, rather tricking them so I could ride as my friend and I did as children. I’ll talk about my continued journey in horsemanship in a subsequent episode as this one is getting long.
The closing bits:
This week’s inspiration for horsemanship & knitting & gardening:
Knit all the Yarn podcastKnit All The Yarn Podcast – YouTube Lisa from Michigan describes her podcast as “her awkward little podcast”. She inspired me to do my own podcast as hers is simply recorded and posted — she does not have a highly produced podcast such as many of the other podcasts I watch.
GrowVeg Podcast GrowVeg – YouTube
Dan & Kay Jones, The Bakery Bears in Great Britain The Bakery Bears – YouTube
Where I can be found:
Facebook: The Equestrian Nomad
IG: @Cmeqnomad
Blog: equestriannomad.net
Email: theequestriannomad@gmail.com
Video tacked on end: John Day Fossil Beds, Clarno Unit