This is “Unsinkable” a collaboration between Kirsten Kapur of Through the Loops and Anne Podlesak of Wooly Wonka Fibers. See the link to Kirsten’s blog for more photos of the pattern. The yarn, hand dyed by Anne, is Arianrhod Sock which is a blend of merino, silk, and sparkle. The subtle color shades in it are just beautiful. I can hardly wait to see how it knits up.

There are some interesting comments on Ravelry about sizing this shrug. Kristi Schueler, the designer, says she intended for the shrug to be closer fitting than shown in Jane Austen Knits. She recommends using your underbust measurement instead of your bust measurement. I have such big shoulders I was a little afraid to do that so I started with my actual measurement and will have to see how it goes.

Last weekend I took it up a notch and parked the trailer in the cul-de-sac. It’s a whole 1000 feet from the barn which is nothing for us, but it’s a whole new environment to a horse. Once again I tied them on opposite sides of the trailer. This time though, I groomed them and we went for a very short ride, like 20 minutes. The wind was blowing that day so it wasn’t helping AT ALL with their ability to stand still and be non-spooky. We rode back to the trailer, untacked, and loaded them up. This time I shut the doors and hauled them a whole 1200 feet back to the house. When they finished munching on hay I unloaded them and put everything away.

This weekend I’m continuing the confidence building sessions. The cool thing is it helps me too – I have to hitch the trailer, work with both horses in/around it, and then back it into it’s parking spot. Today we practiced in the driveway and went for a ride again.

Afterwards I spent a couple hours scrubbing the trailer clean. I have more to do, but at least the green mold is gone and some of the adhesive that was left over from removing the pin stripes. It’s going to take a few more scrubbing sessions to finish up the adhesive removal process. I’m not really looking forward to it – one session was hard enough on my hands due to the chemicals. I guess I should find some better gloves, some that don’t disintegrate.

Love these socks. They knit up so quickly as the pattern repeat flies by. The color in my photos is not very true to life – see Anne’s pictures on Ravelry, they are much prettier and accurate on my monitor.

Pattern: Falconer Socks by Anne Podlesak
Yarn: Wooly Wonka Fibers Brigit Sock in colorway Falcon Wings (435 yards).
Needles: US 1.5 (2.5 mm) and US 2 (2.75) circulars
Notes: I test knit the small/medium size for Anne; they will be gifted as I definitely cannot wear a small/medium. Because of my freakish row guage (seriously, I can knit sock yarn really tight): 326 yards used, 74 grams.

One tip: it may be helpful to go up a needle size for the round before the cabled round and the cabled round itself, at least for the pattern repeats on the leg of the sock. This is what I did to maintain the stretchability for pulling the sock over one’s heel. Other than the cable round the sock has plenty of stretch in it.

Blondie also had a tooth extracted. She had an upper molar that has been loose since her last float. It was time for it to come out. It’s HUGE. The vet says she will probably lose the molars on either side of it too which makes me sad. She will be 21 this year or is it 22? Horses can be fed a mash that doesn’t have to be chewed if they lose too many teeth.

Sedated and in the process of having her teeth smoothed out:

All done, but still a bit sedated. Maybe a bit traumatized. For the next couple of days she took a pretty good look before coming into her stall where we did the procedure.

Top two teeth are molar caps (baby teeth) that were loose enough that the vet took them out. They would have fallen out on their own very soon. Bottom two teeth are both wolf teeth, wildly different in size. These were extracted because they can interfere with the bit.

Blondie’s molar:

It’s been a few days now and both girls are still extra tired, especially Blondie. I’ve been taking them for short walks, but other than that I’m letting them rest and recover.

This morning:

This series is from Wednesday afternoon. We had 5 inches of snow when I got home from work, it was probably 6 inches before it starting melting down.

The horses look so thrilled to have snow again. *sigh*

Huge pile of snow off the barn roof.

Zi: watcha doing momma?

Packing down snow on the barn driveway. The vet came on Thursday morning and I wanted to be sure he could get in and out. More on that later.

(Photos are a bit small this time around. They are linked through to my Flickr account though so you can click on them to see the larger version.)

Pattern: Roses of Avon Shawl by Anne Podlesak
Yarn: Wooly Wonka Fibers Brigit Lace in colorways Petals (875 yards) and Rosehips (437 yards).
Needles: US 3 (3.25 mm) circulars
Notes: This is such a beautiful shawl for Spring and Summer. I couldn’t believe my luck at how perfectly it complements this skirt that I already had in my wardrobe too.

Let’s talk about the shawl details – it’s knit top down and the pattern is all charted out. The only tricky part is the last 2 charts are patterned on both right and wrong side rows. The bind off is really stretchy. Usually I am careful to keep my bind off a tiny bit loose, with this bind off that wasn’t necessary at all.

My shawl blocked to 73 inches wide by 37 inches tall. I used 65 grams/569 yards of Petals and 32 grams/280 yards of Rosehips.

I can hardly wait to wear it! First though, I’d like the snow to melt off the ground and the weather to be a little bit warmer.

Pattern: Kelmscott, Mystery Sock 2012 by Kirsten Kapur of Through The Loops
Yarn: Opal Uni-solid 4 ply, 325 yards used
Needles: 2.5 mm and 2.25 mm Addi Turbo Circular
Notes: Another great mystery sock pattern from Kirsten. This pattern really knits up quickly because you’re always looking for the next row on the chart. A minor note on fit: I went down a needle size for the heel flap. I could have gone down a needle size for the inch right above the heel flap too, I think that would help prevent the sock from getting baggy here.

The last mystery socks I knit are here.

As far as test knits go, one will be revealed within the next week (it’s in the spoiler thread on Ravelry now) and the other not for another month.

We had 2 weekends with gloriously warm weather for February and another weekend that was clear and cold. On the nice weekend days I ride Blondie and pony Zi around the neighborhood. I really need to get photos – there are kids, kids on bikes, kids toys, barking dogs, and scary propane trucks. Going on trails is going to be easy compared to this!

Now we’re experiencing what is hopefully the last snowfall of the season. Last night at 9 pm we had 6 inches. That melted down a bit overnight and it was warm enough for the snow to fall off the trees. Now it’s been snowing steadily since 6:30 am so the trees are white again and where the snow was sliding off the barn roof has all filled in again.

Finally, we are looking for another property. It’s a slow process – there simply aren’t that many properties on the market that meet our criteria If already developed it must have a covered arena in good condition and a tear down house, at least 10 acres. If raw land then we want a minimum of 20 acres.

I’ll just show you one pair since the other is a gift for later this year. These are Kirsten Kapur’s 2012 Mystery Sock. Such a fun pattern! The yarn is the hard-wearing, washable Opal 4-ply.