My Extensive Hat Collection

I have a new addition to my extensive hat collection. A lovely navy blue (never had a blue one before) velvet riding hat. I was worried that it wouldn't go with my hacking jacket but it goes very well.

One of my colleagues was selling it on the intranet at work. I'm not a complete shopaholic but I do try to grab a bargain when I can. I admit I did pay full price for my hacking jacket, but it is a particularly good quality wool one. My stock shirt was in the sale at the saddlers and I got my boots from ebay! And they were a real bargain.

Now I just need to get a stock. Cream seems to go well but I'm toying with navy with polka dots. But what colour gloves are you supposed to wear with a navy hat?

Postprandial constitutional

Ra has been down this weekend so I decided it was only fair to avoid any equine activities in order to entertain her. The weather managed to put a stop to the show Smem was to go to so we invited her mum out for lunch to the Fox and Hounds at Harlestone. Very nice!

However, I did manage to persuade them to go for a walk after lunch. And of course Tiger came too. He's really getting into this leading lark. He walks to heel like a well-trained dog. We even broke into a trot at one point. (That includes me!) He did take exception to a motor bike but just wanted to keep his eye on it rather than running away. We had to beat a hasty retreat though when some cattle started to get just a bit too friendly!

He's not all sweetness and light though. Tiger is on short rations at the moment due to his being a little portly. This leaves him slightly ill-tempered, especially when his companions the calves are given their morning milk. Yesterday it became all too much for him and he tried to take a bite out of one of them. Fortunately Smem was on hand and managed to sound so cross with him that he let go and beat a hasty retreat. He's a quick learner. Hopefully he won't do it again.

There's a Tiger on the loose!

Anyone would think butter wouldn't melt in his mouth.

Apparently the little love made a bid for freedom at the weekend and legged it down the road before anyone spotted he was missing. Fortunately Annie was driving home and spotted him making a bee-line for the well-kept borders of the Rectory garden!

He has a fair turn of speed when he feels like it and although Smem runs for her school she couldn't keep up with him. This may be due to the fact that he had his hooves trimmed on Monday, making him very fleet of foot. How the farrier manages is beyond me. Put it this way, I wouldn't bend down anywhere near him if I could help it! Apparently he was behaving a bit coltishly and Zorya took a very dim view. Phil the Farrier has no problems, being strong, he can just hold on until Tiger stops mucking about.

Not such good news today on the Ruby front. Another scan. The bad news, she wasn't in foal. The good news, she's about to come into season and has plenty of eggs. Hopefully there'll be just the one this time. Fingers crossed for her next scan on Friday. She doesn't seem at all phased by all this and is enjoying taking it easy. She had her heels clipped yesterday to make her a bit smarter but she could really do with having her mane pulled. It was Zorya's turn yesterday. She now looks lovely.

We also had a look around at the other mares and the stallions. We've definitely picked the right one. He's just soooooo gorgeous and has a lovely temperament. Smem's decided she wants to put Zorya to his half brother. Equally gorgeous, but a bit too heavy for Ruby.

Let's just keep everything crossed for the weekend.

Another tiring week

This week has absolutely flown by and although I'm incredibly tired I really feel I've achieved something at work.

I've spent the majority of each day locked in the training room with one of my colleagues and a very good trainer from our software supplier and my head's totally spinning. I know it probably sounds quite sad but I can't wait to get back to work on Monday so I can put stuff I learned into practice.

I'm working on a big process implementation that's got to be in by the end of September and up til now I only had the vaguest idea of how we were going to achieve it. Things are getting a bit less vague but there are still gaps so there will be more in house training next week. I think my head may explode!

This week also saw my last watercolour class until the autumn. I know I'm going to miss it terribly. Not that I'm much good at it but Wednesday evenings are wonderful because I get totally immersed in what I'm doing and the rest of the world just seems to go away. Until January I'd never painted in watercolour at all. In fact I hadn't even picked up a paintbrush in anger for about 20 years! I'm pleased with how it's going but I'm still not convinced that this is the medium for me but it was the only painting class on offer! Our tutor, Mel, is great. He's not really a watercolourist either and paints mainly in acrylic or oils. I particularly like the one of Shenton Phone Box.

Aah!

Teeny tiny bit arrived by post today for teeny tiny Tiger. Thank goodness for ebay. It's a rubber snaffle with brass rings. Hopefully it will be gentle enough for his teeny tiny mouth.

I might even take the tag off it before we try it on. Hope he likes it.

Tiger's first rosette

Teeny Tiny Tiger won his first rosette yesterday. OK not so impressive as it was just at Smem’s school fete. And it was in the dog show - for obedience!

He probably only won it because, when asked what he could do, Smem thought about it for a bit then replied, “he can roll over”. And then he didn’t retaliate or run away when another competitor started barking at him, he just got down and had a roll. I don’t think she said anything specific about him rolling over on command!

He was actually there for a competition “Guess the name of the pony”. Don’t worry. No cheating was involved. They changed his name for the day. I thought “Guess the weight of the pony” would have been better. (He’s a bit chunky at the moment – we’re not allowed to use the ‘f’ word). Ra suggested “Guess the number of sweets in the pony” but I said that would be too expensive. Anyway I don’t think Tiger likes sweets.

And if you’re wondering what breed of dog Tiger is, don’t worry, you’re not going mad. He’s a miniature (very miniature) Shetland pony. He stands just 7 hands high. That's 28” at the shoulder in real money. Usual questions on people seeing Tiger for the first time are “Is he a baby?”. Response – no, he’s about 7 years old. “Will he get any bigger?”. No, he’s fully grown.

Other answers include – no, he doesn’t know he’s so little. He thinks he’s a normal sized horse. Yes, he might bite. No, he doesn’t go in the car. He travels in a horse box like any other self-respecting horse.

He was an absolute star at the fete. He got a bit excited when he saw the ponies who were there to give pony rides and tried to dig his way out of his pen but he calmed down eventually and was a little lamb when Smem took him for a walk around.

The little chap doesn’t get a great deal of human contact because his job is to look after the sheep, but it seems to make no difference (no, seriously, he herds the sheep). He can be a bit wary of people when he’s loose but as soon as you catch him he’s fine. In fact this was probably the first time he’d had a proper bridle on - he is halter trained but usually manages to go wherever he feels like when you try to lead him. The bridle was one of my ebay bargains. I got it a few months ago but hadn’t had the chance to try it out. Tiger must have had it put on and taken off about 5 times yesterday and hardly minded at all. I’m not keen on the bit though. It’s too rigid for his little cheeks. I think a snaffle would be more comfy for his tiny mouth.

Off to the tack shop for me then. These horses cost me a fortune and none of them are actually mine!

My Beautiful Courgette

(...with apologies to Hanif Kureishi).

A ring of copper tape around the pot appears to have thwarted the slug menace, or it may just be because I bought in some rufty tufty big plants rather than trying to grow from seed. The leaves are a bit prickly and probably not what my delecate little slugs are used to. First bud appeared yesterday and this sight greeted me when I went to hang out the washing this morning.

I don't think Gracie was quite as impressed as me. Which I can understand because she's not a food-orientated cat. She just likes to make sure her bowl always has something in it but that's about all in the food line. One of the benefits of having always fed her on dry cat food. She doesn't seem to recognise anything else as edible.

Not the brightest bunny in the box!

I've actually been quite productive this week. Last weekend at Woolfest I took the opportunity to spin up some Jacob fleece that's been hanging around since last year. Don't worry, it's all clean. I made the mistake of washing it all in one go and now I have a laundry basket full of the stuff and am slowly working my way through it. A couple of months ago ra lent me her new drum carder (purchased thanks to a particularly improbable Tigers win - see the Knit-Tigger blog for further details) and I carded a bit, or quite a lot if I'd been doing it by hand.

Anyway, having spun it up and plied it, on Friday night I decided to start making it into something. I had a felted duffle bag in mind. I'm a bit of a bag fiend, my obsession with them only overtaken by sunglasses this season. ra's convinced that every time I go shopping I buy a new pair of sunglasses. Actually, every time I go shopping with her I just happen to buy a new pair of sunglasses. This is not the same thing at all.

Anyway, back to the woolly bits, So I started to crochet the base, then I undid it cos it was too holey, then I started again with a shorter chain stitch. Then I undid it cos it was all crinkly (I'd increased too rapidly). Then I reduced my number of increases. Then I undid it etc etc. By Saturday morning I still had just a ball of wool. Anyway, after much deliberation and effort I now have.....

TA DA!

Yup, you guessed it. I've run out of wool. I use the words 'run out' loosely. I need to spin about three more skeins but you get the general idea. Can't wait to see what it's like when it's felted. I just hope it all behaves the same as the white wool is quite different from the grey. Yes, I know I should have done a tension square but that takes all the excitement out of it, doesn't it?

That was a week and a half!

Well, a week and one and a half days to be totally truthful. And I'm pooped!

Woolfest was F.A.B. Fab.



We took a leisurely trip up to Cockermouth on Thursday, stopping for a tasty lunch at The Highwayman at Burrow . One of the Ribble Valley Inns, it concentrates on local food. We can heartily recommend the food and the ambience. When you order your food they explain to you that it will be at least 20 minutes. So they can cook it! I had a Lancashire Hotpot absolutely stuffed with lamb/mutton. Scrummy! ra went for a duck cassoulet. The one criticism was the car park. Too small and full of Lexuses (or should that be Lexii?) but it will be bigger once all the building work's finished.


Then it was all points north to Cockermouth. With a quick detour to Priests Mill in Caldbeck for a look around the WoolClip and a cup of coffee at the cafe.



Unfortunately ra had forgotten the directions to get to the B&B and the name of the landlady. But apart from that....

Anyway, she phoned work and got some helpful Sumanoid to look on the interweb. The directions weren't brilliant but we did get the phone number - so that was helpful. Anyway, we were within spitting distance when we called only to discover we were just around the corner.

Our room at Byresteads was lovely. The place was a very tranquil barn conversion even though it was stuffed to the gills with visitors and exhibitors for Woolfest!

We had anticipated only spending the Friday at Woolfest and take the Saturday to do 'other things'. Didn't quite work out that way. We were very organised in our approach this year, starting with the animals and working our way back to the entrance. First purchase was a shetland sheepskin. I got a moorit (a lovely caramel colour) last year to go over the back of one of the sofas in my living room. I liked it so much I wanted to get another one. This year's purchase is a fawn katmoget. That's basically white with a fawn under-belly. Very pretty and oh so soft.

It was the evening's spin-in that did it. We weren't going to go back on the saturday. I was a bit disappointed not to have spent more money than I did. Then we spotted someone spinning silk caps. £2.25 each. What a bargain. How could we resist? I now have two silk caps and am trying to draught one of them in preparation for spinning. The spin-in was great fun. Not just spinners but people knitting, crocheting, just chatting, checking out different types of wheel and basically having a good time. I managed to spin up quite a bit of Jacob in preparation for (another) felted bag. It's going to take me years to use up all this fleece!

Day two was much more successful. I went a bit mad on fleece. I now have a HUGE herdwick fleece that I intend to make into a rug for my hall and some mohair that I just got cos it was interesting. This is in addition to the Lovely lustrous leicester longwool fleece I persuaded ra to go halvesies with me on the day before. And sock wool. It's a well-known fact that you can never ever ever have too much sock wool. And some naturally dyed alpaca (logwood and alum?). And three cakes of Lopi to make a felted bag. And a lovely scarf as a thank you to annie for looking after the devil cat that is Gracie. And a duffel bag pattern from Sheepfold.

Oh, and I managed to find a potential wedding dress for my mate Jane who's getting married next year. She WILL go up the aisle in knitwear if it's only a pair of kid mohair knickers! Under her wedding dress of course!