Handmade ponies and a blissful morning walk

Hey everyone! Today’s post with Cinnamon, Stitch & Sidepass happens to be the first, which is super exciting! It is all about fun times with my horse, and a furry little project which involves a few ‘How did I not notice that earlier?!‘ moments but lots and lots of fun. I hope you love it! Well, let us begin! One early morning recently (after my chores) I decided that now was as good a time as any to take my beloved mare Mackenzie for a brisk hand walk, being it one of our favourite pastimes.

We went out past the chickens, past my empty dam ‘arena’, and headed out to the furthest corner of the farm. Mackenzie was full of enthusiasm, power walking and needing a few gentle reminders to chillax! After about 25 minutes and saying hello to the neighbours cows, we walked along the boundary for a while. Stopping to have a chat about the suitable time in which one could eat grass (and now not being one of those times) we worked on some groundwork. Starting with flexing to the side, we practiced hindquarter yields, which were very nice, we attempted a forehand yield. Mackenzie had a minor head tossing tantrum, but with patience she took a step in the right direction. Rewarding her with a scratch, we wandered home, past the empty dam, the farm’s herd of cows, and by the end of about 4 kilometres someone was looking rather sleepy… she is just regaining fitness after a holiday. I put Mackenzie back in her paddock, then headed inside to work on a project I recently finished… a knitted pony for a friends birthday.

While browsing in the local library, I discovered a lovely little book entitled ‘Knit your own pet’. Flicking through, I stumbled across a pattern for a Shetland Pony. While it is 3 rosette (meaning a little more challenging than, say, 1 rosette (mouse, fish) or 2 rosette (cat, rabbit, parrot) pets.) I waved that aside… I could learn to purl, increase, wrap and turn later! Well. After many, many frogs* e.g. misinterpreting 7 rows stockinette stitch and doing 14 and needing to redo every leg, doing half the body then realising I had left hind leg instead of right, redoing it with the correct hind leg AND THEN Uh oh… Mum? I had the leg on backwards! Ah well… It was lots of fun!! And I learnt very much!! And eventually, I was done. It took a lot of persistence, but it was worth it… a super cute flaxen chestnut complete with blaze and socks. And now my brother is requesting a blue parrot with gold and green… for his winter birthday. I had better start now. LOL!

That wraps up for today. I hope you enjoyed it! Love, Amarylli 🩵🐎 * frog – a knitting word for epic fail 😅