Stitch Update: 2038/4714 of first leg. 368/3133 on second hoof.
Quick comparison photo of the two legs. There’s a few extra rows on the big one but you can see how much smaller and tighter the little leg is.
Please ignore the unswept floor in my craft area, hehe.
Wherein I talk about knitting my pony a bit.
Stitch Update: 3133/3133 of first hoof. 368/3133 on second hoof.
Hello hello!
Photos have been a long time coming but the knitting is going well! You can see above how big the too-big leg really was, and the smaller size of the new hoof.
I shall now be knitting off the too-big leg, winding up the third color as I go. That ought to be fun.
So. I have a leg of the pony finished. I’m exhausted (insomnia) so no photographs, but I’m at a quandry.
The leg is big. I mean, I knew it seemed big, but I really think that it’s too big. I’ll measure it later, but I think somehow I’ve effed up the math again, and I’m now making a truly gigantic pony.
Which brings me to my quandry. If I am, indeed, knitting too big, and I need to do something like go to a smaller needle or drop one of the threads of yarn… or both… do I actually do it? Or do I suck it up and make a gigantic pony so I don’t lose all the work on the leg and foot?
I really can’t afford to try to re-do the pattern at this stage. It’s right, it’s the right proportions, so I can’t re-do it with fewer stitches or rows.
Tough call.
Stitch Update: 3120/4714 to finish first front leg. (pattern now complete!)
Now is the time on Sprockets when we giggle like twelve year olds.
Finished the knee! It now looks a little… interestingly shaped.
(sorry for the blur, it was LATE when I took that.)
It should look a little less phallic once I get the top bit of the leg on it.
I also switched yarn for the first time! You can see i was using a yellowy off-white that was just a small ball, and now I have tied on a light brown. (I’m tracking my yarn use on the spreadsheet, if you’re curious. I actually bought the light brown, because the ‘pound of love’ yarn is thin, and I needed a thicker feel to keep the over-all thickness consistent.
I’m thinking next time I might try to make the transition a little cooler looking by using the new color in a random handful of stitches on each row before the transition has to happen, so the colors kind of fade into one another more naturally.
I’ll try to take a better photo with a sense of scale when I get home, but just for the record the leg is as long as my leg is now — and I’m 5’9”. If all else fails and I only finish two legs, I could make them into some very oddly shaped leg warmers, I suppose.
So I did write to a couple companies about the project. I just got an email back from Red Heart:
Thank you for your recent somments about our Red Heart Yarns We are always eager to hear from people who use our products, and we were delighted to hear of your satisfaction with it. Your comments will be shared with both our Marketing and Manufacturing departments and we will be following your progress as you knit your pony.
Thank you for taking the time to write to us. Please accept our best wishes for continued success with your needlework projects.
Sincerely,
Ann Blalock
Manager, Consumer Information
So, HI Red Heart folks, if you pop by! :D
Stitch Update: 1014/~4500 to finish first front leg. (I haven’t finished the pattern yet)
Just a quick photo update as of last night.
SO, it occured to me this would be a great place to type up a little story that was once written for me.
A dude named Brendan put together a site called Ommatidia, where he posted 101 word stories very regularly for a while. He sold some of his stories in a book, and for a little extra he’d write you a story of your own.
Here is the one he wrote in the front of my book for me, reproduced thanks to his CC license on all his work:
“Of course, women’s brains are a bit soft for the mightier schools of sorcery,” Zarzotsz explains.
Laurie resists the urge to stab him with on eof the big pointy things in her hands. ”Well,” she says, “I suppose I’m lucky I prefer yarn magic, then.”
Zarzotsz smiles in what he probably thinks is a kind manner. ”Indeed! Mind if I demonstrate one of the higher arts for you? Pyroturgy’s my specialty - it makes lovely fireworks.”
“Can it create life?” asks Laurie curiously.
Zarzotsz sputters.
A click, clatter and purl of busy needles, and the slowly booming shape of a Shetland mare.
Beautiful, isn’t it? :D
(I should add, because I still like it, that he published one of the stories I wrote, in celebration of the end of his experiment.)
Stitch Update: 3133/3133 to finish first hoof - DONE!
As promised, here are photographs of the shaped first hoof:
The little pony actually fits inside!
I know it looks huge, way more than the 4x as large as promised, but keep in mind it’s flat and it gets shorter once stitched and stuffed (as it gets fatter).
So, now I tie on the light color for the first leg! I’ve worked out most of the pattern in the spreadsheet, but I will probably wait to finish it until I get to that actual bit of the pattern and work it out as I go.
Fir this first little bit of the leg, I am having to toy with the yarn weight a little — I have one skein of the same Super Saver yarn, but I also have some of the ‘Pound of Love’ yarn (which is worsted but feels thinner than the Super Saver) and a ball of some leftover off-white that feels heavier than the Super Saver, so I’m pairing the thin with the thick. Hopefully that’ll give me about the same weight/thickness as the three Super Savers together. We shall see!
Stitch Update: 2126/3133 to finish first hoof
I’m most of the way done with the shaping on the first hoof, and miracle of miracles it looks hoof-like! Pics when I get home later tonight.
Mostly, I want to talk about my obsession with stuffing things. If I could, I would stitch up my knitting every other row and stuff what was stitched up while it was still on the needles.
I want to do this now so much with this hoof, and then it occurs to me I haven’t even thought about what to stuff it with. Polyfill? Would that get too expensive? Old pillows? Would that get gross? Hm. Things to think about.
