Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Mittens done

Dear Laura:

Well, after my marathon snow-day-of-knitting, I was physically "tired of knitting!" As much as I enjoyed a day curled up under a blanket with my knitting, my hands and wrists ached, and I even had pains in my shoulder as late as Sunday. So, I backed off and didn't knit much of anything except for a bit on the mittens during my lunch hours. Saturday evening, I finished off the second mitten! Ta da!

From Knitting Pict...

That's a "drop-in" project off the list for February!

Ahem. However. Saturday morning I ran errands, and I took my almost-13-year-old niece along to Rural King, where she needed to buy a larger halter and girth strap for the horse they are boarding, and she is learning to ride. This is a HUGE horse. The saddle they are using has a 32" girth strap, and my brother told her to buy 42-44". The largest strap that Rural King carried was 36".

Now, a girth strap goes under the belly of the horse and is tightened to keep the saddle from sliding off (for anyone who doesn't do horse stuff. Like me.) There is a ring on both ends of a strap which is either made of leather or knotted/braided cord. (You see where this is going, don't you?????) Seriously. You just need something sturdy and 3-4" wide - you can make it out of anything. Like this.....
From Knitting Pict...
From Knitting Pict...

We bought the rings and I got started. My original plan was to knit the strap wider, maybe garter stitch, and then felt it to stop it from stretching. However, after a couple of hours knitting with size 11 needles and Lamb's Pride Bulky (don't you love the colors?? It was all I had in my stash....) with that heavy ring hanging off the end, I only had about 7" - but very sore hands. Plan B involves doubled yarn and crochet. I'll let you know how that plays out.

Hmm, first a
knitted cow sling and now a crocheted girth strap. I'm afraid I'm going to end up being famous as "The Fiber Artist of Farm Animals!"

Keep knitting!

Cynthia (aka Designated Knitter)

2 comments:

YarnThrower said...

Well, at least you're getting use out of all of your finished items! My six year old still won't wear the Fana cardigan I made for him because it still itches...so maybe I should start making girth straps, too? I love the mittens.... There's just something about a fresh pair of mittens.....

Designated Knitter said...

OOO, yeah. I wonder if the horse is gonna "whinney" about the yarn being itchy.....

;)