Friday, August 30, 2013

My new helmet

I love that I have a small head and can fit into helmets like this.
I am a horseback rider, I lease a horse named Trick (Thoroughbred gelding) and I ride a few times a week on him or my instructor's horses. I love riding and am competing this winter. Today I just did barn stuff, we went to Greenhawk (a tack store) and I found this helmet and HAD to buy it.

I found a pink show blouse to go with it, but it was too damn small. Oh well.

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Finished hexagon baby blanket!

This took me about 3 days of off and on loom knitting. I used 2 different balls of yarn and I love how it turned out. I did a different bind off than on the instructions because I kept screwing it up, so I did it the hard way. It is done in e-wrap knit and purl into a garter stitch. I love the simplicity of garter stitch, and it has no "wrong" side.
The first wedge, the hardest part. 36 peg large gauge loom.

2 wedges down

3 wedges, halfway there, starting to take shape.

4 wedges, looking better.

5 wedges, almost there!


6 wedges, ready for bind-off!

Bound off and sewn securely together.

A size comparison. On my large computer chair.

Hexagon baby blanket

I found this free pattern at this awesome site and decided to make one. I used two similar, lighter yarns that are different colours but follow the same pattern. I initially wanted to do it all in the blue/purple/teal yarn, but I didn't have enough to do the entire blanket. I completed one wedge on Tuesday night, and three and a half on Wednesday and I'm finishing it up now, on Thursday.

It's actually an easy pattern. I love it. The colours actually mesh well and I think this is my favourite project I've done. I found the pattern on Ravelry (GO THERE) and it's an alternate wingspan pattern that blew everyone away with needles and was made available on the loom. I use looms, I suck with needles. The pattern is basic, using three stitches: e-wrap knit, purl, and half stitch. I did an e-wrap cast on and I'm doing a basic bind off. I used a 36 peg circle loom and I want to do it again with crazy rainbow colours on my 50 peg circle loom, and I want to make a poncho.

It's a great pattern and can be easily modified to make a scarf, a poncho, a wrap and more.

Here's the example off of the site:


And here is mine, as of last night before I went to bed. 4 wedges completed. I am now finishing the final wedge. 
It will definitely look different when it's connected and not so stretched out. Pardon my dirty carpet. 


Saturday, August 17, 2013

Fun with firecups

Firecupping is an ancient Chinese medicine practice used to bring bad blood to the surface and remove toxins. Well, it is sort of a load of crap. It's not proven to really do anything, but its still done today. Why? It feels good. Like a warm, hard, massage.

A special glass cup is rubbed with a flammable liquid (most often rubbing alcohol, I use 70%) and lit with a torch, which can be anything from a BBQ lighter to a specially made torch with a cotton end. Immediately after lighting it, it is placed on the skin and the flame inside goes out and creates a vacuum pulling the skin up.

I've been firecupped a bunch of times and I've done it, too. It feels really, really good. The cups can be on very tight or loose. If you add baby oil or lubricant, you can move the cups around, which feels good too. It leaves red or purple marks for up to a week. It's great for loosening muscles.

My friend got kicked by a horse, so we firecupped her. It's painless. It feels good. She felt much better after. I find it very relaxing. Here are some pics.
Warming up with light "fire play". Running a flame along the back and putting it out.

Putting on some small firecups.
You can see the skin tightening up here.
A back full of firecups and Chinese suction cups which work in a similar manner, just without fire.
The resulting marks are slightly raised and go away quickly. The big bruise at the bottom side is from the horse kick.



Animated GIF's are fun

I need to make more animated GIF's. This is one of my friend Kwinn's horse, Giovanna, being ridden by her part leaser who has done an amazing job with her.
 She took the rail down the 2nd time. 

I adore how her back legs are invisible here!


Horses!

Some horse pics!

Dually, the wild stallion (3 year old Thoroughbred colt) being ridden bareback by me with no bridle.

One of the barn kittens taking residence in Annie's hat.

Dually looking into the sunset.

Riding Dually for the first time, no saddle, no bridle (halter and lead) A bit of a glare.

Sunday, August 4, 2013

Breaking Bad Custom Cross Stitch

I love Breaking Bad. Walter White (Heisenberg) is such a badass. This is about half done, I'll put the pattern (created by me using Photoshop and PC Stitch, if you want to use it, go ahead) beside it to track my progress. My good cameras batteries are dead, so I just used my phone. I hope you like it! My right thumb is literally numb from stitching! This is two days worth of stitching and about 2000 stitches.