October Ramblings with a Sore Head.....

HELLO  from a wet and windy Scotland this morning, where I am now well and truly into the winter routine of having ponies stabled at nights and the resulting mucking out getting my mornings off to an early and energetic start. There's nothing quite like going out into the barn at first light to be greeted by those three bright little faces, though, so no complaints from me.

October was a slow month for me creatively,  mainly because I was aiming to have plenty of stitchy knitty time at the end of the month, until a knock on the head put pay to that! However, I've a few things in progress to show and lots of plans for November, so have a look......

CALICO PUZZLE QUILT:  The quilting is not my favourite part of making a quilt and I can usually  find no end of reasons for putting it off. However, I'd run out of excuses for this bee block quilt so set to it in trepidation.  I love my workhorse sewing machine although  it does struggling with the bulk of a quilt but I suddenly realised that if I just quilted square by square, we would both cope better.

And we're off .....

On the whole we did! Walking foot only, we made good progress with a square per evening and all went fairly smoothly.  Of course, this left hundreds of ends to finish off but at least this is a task I quite enjoy.

Any suggestions for miles of snipped off thread?!

Binding on and handsewn down, it was into the washing machine with a good handful of Colour Catchers and ...... one flipping square has bled!

Eeeeeeeek!

I can't believe it and I'm gutted. As I write, the quilt is back in the machine with more Colour Catchers and a ton of stain remover so fingers crossed. I guess that's the problem with bee blocks where you haven't chosen the fabric yourself but it is what it is, as they say. I'm still mildly hopeful that this will be my first quilt for Siblings Together but the jury's out for now.



SOCKS:

Castanets at the ready ....

Now, I know these socks don't match but I'm juggling two pairs at the moment. The first pair is indulgently for me me me, made from the most beautiful yarn with sparkles from Mothy and The Squid. The second will be a wee stocking filler for David so I knit this project  in secret when he is away travelling with work. Mind you, I don't know who I'm kidding.  I reckon I could be sitting here naked with a paper bag over my head while playing  the castanets and he wouldn't notice, bless him! Anyway, he loves handknitted socks so hopefully this pair will go down well.

Ooooooooòoh!

CROCHET:  In a moment of madness I've decided to crochet a throw, using up all my scraps of 4 ply sock yarn.  I don't do a lot of crochet but I find it quite therapeutic when I do pick some up so I am really enjoying this simple, evening project. But how on earth I thought I had enough scrap yarn to make a throw I'll never work out!!!! I very quickly ran out and have had to dip into my sock stash in order to continue. Soon I think I will be on the lookout in the bargain bin of the wool shop next time I go to Edinburgh.  Great plan, Sue!

Hadn't thought this one through. Ah well...

GARMENT SEWING:   After a splurge of enthusiasm over the summer, I came up with another plan for a garment of some sort per month and October saw me diving in with a Cleo pinafore dress by Tilly and the Buttons, straplined as " Sewing Pattern for Beginners".  This is my first attempt with denim and sew far, sew good. My accident has prevented me from finishing it (plus the fact I forgot to buy interfacing!) but I'm now very close. I even decided to be brave with contrasting top stitching and the only slight niggle I've had was with the back placing of the straps.  I think I've sorted that now so, hopefully, I will be able to show you the finished item next month....

Not far to go now.

PONIES: Apart from my slight altercation with Jackdaw, October was a good month with the gang and Murph and I have continued to clock up the miles together over the moors. Riding is definitely harder at this time of year as, weather apart, my ponies have always had tendencies to turn themselves into mud babies given the chance (think hippos in a mud wallow.....) so it takes forever to dry them off and clean them up. On top of this, Murphy has the most amazing thick ,velvety coat for winter and he gets hot very quickly when we go out. A lot of people clip off their horses' winter coats to allow for ease of riding but that's not my way. Living where we do, they've all got good thick coats for a reason!

A morning greeting aka where's my breakfast?????

The boy keen to get back out to his mud patch.

ADVENTURING: Hill of the Week has managed to continue with a passion and Boo and I have again had some great days out. Daylight hours are a bit of a pain now but an early start usually sees us ok, and I've got a head torch anyway. Our best day last month was our monthly jolly to the Lake District where we bagged mighty Helvellyn and some of her surrounding peaks but we've had good days more locally too. And our first visit to the Scottish Ochils, which were beautiful .

A day on Helvellyn with tons of atmosphere.

Weather and daylight keep the pressure on now.

With our Wainwright Fell challenge going well  (we're aiming to complete all 214 of the Cumbrian Fells listed by Alfred Wainwright by early 2022) I'd like to summit 6 more peaks by the end of the year but with the travel, the daylight, and the morning stable chores that might be a tall ask now.  We'll see, but every climb is a bonus anyway so I'm not going to fret. The hills will still be there!



So, I think that's my October done with.   Another benefit of having the ponies in at nights is that the occasion also marks the start of my Porridge for Breakfast season and that's what I'm off to indulge in now.

Have a great and safe November and thank you for following my wandering.

Now, where did I put my castanets.........

Sue (and Boo of course)

@sue_and_boo