Before the alpacas

Before the alpacas, there were horses. I was very fortunate to grow up on a farm where horses were right out the front door. I spent weekends in the barn, mucking stalls, playing "jail" in the feed room, swinging on the pasture gates, riding and having fun. Before sports took over our lives, we spent most of our free time with the horses. My parents had a few horses before we came along, but I remember growing up with Gemini (a sweet guy), Jamie Mac, and ponies Oklahoma and Coco.

Today I want to share a story of friendship and a horse named Jamie Mac.

I don't remember when exactly, but my parents took in a beautiful mare named Jamie Mac. A previous race horse that never broken her maiden, then lived the life of a cross-country jumper. She had a nagging injury that prevented her from the big jumps but she was still ridable and a sweet girl.

The previous owner was looking for a good home for her. She wanted the best for her and my parent's took her in. My mom mostly rode her and I always wanted my turn on her. But Jamie was strong and I didn't know if I was strong enough to ride her. 

I'll never forget the time that I was on her and we hit an open field off of Bailey's Corner Road. (now there are houses everywhere but at the time, it was mostly fields) She saw the open field and TOOK OFF!!!!!!! I had never held on so tightly before in my life! My mom yelling from behind to just hold on. She was so fast. I was terrified! I don't have a very good memory but I sure do remember that.

Fast forward a few years and soccer became a huge part of our family life. We all played and weekends were now spent at the soccer fields instead of the barns. The decision was made to donate the two horses to Chariot Riders, a local therapeutic riding academy. While at Chariot Riders, the horses are used to improve the physical, mental, cognitive and social aspects of handicap children and adults. It is a special place and the horses have helped so many people. 

Now...the friendship part of the story.

My son Dalton is 14. When he was 4, I signed him up for preschool. For his birthday, we invited some boys from class to his party. I mailed the invitations to the kids and that was that.

We go to the party, and one of the moms came up to me and asked me if I ever had a horse named Jamie Mac. Uhhhhh, yes! I did! How did you know? She replied, I saw your return address on the birthday invitation and I knew that I gave my horse to someone on that road many years ago. 

That mom was Rita. We formed an instant friendship and 10 years later, she is one of my closest friends. She is now living in Germany with her son and we are in constant contact through the internet. Thank goodness for the internet and Facebook!!! We message each other often for support or to share funny stories. She makes me laugh and totally gets me. We always say, we're the same garbage floating together in the ocean.

So, why am I posting this today? Well, this morning as I drank my coffee and scrolled through Facebook I saw the news that Jamie Mac, the beautiful horse that touched many lives and helped created a friendship passed away at the age of 33. She lived a very long good life. It brought back so many good memories for me. The time of our lives that we rode horses was a good one. I miss hopping up on a horse and going for a ride. I miss seeing my friend, Rita. We used to call each other up spur of the moment on a weekend and meet up for a hike at a local park. Horse people are a different breed and somehow we all are all held together in our own weird way :)

(from left to right, Leanne on Gemini, my mom on Jamie, Andee on Oklahoma, and Lizzie on Coco)

Summertime Knitting

As I mention every summer, knitting doesn't slow down for me just because the weather has warmed up. Yes, a lap full of wool isn't ideal, but honestly, I don't mind. I have been working on this shawl/wrap/scarf since the spring. It's been a slow going knit that has taken me through many baseball games, nights on the couch, sitting next to campfires and more recently, a morning on the beach. Knitted with yarn that I bought at Maryland Sheep & Wool from 2015 and 2016, cormo yarn from Rhinebeck and a cotton/alpaca blend from my local LYS.

The pattern name is Riverflow by Annie Rowden.

This is the third pattern I have knitted by her and I love her way of thinking. Nothing too hard but keeps your interest. My previous knits of her patterns can be seen here and here.

On the reading front...I just finished The Girls by Emma Cline. 

I flew through it and couldn't put it down. A really crazy, good read and I recommend it.

I just started reading, All the Light You Cannot See. It's my son's high school summer reading book so I thought I would read it too.

That's it for today. Have a great Wednesday! 

Joining in with Ginny for the Yarn Along. What are you reading and knitting?

Hi-Knitting...Kind of....

It's Wednesday, and that means Yarn Along Day. I have worked a few rows on my sweater but it looks almost exactly the same as last week. So I didn't take a new photo.

Here's last week's just for a reminder.

Ravelry Link: Illas Cies sweater

I started a new book and I can't put it down!!!!!!! It's been a long time since I have felt this way about a book. The title is, Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter. That's a heck of a name for a suspense author. It can't be real. Can it?  The book is intense, twists and turns, gives clues at the end of the chapter, weaves 3 storylines into one....some of my favorite kind of writing. I just got to a part that is very dark and a bit disturbing, but still can't put it down.

Since my knitting looks the same, I thought I would start daydreaming about my next projects.

So here are some photos of knitting project to maybe inspire you too.

Chase asked me to knit him a bunny toy. He picked out this one, so that's what's next for sure.

 Kid slippers link

 Hat link

Sweater link

Joining in with Ginny and the yarn along.

Happy creating!!

MIA- Yarn Along

Hi Purple Debbie :)

She left me a little note wondering where I've been. We are deep into baseball season and it's been sucking up all my outside work time. We've been enjoying playoff baseball and both boys are doing awesome. Nail biter games and victories! 

But I have been knitting behind the scenes (of course).

I finished up the back of my sweater and I am half way through the front.

I am loving every stitch of this project.

The sweater name is Illas-Cies

It's designed by Anne Hanson and I'm knitting it with Miss Babs Yowza in the Oyster color way.

Hope everyone is enjoying this beautiful weather! Finally feels like spring and almost summer.

Joining in with Ginny for the Yarn Along!

Yarn Along

Happy Wednesday and Yarn Along Day!

Joining in with the knitting world to share what I am knitting and reading right now.

On my needles are two projects:

Riverflow, an easy fun bias striped scarf/wrap. It's knitted using some fun techniques that give it a pretty waffle texture. I'm more than half way done and really enjoying it. 

Finishing up the solid white part, then I'll add in the teal blue.

I saw this sweater, Illas Cies,  knitted up in the Bare Naked Wool booth at Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival. I fell in love with it. I ended up buying yarn from Miss Babs, Yowza in oyster color way.

I casted on this weekend. It's definitely not baseball field knitting. It's concentrate at home knitting for sure. But it's beautiful and I can't wait to wear it.

I just stared the book, Reconstructing Amelia. It was recommended to me by a few people after I put a Facebook post asking for good book ideas. So hopefully it's good! I'm only a few pages in so I don't have an opinion yet.

Joining in with Ginny at Small Things

What are you knitting and reading?

Maryland Sheep & Wool 2016

Once again, we packed up the car and headed down to Maryland for a girls weekend.

The Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival is held at the Howard County Fairgrounds in West Friendship, Maryland on the first full weekend in May. It's a beautiful area filled with rolling hills, farms and quaint homes. The sun came out (for the first time in a week) and we enjoyed the scenic ride to the fair.

It's always nice to get away with my sisters without our kids.

We decided to hit up our favorites first. Sweitzers Fiber Mill is always a favorite. I love their yarns, soaps, lotions and most of all their adorable girl, Lilly! Lilly is the cutest little girl that dyes her own yarn. She can't be more than 7 or 8 years old and she's awesome. A true natural fiber girl.

That's Lilly in the pink shirt posing with her hand dyed yarn.

I found this booth and it was a new to me company. I loved everything about it!

Boho Chic Fiber Co. Loved her set up, yarns, mugs, prints. Everything was beautiful and I picked up two skeins of her yarn.

We made a stop at Miss Babs and it was late in the day so we actually got to take our time and see all the beautiful yarn and chat with Miss Babs herself.

This was the Maryland Sheep & Wool color way. So pretty.

I ended up buying Yowza in the Oyster color way with a sweater in mind.

(Miss Babs and Andee)

Once again, I had a great time spending the weekend with my sisters, sheep and fiber.

It was a really hard week last week. Sadly, I attended two funerals. One was for my oldest friend's father who lost his battle with ALS and our Uncle Butch, who lost his battle with melanoma.

It's easy to forget how fragile life is sometimes and a week like we had really reminds you that it's important to enjoy life and take the time to do the things you love. 

I can't wait to knit up some beautiful new projects with all my new yarn. 

I'll enjoy my coffee from my new hand made mug, wash my hands with hand made soap and remember the good time I had with my sisters and the sheep.

Sisters Road Trip to Maryland

Three sisters enjoying our annual trip to Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival.

Thankful for these two little sisters of mine.

We had a great time. More pictures to come....

(from left to right: Andee, Leanne, Liz)