Virtual Brush Box

Riding

Awareness of the outside world. Patti & Ricki: Normalize Inclusion with Fashion is for Every Body & Ex Urbe: Medical Leave Reflections plus Empathy Sphere Essay.
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Two horses in the clubhouse.

Numbers this week; thoughts next week. Yes, I am squeezing out every possible ounce of blogging juice from this. The Virtual Tevis was our main summer/autumn activity.

Rodney missed the same 11 vet and weather days as Milton.
… missed 5 more days due to shoeing.
… did 3 solo days once Milton finished.
… did 4 extra days as to make up for “non-trail” miles.

5 rides under one mile.
27 rides 1 to 2 miles.
22 rides 2 to 3 miles.
3 rides over 3 miles.

Longest ride – 3.1 miles. Doing trot sets to the corner.
Shortest ride – 0.63. Rodney by himself, complaining about the footing every step of the way.

Longest stretch of daily riding – 14 days, Milton.

Tortoise Power!

Data Dump – Rodney

Friday, October 1 – .91 miles, 23 minutes
Saturday, October 2 – 1.01 miles, 40 minutes. Two minor fusses over bushwhacking in the wilds of his own pasture. [Fit The First]
Sunday, October 10 – 2.54 miles, 1 hour 8 minutes. Aiming for three miles to end on a long note. No dice. Had to stop due to Milton having tack issues.

Distance this week – 4.46 miles
Time this week – 2 hours 11 minutes
Rides this week – 3 days

Rodney’s Final Stats, Official

Total distance – 100 miles
Total time – 45 hours 26 minutes
Total rides – 52 days
Total calendar – 78 days

Pace, time to go one mile – 27:16 m/m, per VT results page

Rodney’s Final Stats, Unofficial [Moving the Goal Posts]

Total distance – 105.68 miles
Total time – 48 hours 11 minutes
Total rides – 57 days
Total calendar – 78 days. Finished last Sunday. Today is 80. Took liberties with the title.

Milton’s Stats, for comparison [Milton Reaches The Imaginary Finish Line]

Total distance – 100 miles
Total time – 44 hours
Total rides – 49 days
Total calendar – 59 days

Pace, time to go one mile – 26:26 m/m, per VT results page

Numbers rounded off for ease of reporting. May not add up as given.

My Links
Last week [Moving the Goal Posts, Virtual Tevis, 98 Miles and Holding, 73 Days]
[VT Archives]

Official Links
Tevis Cup: Virtual Tevis 2021
RunSignUp: 2021 Tevis Cup – Virtual Western States Trail – 100 Miles in 100 Days
RunSignUp: VT results

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine

Riding

Awareness of the outside world. National Coming Out Day.
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If all goes to plan, I will have had a lesson last Saturday.

Shortly after I finished my extending whinge on the subject, the barn with the waiting list got back to me. Yay! [Looking For Lessons]

I am writing this on Friday and scheduling it for today, so that I don’t have to type over the weekend. As I do. [The Meaning Behind Mondays, Or At Least Behind Monday Posts]

Since Tuesdays are the Virtual Tevis, the lesson report is scheduled for Wednesday’s post. I will try pop in an short update, if I get back to my computer over the weekend.

Kermit Dance!

Ahem. I am planning to be as reticent as I am able. If all goes well, they will know my effervescent self soon enough. No reason to download my entire life story in the first 20 minutes.

Subdued Kermit dance.

Sunday update: Had a lovely time. Am going back for lesson #2 on Wednesday.

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine

Images

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Three stages of weaving on a screen, showing the progression as weave gets tighter.

Top. Holes are as wide as bands.

Middle. Holes are half the size of bands.

Bottom. Holes are one-quarter the size of bands.

I like how the three images show the difference as the holes get smaller. The top looks like a how-to weaving diagram. The bottom looks more woven.

Process notes. Inkscape. Weaving images by brute force. Made little blocks. Copied them. Moved them around. Resized them. The letter filling was equally inelegant. Piled weave blocks on top of each other until they filled an area the size of the letter. Couldn’t figure out how to crop the weaving to the letter. Could figure out how to crop a simple rectangle to the letter. Repeat. Made a mask. Stuck it between the black letter outlines and the blobs of weaving. Turned it white, voila background. GIMP to change file type.

The colors were chosen as temporary filler. By the time I got done mashing everything together, it was no longer possible to Select Same > Fill Color in Inkscape. I could select by color in GIMP but transferring files between the two programs leaves the edges of the objects blurry. The edge pixels are slightly different colors. Too much work to change half a dozen tones. Green & brown it is.

Down The Rabbit Hole

A far more complicated approach yielding far more complicated images, “To produce these simulated textiles, I wrote a simulated loom in software.” Andrew Glassner: Digital Weaving

Computer control of physical fibers. “The TC-2 is a handloom … The heddles are lifted by vacuum and are controlled digitally.” Digital Weaving USA: Resources

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine

Writing

Intro, Or How Did We Get So Far Off Topic?

I want to write for a textile magazine (Waves hi!). In the cover letter, I needed to explain my weaving experience, or lack thereof. I figured I would include links to a few blog posts that talked about weaving. And perhaps a story or two. And that’s getting to be a lot of content. And I know a place I could use a wodge of text. And here we are. The cover letter includes a link to this post, which I have to admit turned out far longer than it would have been in the cover letter.

Weaving & Me

I’m good at weaving. I’m good most handcrafts. Well. I’m not brilliant. I’m not artistic. I understand them and pick them up quickly. Had I been born in a time and place wherein boys went to the barn and girls stayed in the house, I would have spent my time immersed in fiber. And then traded the result with my neighbor who was much better at pies.

A while back, I took a class in finger weaving. Loved it. I quietly hummed along, checking out the examples to see what came next. The instructor would come over, see that I had gotten ahead of my skis, and get frustrated. Understandable, because if I got dazed, lost, and confused, she was the one who would have to sort me out. She would look at what I did, see that I had gotten it right, and go off to help others.

Lest you think I am bragging unnecessarily, I am fully willing to admit where I flail. [The Music, and The Mirror, and The Chance To Dance, One Out Of Three Ain’t Bad]

My first weaving experience was in a home ec class in high school. The assignment was for six feet of cloth. I used all the yarn and came out with five feet of fabric. This would be the beginning of a lifetime of smooshing fibers together as hard as possible.

“I do best when the technique emphasizes one set of threads over the other. Twining is weft-facing. Inkle and tablet weaving are warp facing. In other words, you only see that set of threads. In other words, tightness is a virtue.”

[Introducting Shawlene, Handmade, Wearable Art]

My most recent bout of weaving interest led to my local fiber guild and one-on-one classes with a local weaver. This was in the before times. The weaver helped me buy an inkle loom. Whereupon, I madly wove half a dozen bands, designed several dozen more on my computer, and then halted harder than a reining horse on a power slide.

That particular weaving phase also accumulated a twining loom, two Kumihimo discs, a Scandinavian weaving kit, a tablet-weaving workshop, and enough time with a backstrap loom to realize that I don’t fold that way any more.

If none of those weaving words mean anything to you, think lots of little looms. Some, such as the foam Kumihimo discs, are cheap versions of more elaborate looms. Others, such as the wooden inkle, are fully-developed looms in their own right, used for small projects, such as belts, bands, and straps.

When I took an intro weaving class on the rigid heddle, I discover that a) I do not like rigid heddles and b) I want a tapestry loom. I saw a small upright tapestry loom on a shelf and instantly thought, ‘I must have one.’

I think tapestry would suit me. It is weft-facing, in other words, you make the pattern with the across threads. Tight is good. It tends to be plain weave using blocks of color. It is plot-driven rather than literary style. It is photo journalism rather than fine art photography. I assume you see the trend here.

I haven’t bought a tapestry loom, not even a small, starter one. I already have 5 – maybe 6? – looms that I don’t use. Do I really need to get another one that I won’t use?

I keep meaning to get back to all of this. I have the time. I don’t have the mental space. The little looms do not require large blocks of reserved time. They would be perfect for a few minutes amusement in the evening.

It doesn’t happen. Maybe if riding was less frustrating, I wouldn’t be as mentally drained come evening. [Shoulder Time and Time Off]

But I digress. This post is about weaving. I like it. I don’t seem to get to it. Riding comes first. Are we surprised?

Weaving & Weaving Adjacent Posts

[Blog Logo, Digital Weaving] tomorrow
[Introducting Shawlene, Handmade, Wearable Art] 2021, a weaving purchase
[The New Normal, Fiction Fragment] that year
[Numbers and Weaving, A Short Anecdote] ditto, workshop, top photo
[Blogiversary, Quilty Logo] 2019
[Gotta Start Somewhere, New York City 2018] 2019, weaving as a tourist, bottom photo
[Foto Friday: Weaving With Light] 2016
[Text Art: Fun with Gimp] 2016, #6

If the textile writing gig doesn’t work out, at least I got a blog post out of it.

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine

Fit To Ride

Awareness of the outside world. BBC: Historic go-ahead for malaria vaccine to protect African children, Gallagher, 6 Oct 2021. Wow.
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As usual, park gate was open. 😦

I went to close it.

The latch had been fixed! The swinging fork fit the gate post! 🙂

This made me unreasonably happy.

I was going to add this as an update to the original post. I decided the improvement merited a standalone post. Complaining is easy. I am trying make an effort to note when things go right. [Pet Peeve, Open Gates]

What has gone right for you lately?

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine

Horsekeeping

Awareness of the outside world. Virtual Moundville Native American Festival starts today.

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Stepping Stone Farm

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Mushrooms appear to be a minor but recurring theme here.

2021
[More Mushroom]
[Mini Mushrooms]

2013
“Mushroom hunting riding is not simply a matter of traipsing through the woods after it rains.” Riding correctly is not simply a matter of sitting on the horse holding a certain position. “It is an art, a skill, a meditation, a process.” Me paraphrasing Bone quoting Arora.
[Inspiration Is Everywhere]

2012
[Foto Friday: Field Flora – Mushrooms I]

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine

The Horse World

Awareness of the outside world. “The escapees were part of a larger herd of zebras, also called a dazzle or a zeal …” EQUINE Ink: Five Zebras on the Loose in Maryland.
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An ASB class where over 70% of the riders wore helmets!

Thanks to the livestream video by Eventmix Live, I watched the Saddle & Bridle Working Hunter Classic National Championship, Flat Phase at the St. Louis Charity Horse Show, September 30, 2021. Screenshot above.

Of the 7 entrants, 5 had helmets. The other two wore hunt caps.

Judging by the stills, see below, everyone wore a helmet to jump.

Looking through the Hunter Country Pleasure photos, I counted 7-8 helmets, which is more than usual. The rest wore hunt caps.

What’s the difference?

The Working Hunter class has two phases, jumping and flat. I’m gonna guess that these horses go out and do other things, such as hunters, jumpers, and eventing. If you want to jump your Saddlebred, you have to go outside the ASB shows.

Working Hunter is one class. Everyone shows in both phases. Results are announced after the flat phase, or so I assume from the lack of victory photos in the morning.

Hunter Country Pleasure is flat only. That is the case at most saddle seat shows. One show in our area has a hunter hack class, wherein everyone jumps one (?maybe two) small fence at the end of the class.

HCP has a multitude of different subdivisions, with a Championship for each: Prospect, Adult Amateur, Junior, Masters. Then the big final on Friday night.

Jumpers is jumpers. Per the prizelist, .90m = Fences 2’11” in height; 10 –12 jumps, change of direction. Dunno what happened to the two who did not place. Nothing good, I assume.

Crossovers. All five of the Jumper entries showed in the Working Hunter class. None of the Working Hunters showed in the HCP Final. I did not check the other HCP Championships. Apparently my stalking has limits.

Results screencapped from HorseShowsOnline. I’m hoping they reproduce better than they are looking in the preview.

Curmudgeon Comment

Saddlebreds do their victory pass at a trot. Fine, that’s their tradition. Hunter jumpers do a victory gallop (canter). That’s their tradition. Therefore, I am of the opinion that Saddlebreds showing hunt seat should do their victory pass at a canter. Doesn’t usually happen. In this class, after the victory trot with all ribbon winners, the champion and reserve did a victory gallop. Finally!

Show Photos by Howie Schatzberg

www.howardschatzbergphoto.com > Show Proofs > 2021 > St. Louis Charity > SEPT 30, THURSDAY – MORNING

028A – Saddle And Bridle Working Hunter Final – Fences

030 – ASB Jumper Stake

… > SEPT 30, THURSDAY – EVENING

028B – Saddle And Bridle Working Hunter Final – Flat

This will be me some day.

Past St. L. Posts

[Picking Classes For My Imaginary Horse]

[Saddlebred Versatility, Jumpers]

[I Want It All]

Update. Past helmet posts [Archives].

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine