And after that, a tail~:>

This is the second guy I did.  He comes from a Danish book called Knitting For Children—provoking little designs that are supposed to be made up into toys either for children or by them.  But the translation is confusing, and because of that, you can see all kinds of permutations of this pattern on Etsy, each of them dependent on the knitter’s reading of the pattern.

(When my sister visited this spring, she picked up this guy, tucked him under her chin, gave me a hard look and said, “I want this horse.”  I smiled.  Of COURSE she did—he’s soft and handsome and I made him.  But he’s also my prototype.  “I’ll make you one,” I said (Oh, the empty promises!).  But she wasn’t buyin’ it.  “I want THIS horse,” she said, and the look got harder. “I want it NOW.”  I know how to deal with small people who say this,  but a half-century old sister?

She went home without him.  But when I went to Texas to visit, I smuggled the rest of that skein plus my knitting needles into the state and made a horse for her right under her very nose.  So there are two of these pretty boy horses now floating around in this world.)

I really didn’t like some of the things about the book pattern (assuming I read it right), but I did like the collected neck.  And I like stockinette stitch.   So I took what I learned from my first horse, mixed it up with what I learned from the second horse and made a new guy:

He’s cotton.  I wanted something that wouldn’t stretch out easily so I could see his lines.  His nose is too long, but I liked his shoulder.  He has ears.  I got that far before I started yet a new guy.

I tend to work from large original to tiny finished things.  I don’t know why I like small.  I’ve gotta work fast if I want to turn out the requisite too-many small horses (too many is what I always end up with, and can’t stand to give up any of them, idiot that I am); I don’t know how many years of eyesight there are left in my future.  If he doesn’t end up Christmas Ornament sized, it will be something of a miracle.

Anyway, I really liked his look.  But there were still a couple of things I wanted to try.  Really, I should give him ears and a mane and tail – but I use him as a reference.

I didn’t take a picture of the original guy with these two, but I should have.  That first pretty boy is six and a half inches at the withers.  The cotton guy is maybe five and a half.  The little white dude – maybe three inches, if that.

So here, I worked a little bit of variation in the neck and head.  Went a little Arabian with the nose.  But I didn’t like the top curve of his neck, and his shoulder was too thick, neck too thin.  He’s a little taller.

This is the guy I ended up with.  He’s about half an inch smaller than Little White Guy.  But I like his proportions.

This is not a horse.  He’s a donkey.  An Alan Dart donkey who I think is pretty darn adorable.  I don’t know how he snuck in here.

Here are the little guys, all lined up.  The big one’s head would be almost out of the picture.

And that’s my journey.  While Rachel is gaily making all kinds of things, including sweaters of all designs and animals of all kinds, I am still making horses.  One after the other.  I think I may have it almost right now.  Maybe.  But who knows?  And I think, maybe, it’s time to address that equine baldness –

Ps.  This is only ONE reason why I don’t try Mar’s recipes or write a book or do genealogy.   But I have gotten my house to the point where I almost feel like it’s home again.  Except for the cupboards which, while being generally re-organized, are still full of things I’m going to “go through” some day.  Yeah.  Soon.