Tim Makes the News with Woolly Bears!

 Not only is Tim the owner of the barn where I keep Abby, but he and his wife, Loni, are some of our dearest friends. We see them a lot between barn and church, plus Loni worked with Craig until he retired.

Craig, Tim, and Loni when we all hiked out to a Great Blue Heron rookery for some bird watching together.

A professor of entomology here at Purdue, Tim was interviewed this week by the Indianapolis Star for an article about woolly bears and the legend behind them.

Tim giving Abby a trim.

Hailing from western Canada, that "Canadian cowboy" surfaced at times in the article and made me smile when I read it. (He mentioned the horses, too!) Some cut and paste pieces are below; click the link above if you want to see the whole article. Enjoy!

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Purdue entomology professor Timothy Gibb said besides entomologists, people don't notice woolly bears until September. Then, they're everywhere.

"They migrate from the plants that they've been feeding on and for some inexplicable reason, they decide they've got to move," Gibb said. "I can park on the road and see one going one direction and another going the other direction, and they're just bootin' along. They don't even stop to say hi to each other. They're on a race to somewhere, but nobody knows where."

Despite the randomness of the caterpillars' travels, Gibb said it's safe to assume they're looking for a place to stay the winter.

Stories about the woolly bear's ability to drop some prophetic winter knowledge mostly seem to center on the caterpillars' stripes, as noted above from the National Weather Service. 

Gibbs said just based on the unscientific nature of measuring the stripes alone, the folklore isn't true. But he isn't against it either.

"I'm kind of in favor of having some folklore; it's fun," Gibb said. "But on the same token, there's not a chance that these are smart enough to predict the weather. We have meteorologists that are employed, that go to school a long time and still can't predict the weather, how do you expect this little insect to do it?"

Gibb said while it may be possible the hair on the caterpillars' bodies also plays a role in keeping them warm, there isn't any scientific evidence of it. Woolly bears' natural antifreeze and their instinct to burrow under leaves and other organic debris are their real survival tools. Gibb, who has horses, said he sees the woolly bears asleep during the winter months under hay in his barn.

Woolly bears can be irresistible to touch, especially for children, and Gibb said although some fuzzy caterpillars have stinging hairs that are poisonous, black and brown woolly bears are not toxic and can be touched without fear.

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Tim laughing at Abby - she'd fallen asleep during her hoof-icure!

Stitch On!

Now that the riding habits are done, I can spend more time working on haversacks and embroidered items for Horsiemama's Haversacks & Mercantile.

Orders that came in while I was sewing the riding habits were completed, and they provided a nice break from the intense concentration required by the habits. 

One customer wanted two haversacks in the Palominos fabric that would fit the Hamilton and Emerson molds. I had a model on the Hamilton mold that I could check for fit,

but I don't have an Emerson. She said that Man O'War was about the same size and that if he fit, 

then Emerson should too. Despite the way these models look due to the camera angle, they both easily fit into the Palominos haversacks and so I was able to complete her order. (The first photo without a model has the Hamilton model inside the haversack.)

I knew this customer had graduated from Purdue, and I had some Purdue fabric in my stash that I offered to her. She took it all!

It was a big order of seven haversacks, but I got them done and she has already used them for a show last weekend.

Just because I am working on a major project like the riding habits doesn't mean I am not keeping an eye on fabric sales.

I have about fifteen new fabrics that I cannot wait to make into haversacks.

Some are not your typical horsey fabric (like these plaid saddles), but to me, finding unusual fabrics is part of the fun of making and selling haversacks.

Sometimes if the scale is unusually large or small, I photograph it with a model to help show the scale. This ladies western shirts fabric is cool, but the scale of the shirts would not work well on a Stablemate sized haversack.

I've got some Christmassy/holidays fabrics ready to stitch up

and some that are just plain fun (although this would work for Halloween, too.)

Currently I have four orders to finish and bring to the October Great Lakes Congress show, and then some gifts to make for Happy Trails which is the week before GLC.

The riding habits may be done, but there is still a lot of stitching to be done on my work table!

18th Century Riding Habits: At the End

Finally, and heaving a sigh of relief as I type, Lisa's riding habit is DONE! With four days left on my October 1 deadline.

The hem was 125" around and I had to hand stitch it due to the depth of the hem. (The line of machine stitches you see above is stay stitching, not the hemline.) 

I am still experimenting with 18th century stocks and have made several different styles. Lisa is leaning toward this one.

This is a jabot and another style I am trying. I don't have a pattern, so I borrowed this one from my sister and used it to figure out my own pattern.

As for my riding habit, I should finish that up tomorrow. I just need to finish hand stitching the hem and I'm done.

This photo is from a fitting - I wanted to be sure the waistcoat was pinned correctly into the jacket before I hand stitched that in.

I was going to make myself a jabot or stock, but I already have a beautiful fichu that my mother made me, and I think I will wear that instead.

Me wearing the fichu. For the riding habit, I will tuck it in more so that the collar of the habit shows rather than spread the fichu out over my shoulders like it is here.

 

Lisa and I would like to make our own hats to wear on October 9, and now that the habits are essentially done, that is my next focus. 

We've got the hats and an assortment of feathers to use

and the supplies to make our own cockades. 

Having said that, although we hope we get the hats completed, they are not a priority.

I have two hats already, and Lisa has my mother's hat from her days of attending historical reenactments, so making hats is not a necessity.

We also have our riding crops to modify - I did some research and pig whips resemble most what 18th century riding crops looked like and just need a little tweaking. Those are on order and scheduled to arrive Thursday along with silk stockings for us to wear under the habits.

Photo from Burnley & Trowbridge Company. 

We got the fabrics and patterns for the riding habits in July and I started working on them the first week of August. That's two full months of sewing, five to six days a week!

Just one (very long) hem still left to hand stitch before I am finished.

Give Me an S!

 In order to honor Karen Crossley, a Canadian hobbyist and active blogger who unexpectedly passed away in July, 2020, Jennifer Buxton, Anne Field, and I are finishing Karen's project of going through her collection by alphabet and talking about the models whose names began with those letters. 

Today's letter is S, and I have a slew of models whose names begin with that letter! 

Something Blue - a 1960s wedgewood Running Foal. 

Skip-Bo - a Lakeshore Houdini who is named after one of our family's favorite card games.

This Metlox Poppytrail Drafter/Circus Horse, Snowdrift, is a big boy who came from Karen Grimm's collection during Clinky Mania in 2018. Teresa Rogers kindly picked him up and mailed him to me since I could not attend the event.

Cybis made Poppy, the Performing Circus Pony and I renamed him Snowball.

Scojeadon, named after the real Quarter Horse mare I cared for throughout junior high and high school, is a Parr's Dream Doll resin painted by Janis Whitcomb in the early 2000s.

Segovia, a Breyer porcelain that was a special run at BreyerFest in 2004.

Salutation, a 2005 Collectors Choice (I love Kathleen Moody's Missouri Fox Trotter mold!)

Santanna, a no-warpaint 1970s Indian Pony.

Silverado, one of a handful of Stones in my collection.

And last but not least, Sultanna, my 2020 NaMoPaiMo horse and named after Abby's pasture mate!

The real Sultanna.

No, I Don't Collect...

 Anne Field wrote an interesting post this week about telling ourselves one thing when we really are doing the opposite. She shared how she congas Django, belongs to the Premier and Stablemate Clubs, and yet tells herself that she does not collect OF plastic.

Could I ever relate to that! There are a lot of things that I don't collect, either.

Stablemates? Are you kidding - I'm a Traditional-size collecting girl.

Neither do I collect dogs - those pieces are on my shelves because they remind me of someone or a dog I once had. Or, they were too cute to leave behind at an antique shop.

Horse books? Or just plain ol' books? Only some special ones. (But don't look in all those boxes and tubs I've got tucked into the closet.)

Medallions like this 2012 Lynn Fraley thank you medallion for attending a fundraising show for cancer are pretty, but not for me. Yes, this one has its own special stand, and yes, there are other medallions on stands next to it, but that doesn't mean I collect them.

Bridle rosettes?

Okay, I maybe sorta do have a small collection of them, but I am not ACTIVELY looking for them so they don't really count, do they?

These  buttons are being kept for their historical significance, NOT because I collect them.

I've heard of people who collect variations.

They collect the same color on the same mold because of small differences in how the model was painted.

 

Who has the shelf space to collect something like that?

Thelwell ponies are cute (so are the books, but like I said, don't go through those boxes and tubs in my closet),

but having a fairly large assortment of them does not constitute a "collection" of them.

Mini Whinnies? HO and N scale horses? Dolls? Flamingos? Honestly, just because I have a few of something does not mean I collect it. 

So, what do you "not collect"? I'd love to do a blog post featuring photos from readers of things they don't collect. Interested in participating? Send photos and a little info about them to me at horsiemama8@gmail.com. In a week or two, I'll share them here.

Stay 'tooned!