Pony lovers and horsey fans … you’re gonna love this one! This sweet little wall hanging was made as a unique commissioned make for a local pony owner.
She had seen an owl wall hanging that I’d made for another local customer and asked if I could do something with a shetland pony on for her. She had some ideas of what she wanted, sent me some photos of her little darlings and I did some sketches.
All was great with the design, so I got started, I ordered a wooden horseshoe to use as the structure and this would determine the size. Whilst waiting for it to arrive though I ran into a problem, well two actually! … I couldn’t find a suitable pattern, even to adapt or the right yarn colour!!!! Not such a problem for the pattern really, I knew exactly what I wanted so just wrote my own but arrrrrgh matching a yarn to the pony colours was a nightmare.
Browns are a very tough colour to match in nature. They are often too artificial looking but this was only part of the problem. I just couldn’t find the right shade. I went to my local wool shops in Inverness and even tried a little further afield in Nairn. Stress of yarn shopping aside, I was very impressed by how incredibly helpful the ladies in these wee shops were, both Magpie Wool & Crafts and the Nairn Wool Shop spent ages with me trying to help. I did find the perfect colour but not the right yarn arrrrgh! But being a total yarnaholic I bought it anyway, of course 😂 Don’t worry though said yarn is currently being transformed into a cuddly cutie and a progress post will be up soon followed by a cute new pattern.
Back to the pony and a long story shorter, I found the perfect yarn and bought it online from my fav shop Deramores (an affiliate link so I get a wee tiny commission if you order through it, costs you nothing extra and helps me out) and I pinched a scrap of charcoal yarn from my lovely friend and fellow yarnaholic Angelina of Angel’s Gladrags who just happens to live just around the corner from me, very handy indeed!
So pony made, alls great. I had planned to stiffen the head to make it sit well but decided instead to mount it on stiff card and it worked perfectly.
My original design was to have flowers as rivets on the horseshoe but once I’d made the pony I thought rosettes were more fitting and as with all my commissions I asked the customer what she thought and what colour preferences she had. She chose red and gold rosettes. But oh my goodness another snag, no suitable patterns out there in pattern land. So yep, I designed my own, it’s super simple and I will have a wee free tutorial ready to share really soon (this one is written and is a draft blog post!)
Given the shortage of pony patterns I might write up the pattern for the pony too, if there is any interest.
So there we are, a beautiful commission made and more patterns created in it’s making. I just need to get my Writing up Patterns head on now!
Please let me know what you think, lovely readers.
Thank you
x💜x
Well, I’m impressed! You not only hunt down a good colour match but also design almost every element of the piece! It looks so cute and a good yarny version of the real thing – I might be tempted to paint the yarn to get the light and shading right but then it might just look silly 🙂
Thank you for your lovely comment. My initial thoughts were of a crocheted horseshoe strengthened with wire to hold the shape but when I found the wooden shape I decided it would be much better. Wait ’til you see the yarn I bought … texture 💕 but it just wasn’t for this xx
Really good job! Looks so adorable 😍
Aww thank you x