Black Beauty Rides On

The fifth pattern in Lit Knits was inspired by Anna Sewell's book, Black Beauty, which was published in 1877. Black Beauty Rides On is a toe-up sock pattern featuring hoof prints that are flanked on either side by cart tracks. During much of the book, Black Beauty pulls carriages and carts, so his tracks would often be accompanied by wheel ruts.

I talked a little bit about the photo shoot during a March blog post. But now that I can actually show the socks, I have a few more details to add. First off, we were really luck to get permission to be in a field full of horses. And many of these guys were curious. At one point in the shoot, we had a series of horses come up behind the model. We didn't want to startle the horses (or the model) so every time a horse would sneak up, we'd say "Horse behind you!"

"Horse behind you!" 

This lasted for awhile. 

One of the shots I was hoping to get was to have the horse's face right next to the socks. The horses were pretty uninterested in grazing right next to socks, so we brought out our secret weapon: apples and carrots. It turns out that it's pretty hard to get a good sock shot next to a horse nibbling fruits and veggies. It does lead to some good outtakes, though.

There were quite a few good shots I wasn't able to use for the book. Either the horse was looking perfect but the socks weren't in focus, or the socks were well positioned but the horse turned suddenly, so all you could see was it's rump. 

But when everything lined up, it was pure magic.

Horses Are Worse Than Bears

Wednesday was an adventure. I was able to cross off another photo shoot for The Book, but Mum, Alina, and I worked for it. I was able to get permission to take pictures in a field of horses. Last time I was in the field, it took five minutes to find the dozen and half horses. This time.... well, we found some other things before we found the horses, including a wood rat nest.

A half hour later Alina spotted them in the field we had passed previously. Apparently we all moved at about the same rate around the trees. It was a relief to find them. I thought they would continue grazing, but three of them decided to be a welcoming committee. Mum called them worse than bears because they had to taste EVERYTHING. I now have horse spit on my camera bag.

Photo courtesy of Mum

They didn't let up in their curiosity, so I parked the golf cart in front of all our stuff. Once we took the good stuff away, they decided to leave.

Photo courtesy of Mum

It took us over two hours of just picture taking, but I was able to get every picture that I had envisioned taking. All in all it was a great success.

Photo courtesy of Mum

I took some fun pictures too. 

I can't wait to have this book done so I can show you all the final photos. Only three more shoots to go!