I've ridden my bike in the snow for years. It could be a bit like riding on the beach. (Powdery snow might behave like sand.) Sadly, the above is not my bike. My bike died... from being ridden in the snow. This bike is an awesome retro-ride that Claxton found at a thrift store, the Vista Sophisticate.
No mountain bike tread on these tires. Also, those great old fenders are fantastic on a rainy day but not much of a friend to one who needs to peddle through a snow drift. But, because I procrastinated shopping for a cheapo Winter / Snow bike I took the Sophisticate out and got pretty far from the house before finally admitting that, under these conditions riding this bike was anything but (sophisticated).
In order to keep from becoming too despondent I pretended I was helping a sickly dog sled team through the last leg of the deepest, most trecherous parts of an untamed stretch of Alaskan wilderness. (It was all up to me to save them.) The pretend sled team was lost somewhere in the Yukon when I noticed I was actually riding past a potential hand spinner's paradise: Superior Fly Angler Shop. Time to rest the dogs and search for feathers!
Let me simply say right now I WILL be returning to this shop. I was treated as if I were a professional angler preparing for the fly fishing olympiad. You'd think they had folks bicycling through snow storms every day to purchase yarn-making feathers. And the selection was fantastic. Look! Chartreuse!
Can't wait to blend up a matching woolen batt and start spinning!
(That is if I can ever stop COILING!)
Just when I thought I couldn't be any more addicted to woolen activity I'm revisited by Jacey Bogg's anchoring ideations (she's on the cover of the Winter 09 Spin Off Magazine) and Lexi Boeger's beehive behaviors and, now I can't stop spinning coily beehivey, funky-plied skeins. How many yards of this does one need? Well, apparently as many as one can possibly spin in every free, waking moment.
This kind of twisted definitely needs its own pattern book. Too much fun to knit and crochet!
1 comment:
Well hot damn- that is awesome! That would make the coolest black/white/gray scarf. Love it.
I personally think you are nuts for riding your bike. This is coming from a person who is overly irritated that somedays I have to walk ALL THE WAY to the front door of the office because I can't find my swipe card. :)
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