The Monday Spin

For those of you who would like to see more fiber than shoe, click here.

Spinning this week has consisted primarily of the kind in the background. Now that I'm back at my favorite DC gym cycling with my grrls, I'm starting to remember the things that I liked so much about this place. It takes a while to make friends, and although I have wonderful fiber grrls in LA, I still haven't come close to making the cycling friendships that I cultivated here. Sunday was a particularly nice day for riding, so I suited up and went out into the cold (I've got a Mind of Winter, remember?) with my friend Bonnie and we did a lap or so around the National Arboretum. Our vigorous outing was punctuated by stops to check out the gardens, and ended with a tour of the Bonsai exhibit, which we had all to ourselves over a nice mug of hot cocoa and peppermint schnaps (Bonnie makes a mean cocoa). Later this week we plan to cycle at Mount Vernon. Life is good.

The cycling shoes pictured are my decade-old Nikes, which I've been using since my first foray into clipless pedals. After all this time, the left shoe came unglued, but Moxie, always the economical one, had at it with some adhesive cement, and it withstood the Arboretum ride quite well. We'll see how much more I can get out of these faithful friends.

The fiber is my San Capistrano BFL. This time I'm spinning it more finely, in the hopes that when I ply it, I'll end up with a nice aran to dk weight yarn. Perhaps I can get some hand-warmers out of it. I have it on good authority that the pattern for these beauties will be out in Spindlicity later this week. Perhaps I'll have to whip some up. Speaking of, Marnie isn't the only lucky girl to work her way into Spindlicity's Premiere Issue. Look for my article on my newly acquired hobby and pick up some tips on how you can get started, too!

Redrocks of Utah

As promised, here are a few of my redrock pictures for Margene.

View of the beginning of the road into Arches National Monument.

This was my sixth trip across the country, and my fifth time going through Arches National Monument in Moab, Utah. (I once made the mistake of driving through New Mexico instead.) Since this trip was a solo endeavor I was able to choose my path without input from Moxie, who is more efficient and less sentimental than I. It was therefore a rather circuitous path from DC to LA. My goals for the drive were to see beautiful places that I missed, see great friends that I missed, and get some exercise on the way. I took the northern route through Cleveland, Chicago, and Ogallala (Nebraska) across Colorado and then down through Moab and Phoenix. I went to a spin class in Chicago, ran around a beautiful lake in Ogallala, and cyled through Arches in Utah. These pictures are from the cycling portion of the journey. It's hard to run with a camera, and I figured that you might not find Chicago's Lakeshore Athletic Club or Phoenix's Chirstown Y that enthralling. Just guessing.

It was a really wonderful trip full of good friends, great food, and fresh air. Quite the perfect way to start out a new chapter of life.

I thought I was pretty clever getting a shot of the cyclista in here.

I also got to drive through Monument Valley. It's red as well, but in the middle of the day the landscape is so washed out that you're better off with black and white photographs:

I apologize for the lack of sock photographs. Over the last few months I have found that I differ from the usual intrepid knit blogger in at least one aspect: although I love my knitting I can't bring myself to stick a sock in the middle of a landscape. Or in the hands of some bemused (and often becostumed) stranger. I enjoy it when you guys do it, I just can't do it myself. Not everyone can be a Harlot, right?*

Next scenic tour? Yosemite.

*This from the woman who made her socks run a Presidential campaign. Don't ask me what the difference is.