Shiny Side Up

After a long week of tribulations whose details I will spare, I made it to Friday.  At last it's time for my long-awaited bike ride with my sisters.  Here I am on Growly, my trusty steed of six years.  She and I have been through a lot together, and look forward to many more miles.  Of course, when I really ride, I wear protective gear; this is just a snapshot my friend took for fun.

I have been asked what if anything motorcycles have to do with knitting, and the answer bears more introspection.  The similarities are many:  Both are the kind of thing people tell me they always mean to try one day ("I wish I had the patience to do that!"), both require gobs of practice and huge amounts of concentration.  Both require a degree of courage, which I should add is NOT the absence of trepidation, only the fortitude to press on in the face of it.  Both activities seem to give others a handy tool for pidgeonholing me:  Oh, she's a biker/Oh, she's a knitter.  And both are about as expensive and time-consuming as I choose to let them become.

Tomorrow will be my second day off from knitting since April.  Not that I can bear to leave the knitting at home - I get too squirrelly for that kind of abstinence - I need to know I can always work if I want to.  But I will admit that the rest for my wrists and elbows will be really nice.  I am maybe halfway up the body of the Leopard sweater, so I feel pretty good about its progress.

If somebody asked to see a picture of the real and unvarnished me, I would have to say this is it.  Till next time (I will) keep it shiny side up.