Cycling & Knitting

For a few weeks, I get to post about two of my favorite things for the Tour de France KAL!

Today, Jeff and I got up early and were on the bikes by 5:30am to avoid riding in the hot sun later. It actually felt a little chilly as we started out which was a refreshing change from recent rides. It was great not to be slathered with sticky sunscreen too (it makes every bug stick to me).

As we made our way to the beaches, we passed this pasture with sleepy cows. There were various types of herons and water birds wading in the little cow pond.

Apparently beach goers aren't morning people. In the afternoon, you can hardly see any sand on this beach for all the people with their towels, umbrellas, coolers, etc. There was just one guy on a tractor smoothing out the sand. That's 'Hanging Rock' in the distance, a wave cut cliff.

I just like this building. It looks quite European, like many of the buildings around Newport.

When the surf is rough, this is one of the places we sometimes get splashed as we bike, but it was still and foggy this morning.

You can just see the outline of a mansion in the mist. This one looks a lot like a castle with the turrets.

Here's a pic of Jeff. We rode 25 miles.

There has been lots of time for knitting in this hot weather and I have used up one ball of yarn and completed the lace ribbing for the back section.

When I knit a little further along, I will be able to spread the ribbing out to properly show you the lace pattern.

I'm really delighted by the texture and color of the yarn. It is very evenly spun for the most part and I only had a little trouble with one yarn splice that I found *after* I had knit it into the lace and gone another row and a half! I had to frog back a little to break the yarn and leave out the fuzzy splice.

After completing the six inches of lace, you are directed to do a number of M1's across the next (knit) row. I didn't like the look of the M1's right up against the pattern stitches, so I frogged that first attempt at the increase row and then did a knit row and a purl row followed by the increase row. I think it looks better to have a little buffer of two rows between the pattern stitches and the increases. Hopefully it won't make any difference in how it seams or wears! Oh, I didn't worry about 'direction' for the M1's and just did them all the same since they hardly show.

Because I am trying to include French things in my pictures, I've pictured my knitting along with a bottle of Bordeaux that I happen to have stored in the little wine rack on my buffet. The logo for the wine is a sheep/ram's head. It's called Mouton Cadet and I use the entire bottle of it in my Boeuf Bourguignon! The recipe I use is from Barefoot Contessa in Paris. I really recommend it, but if you are experiencing hot summer weather like we are, I suggest you save this recipe for a cool autumn day.

I have visited most of the TdFKALer's blogs now and am so inspired by all the great projects underway!