CrossFit's going great, thanks.

Yeah, that's my boyfriend in the knee high socks, naturally reclining like that.



And that's one of the co-owners of the CrossFit gym I attend, who saw an opportunity and made it happen.



In other news, my camera needs to be cleaned. That beautiful vaseline effect isn't actually intended, the light was hitting all the dust piled up in and on my lens.

Team Pegasus West Coast Kit 2012

Some may know, some may not, that Cale started up a Pegasus contingent in California called TPWC, or Team Pegasus West Coast. The colors are the same old Pegasus Pink (100% Magenta) and a lime green that I hope prints lime green. While I didn't do this year's Midwest (and everywhere else) design, I had started TPWC much earlier. I declined to do the Midwest design because I'm feeling a little out of ideas for Pegasus kit. Or, to look at it a different way, I came up with ideas but I thought they were weak and not that original. Hmmm...

Anyway, the TPWC kit had a couple of cool features I'm liking so far. The left justified logos on the back are doing it for me. I'm also kinda stoked about the 'off registration' lines around the pegasus on the front. It shows just a hint of color, as if the light is hitting a glass Pegasus and it's casting colors onto the jersey. It's nothing totally new, but I was excited to try it.





As with years past, there will be a white kit as well.





The shorts are.... okay. The stripe will (should) line up with the jersey, so I'm hoping that it looks good. It's hard to say, though. Maybe it will make people's torsos look freakishly long. Maybe the jog over to the side of the leg will look awkward. I think these kinds of difficult details are what make a race kit look good, if you can get them right. But sometimes you only know if you got it right when you finally see someone wearing the kit.

I nearly went with black Pegasus on black jersey (and white on white). I think it looks great and pops on-screen, but may have lost a little when printed. And if that happened, who would want a black jersey with colored sleeves and, oh, now that I'm closer I finally see a weency little outline of a winged horse. The risk was too great! Sorry, black on black.



So, everyone cross your fingers and hope that all shapes show up as planned on the kit. Champ-Sys is usually great at turning my drawings into the correct forms to fit a 3D surface, but I'll still take good thoughts. So send them our way!

Bear Scarf

A few months ago I made this scarf as a surprise for a friend who loves bears. The stuffed animal bear head is actually a hat he already owned.



It's a very simple crocheted scarf I made extra thick by crocheting two types of yarn at once- a trick I like to do a lot. The 'claws' (which really remind me of Bugles) are just basically tubes made increasingly small until they taper to a point. There's the correct way to do things... and then there's my way.

The Wonderful World of Knitting

Biking? Nope! I've definitely been doing more crafts than cycling lately. Robb and I are taking a knitting class every Tuesday night and learning new tricks. Rather than samplers, I made a bunch of washcloths in different patterns so they'd be useful. I used some cotton yarn I had around so this is really quite the thrifty endeavor.





I've been using up some yarn from my stash and making some quick and easy hats. Today I will be tackling pom-poms for the tops of them. Big day!



One evening we went to the yarn store in the Arcade and then hit up our favorite book store, the Battery Park Book Exchange, and sit and read and sip wine and eat a cheese plate. Who says we don't know how to have fun? This is seriously a very cool place, though somewhat loud some nights. The combination of drinks and large seating areas for groups can be a deadly annoying combo.



As seen at the yarn store, yarn with Possum in it. I tend to want a 2:1 ratio of Possum to Organic Cotton, but what can you do?

Absences, and Le Art

Well, it's been a while! So long in fact that someone has commented on my absence, and family members who read my blog are calling me to see if I've died, or maybe just gone into a coma. Truth be told, I haven't been taking many good pictures, and/or I don't feel like posting. In the world of blogs, sometimes I just don't feel like I've done anything interesting enough to make people read about it, and from my Blogger stats, it looks like only 6 people read this thing on any given day. Although, I think that maybe the number's actually so large it confuses the internet into spitting out erroneous numbers. Yep. Probably that.

Anyway, over the next couple of days I'll try to post up some stuff I've done in the past couple of weeks. Rather than start with the older stuff, I'll go with what I did yesterday since it's still new and exciting to me.

I do some portrait modeling for an art league here in Asheville, and recently we've been meeting at one of the members' house since they're between facilities, waiting for the new one to be finished. This is the layout, with me missing from the model's stand.



It's a nice set-up and the woman hosting us is so gracious- coffee and tea for all, and sometimes people bring snacks. It's one of the more relaxed classes I've been a part of. There's lots of great art from this group, but for brevity's sake I'll just post one portrait of me, from the same day as the picture above.



So, with all of that as background, yesterday I finally scraped together the courage to join them to draw. They're all quite talented, and it's been such a long time since I've drawn, and I don't think I've ever sat down to do a portrait. I was slow to choose a medium and start (charcoal, graphite stick, water soluble pencil, conte crayon, conte pencil....) but eventually I chose a graphite stick and got down to it. I was thinking I would do a couple of sketches over the three hour period, but wound up just working on one drawing the whole time:



It's not a great work of art, but I'm very happy with how it went. Every time I draw after a long time away, I'm kind of astonished at how it all comes back. Like there's this talent that lies dormant and even though I don't see it or feel it, when I sit down to draw it's right there, same as always. That probably sounds like I'm full of myself, but there are many shades of 'talent', and there are so many people more talented than I am. My point is that the abilities that I can lay claim to are are still there, not that I'm God's gift to art. GOT IT? Good.

Now for some more practice.

Good ol' Bent Creek

Just shy of two years ago, now, I took my first photo at five points at Bent Creek.



I took this photo this past week, the very same day that Milwaukee was getting snow! It was nearly 50 degrees out, and really nice and warm in the sun. Short sleeves and shorts! There's no way to put this nicely, so....

Nana nana boo boo!



Sorry it's terrible and cold where you are.

Later on in the ride, though, karma repaid me and I got a flat. But it was still nice out, suckers!

Sleigh Ride '11

Also around Christmas, a bunch of us bundled up and went for a sleigh ride. Luckily, there was just enough snow. Our family and friends filled one sleigh pulled by a team of these leggy black Percherons, and behind then you can just see a team of Belgians.





Here most of us are, smiling for the camera,



and here we are in our natural state, which is a kind of constant movement, usually in search of things or people misplaced :)



Here we are, stopped for a breather.



And here we are at the halfway point, stopping for hot chocolate... and hot chocolate with booze in it, for those who didn't bring a thermos of their own.



It's a lovely sight to see two teams of horses parked in the lot of a north woods bar, isn't it? It was nice to get inside and warm up before heading back out for the return trip, which was lit only by the lights on the sleigh.