Winter Cycle Chic.

So, yeah, I was gabbing on about the bloody joys of winter last week, extolling the virtues of cold weather, blah, blah, blahdy blah. Now I'm cold. And to pile wind upon rainy days, I went and made a resolution to start cycling to work again. In January. (Please refrain from calling me names amounting to "fool", "idiot", or "chump" in the comments section please, I already know.) But with cycling apparently comes lovely things like "good health" and "all the money I'll be saving" by not riding the nice, warm, cosy bus. (Ok, I also know that London buses are at best only mildly gross, but still.) And now it's even snowed here in London, so I am really feeling a little bit like a crazy person, thinking I could cycle in winter. So some investigations were made and as always, knitters never let me down. I am thinking I need to stay WARM. Type in "bike" into the ravelry pattern search and more than a few pretty awesome projects come up. For instance, I am intrigued by these bike helmet ear warmers by Amy O'Neill Houck. They're clever because they're like little cosies that slip on to the straps of your helmet without making you look like a complete dork (and it's a free pattern - extra points). Saying that, I tend to look like a dork anyway with my bike helmet on, but I'd rather look like a dork than, say, crack my skull open if I get into an accident, which, let's face it, with my cycling skills... I digress. Ears warm, non-dork, all good. Alternatively, there's this also very nice under-the-helmet hat, which, if I didn't have ginormous hair, I would totally go for. Plus, let's face it, it's modelled by a very handsome man:

And then there's the rather lovely collection of patterns from Natalie Selles called Knitting Cycle Style. I am particularly taken with the Pennyfarthing Legwarmers and Armwarmers (pictured top). How cute are these? Would need to wear them over tights and such of course. So, warm ears? Check. Warms arms? Check. Warm legs? Check. Now for a giant wrap to keep my neck warm. The knitting equivalent of winter's worst enemy, or kryptonite, if you will. Jared Flood to the rescue: I think either his Guernsey Wrap or the stunning Terra would do the job very nicely indeed.

I also love this pattern from last autumn's Interweave Knits by Andrea Rangel:

Now we've got all the patterns sorted, what about yarn? Cycling-inspired yarn, you say? Your wish is my command. I present to you this lovely hand-dyed blue-face leicester in the colourway "Gentleman Cyclist" by cycling dyer extraordinaire Made in Hackney. No excuses now.