The cycling season is almost here, I am so excited and I can hardly wait for the snow to go away and the sun to start shining more often. The temperatures are still shy but we know that good weather is bound to come soon. 30-40 degree weather is still a bit chilly to take out the bikes and ride around but as soon as that thermometer reaches 60, we are heading out!
Who are we? Well, we are a bunch of gals from the neighborhood, remember Little Red, they are the same gals that rode it and this year we are ready and excited about this new season. Let me introduce you to them: Back row, left-to-right: LM-she is starting to ride with us this season and she just barely got a brand new Jamis Ventura bike in pink! Momber-she is a speedy demon (probably the fastest of us all)! She was riding last season til she was about 8 months pregnant! JW-she is another speedy demon (her and Momber usually are at the lead of the pack). She rode the century last year at Little Red. Nish-she is among the strongest riders in the group. She can go far, she can go fast! Jo-full of energy. She loves to climb and tries to takes us to this huge hill out in Newton every time she gets a chance (nutty!). Second row, left to right: K-a consistent rider. She always ahead riding alongside her hubby. CG-you know her from a previous post, we rode together the entire 78 miles last year at Little Red. Without her, I would have stopped at about 60 miles. She is the best cheerleader a person could have. Supportive and loving! L-she is my hero! She supported me through many of our rides last year, although she could have ridden fast with everyone else, she stayed in the back with me, keeping me company and chatting. I love her to pieces! Me-not much to say about me, lol, slow poke! Front and center: our lovely DD-She is amazing! She is fast as heck and with her new wheels she breezes through the rides. We are a bunch of friends together for a purpose: to share in our friendship and to support each other through active sports. Although cycling has brought us together, we tend to do many other activities together: movies, dinner, holiday dinners, etc., we have become a close group of friends.
Cycling is our main focus and we try to go out and ride together as much as possible. We clock in hundreds of miles and we have fun doing it.This year around though we are changing things a bit. We will still ride for the joy of it but we are putting a little twist into it, we are going to ride for more than just us. We will be riding to raise money for different causes, we are going to ask/beg to be sponsored for our miles in some of the major events. For Little Red we are planning a fund raiser to benefit a family in our neighborhood whose child is suffering from cancer. The little girl is three years old and is currently down in Salt Lake City at a special hospital. As you can imagine, the family is devastated and they are handling it the best way they can and try to keep a positive attitude about the situation. We have been touched by their situation and we would like to help them somehow. In brainstorming we have come up with the idea of Riding for Others fund. There are 10 of us and we would like to raise $250 each, for a total of $2,500. I have been thinking of different ways that I could do this, many of my friends are going to ask their co-workers, employers, since I don't work (outside of the home) I am going to come up with some creative ways of raising the money.
Ideas going through my head: I have lots of yarn that I am not using or plan to use so maybe I'll put it up for sale with all the proceeds to go to the fund. Also, I have a ton of loom knitted stuff that I have done for the different books and I am not going to use it or plan to use it so I may put it for sale directly or maybe have it as a raffle where people buy an entry for $1 and the more entries you buy the more chances you have to win.
Also, if anyone just want to sponsor me (without getting anything out of it) for the miles that I will ride that would be awesome too. By the way, right now, I am planning on riding 80 miles....some of my friends are tempting me with the century but I don't know if my hands can handle it (last year, the ulnar nerve on my left hand got fried and I couldn't use the hand for about a month).
The concept of Riding for Others has all ten of us fired up. We are excited and we are eager to make a difference in someone's life with our riding. We can't do it alone though, like all great things, we need the help of those around us to succeed. I will brainstorm a bit more on how to go about the fund raiser and I will post here when I kick off the fund raiser, I only have a three months or so to raise a minimum of $250.
Cabled Mitts Pattern for Ride for Others Fund raiser: buy one, buy two, buy 10!
To get things started, I have put the Cabled Mitts pattern for sale. All the proceeds from this pattern will go to the Ride for Others Fund. Help a girl out and get a cute pattern too. You can buy more than one pattern too :) (if you want to help me more). PS: Here is a gallery of finished Cabled Mitts to give you some inspiration.
Read more about the Cabled Mitts Pattern for the looms.
$1.50
1st Prize winner gets the Petal Hardgreaves Kit, enough yardage to knit the size Large. 
and
I am riding for another great cause this summer. I have signed up to ride 75 miles on the 
