My ears are burning…but in a good way

You know when you get up in the morning with the intention of going out on your bike?  Yes, you really fancy an energising blast that’ll set you up for the rest of the day.  While making your coffee, you observe that the breeze looks…refreshing.  Great, it’ll cool you down as you warm up on your ride.  The sun keeps peeping out.  That’s a dose of vitamin D right there.  Another good reason to stick to your plan.  But as a plastic flowerpot bowls along the path and the branches of distant trees appear to shiver, that’s the point when you turn right round and go back to bed, or at least say, no, it’s too windy, too cold, it looks like rain and, doh, another ride bites the dust.

Well, that’s me when I imagine the cold wind nibbling at my ears and sideways draughts lashing my head.  Easily solved, you say.  A hat, or a head band.  A balaclava.  Well, hats and headbands make my head itch.  A balaclava makes me look murderous.  What to do.  I searched the internet and found the perfect pattern – that was no longer available.  But I remember borrowing a book about craft bombing your bike with just that pattern in it.  Once again, my local library saved the day and voilà, in not much more than a couple of hours, I had a set of toasty ear warmers, the colours of which co-ordinated with my cycle helmet.  Do they work?  You bet.  Knitted in chunky yarn and double thickness to maximise the warmth, they are perfect.  The pattern even incorporates a cable stitch on the outer piece and good old stocking stitch for the inner piece so they are most definitely warm as well as looking pretty intricate (but they’re really easy).

Of course, my family think I look ridiculous (and I admit the first pair were ENORMOUS as I used super chunky yarn) but I doubled up three colours of DK yarn in various configurations as I went and they fit just right.

Fair weather cyclist? Not me.

This pattern can be found in Craft Bomb Your Bike by Shara Ballard published by David & Charles Ltd. This particular pattern is credited to Carolyn Rice.  My ears are ever grateful, Carolyn.