Peek at a national……

16 May Peek at a national……

Peek at a national? Jean what are you talking about you say?! Well, let me explain – the motorcycle club my family belongs to, Rocky Mt. Trials Association, is hosting a national Observed Trials event over Memorial Day weekend. What are Observed Trials? Trials is a form of motorcycle competition that does not involve speed – it’s all about control & balance. Each competitor negotiates a marked “section” of natural terrain on their motorcycle, while trying to not put their feet down. When a rider puts his/her foot down (known as dabbing) they receive points from the section Observer – hence the name of the sport. The rider with the fewest points wins the event. Observed Trials is one of the oldest forms of motorcycle competition yet one of the least known. There are some great pictures on RMTA’s web site.

So what does this have to do with knitting? Other than a place where I can knit when not busy with sign up & scoring – I’ve been able to practice my designing skills in the form of a special annual award – a sweater created especially for the chosen recipient. Through these sweaters I have the opportunity to take shape, color & pattern stitches and design something really special. The only difference between designing for an RMTA member and for a pattern I will submit or self publish is that these sweaters will remain one of a kind. No publishing of the designs – for me that would take away from the uniqueness of each one and diminish the award aspect. I have these three sweaters plus one I knitted but did not design in my Ravelry notebook.

I don’t have a picture of the sweater I did for our 2007 recipient – silly me forgot to take my camera to the awards banquet – but here are pictures of sweaters from previous years. Hopefully the person who did take pictures for 2007 will remember to bring them to the national and then I’ll have some to show you.

Enjoy!

What knitting projects will I have on hand to keep me busy when scoring is slow – an idea that I am working on for submitting to a print mag, and a puppy sweater I am making for a friend, unless I finish it before then. Since I’ll have three days to work on projects I may even take along socks – we never seem to have enough socks.

Cheers! Jean