What I wear while pedaling: Icebreaker merino wool

Over the years, I've collected quite a few Icebreaker pieces.  While not cheap, they are durable and really versatile, and always made of high quality merino wool. Merino wool, in my opinion, is the perfect fabric for cycling.  It is soft and comfortable (not itchy in the least!) it wicks moisture well, breathes well, and performs well when wet.  It doesn't get stinky the way synthetics do, so you can ride in it and then go straight to the office, bar, dinner party, grocery store, etc, without having to change out of your cycling gear. Simple!


While there are many companies making merino clothes, I value Icebreaker's strong environmental, manufacturing and animal welfare ethics. They have a very transparent supply chain - you can even trace your garment's "baacode" (ha ha!) back to the farm in New Zealand from which its wool originated.

This sheep looks like it has a pretty fantastic life, don't you think? 

Here are some of my favorite Icebreaker pieces:

Sprouts and Seeds

I took advantage of a sun break between wind and rain squalls to spend some time in the garden today.  I seeded brassicas - cabbage, broccoli, kale, raddicchio and broccoli raab, and prepped another bed for carrots, turnips, spinach, lettuce and arugula, which I'll seed tomorrow morning.  

I did a little weeding along bed edges, but mostly just spent some time watching the garden wake from her winter nap. 

The red kale has overwintered nicely. Actually, it overwintered looking pretty wimpy, but just this week has burst out with large, tender, juicy leaves.  I'm always impressed by this plant's ability to thrive in our climate.

Three Sisters Beef Purchase

Last Saturday night I left the house around 10pm for a time-sensitive pick up  of two large, heavy boxes. What was inside?

Box of yum.

Beef!  

Delicious, beautiful swoon-worthy beef.  And so much of it!  To be more precise, about one eighth of a cow  from 3 Sisters Beef on Whidbey Island, our share of a whole-cow purchase organized by our friends Joe and Venessa. 

Bicycle baby track jacket

I've been off the bike for most of December and January.  It's been cold, I've been battling some respiratory crud, and I needed a little mental break from my typical bike commute.  I've been using my daily light rail ride to knit some fuzzy, warm wintertime gifts- cowls, hats, and fingerless gloves, all which would be great cycling accessories. However, the project I'm the most excited about, as of late, is a "welcome" gift for a very young cyclist-to-be. 

Little Atticus is about 3 months old, and his parents own and operate an amazing bike shop on San Francisco's heavily bicycled Market Street, Huckleberry Bikes. In addition to fitness/ performance cycling, Huckleberry Bikes has a special focus on bicycle commuting, and they stock a fierce assortment of ultra stylish cycling threads.

It's only fitting that Atticus should be outfitted in bikey threads as cool as those sold in mom and dad's shop.  With this in mind, I modified an easy top-down sweater pattern into a warm and toasty winter "track jacket."

 

The back (my favorite part!)