Current scarf length: 20.5"

[abilouise]

A week ago I started to knit again, and taught myself to purl from a book almost exactly 20 years after I learned how to knit. I am making a scarf out of yarn that is so expensive that it makes me laugh out loud. But I'm being all Skinner on myself, rewarding myself for doing good things, which seems to work really well. "Buy any yarn I want for a small knitting project" was my reward for 4 hours of corporate chair massage in Burlington at a price I couldn't refuse. Anyway, I dig knitting and it gets me off of windows solitaire so I actually save my wrists considerably this way so far. Happy Valentines Day! Mine was happy because I got to go cross-country skiing 2 days in a row.

Recommended: the fire roads that weave through the Middlesex fells starting at the sheepfold. As long as you avoid rocky trails or the skyline trail or something it is awesome and kind of fun to be skiing in the woods next to 93.

Not Recommended: Walden Pond. Beautiful, fun, but not worth paying for parking and the wire fences on either side of the skinny trail were annoying because they kept snagging my poles until I just stopped using my poles and let them hang at my sides, and they were hair-raising going down hills. Usually when I am going down a hill it is exhilerating, fun, with a little bit of don'tfalldon'tfall. But with the rusty fence, it was more of an EEK!DON'T FALL AND GET TETANUS/BLINDED sort of experience. Not worth $5.

Places I want to try:
-the place lakmeiseru took me last year
-Mass Ave during a blizzard
-Lynn Woods
-anyplace else anyone can think of that is not a commercial skiing establishment that one has to pay to use.

Comments

[abilouise.livejournal.com]

The way that I learned was by taking 2 lessons when I was a little kid with my family. Basically, went to ski place and my parents paid a guy there to ski aronud with us and tell us how to do things easier/better, and also give us ski trail etiquette (at a hill, don't go up when people are coming down, etc.) Weirdly enough I seemed to retain it all for the 10-15 years that I did not ski at all, putting it in that "riding a bike" category.
That said, you could probably also go out with people who know how and are good at explaining things, which is what Jake did (under only slight duress from his wife/ski instructor) and it seems to have worked fine.