Lowimpact.org has a new publication, about a 57-year-old (sorry Janet) woman’s decision to leave her home in Ayrshire and take a grand tour of Scotland on a Brompton folding bicycle, visiting and giving workshops for textile groups along the way. It’s full-colour, 180 pages, and it’s available here.

Knit 1 Bike 1 is the light-hearted story of a woolly cycle journey around Scotland. Textile artist Janet Renouf-Miller cycled over 800 miles on her Brompton folding bicycle, connecting with people, telling their stories and giving workshops all over Scotland.  The book is the story of her adventures and the people she met. Janet commemorated the journey not only by writing this book but by knitting and crocheting what she saw. She made woolly versions of everything from the Glenfinnan Viaduct (made famous by J K Rowling’s Harry Potter books), to her bicycle, worms and a sponge cake. There are many pictures in the book, both of Janet’s adventures and of the things that Janet crocheted or knitted.

Here’s Janet:

It is amazing how even a little bit of extra weight around the hips makes it so much harder to get out of the door and get on the bike. It was the menopause and those damn crisps that did it!

As a result, when preparations for this project began, I was just a bit wider than before and needed to do something about it. Well that didn’t work as you will find out, but I did get a whole lot fitter and have a really good time. Aged 57, I felt like an old frump on a bike at times but hey, it’s better than sitting at home feeling like an old frump.

I basically did it to prove that I can be a tiny bit brave. My dear old Dad was still on his bike and in his hiking boots at 82, just weeks before he died, and that does make it hard to find excuses. It was partly in memory of him that I set myself the challenge of living life to the full, just like he did, and set off to cycle my way around Scotland, knitting and crocheting what I saw on the way.

And here are the contents: