Atlas Insider
Atlas Insider: In the Neighborhood
Atlas HQ shares a wall with a super-busy, super-high-end custom cabinet manufacturer. I don’t mean the Home Depot-kind of cabinets; I mean the kind that are built from flat pieces of wood (whassat … lumber?) from fancy drawings that fit perfectly into dream kitchens, with not a single little crevice leftover between the finished cabinet and the refrigerator for the bread crumbs to fall in. I’d have to put a lot more than store-brand Triscuits and Deluxe Grahams in my cabinets to justify such things, but I’ve seen them loading them onto trucks and they really are quite beautiful.
When they guys next door are shoving the wood into shapers (lathes? spinners? carvatrons?), the whole neighborhood is heavy with the smell. It’s not exactly a burning wood smell (though it is also a little bit that); some days it smells exactly like a tortilla factory and other days it smells exactly like a toast factory.
All I know is it makes me hungry for tacos or toast. If you read last week’s installment of DG is Blathering On About Something and Why Am I Reading It?, you might be surprised to learn that there’s no authentic toasteria spot nearby, but tacos always sound good. I’m just always grateful that my lunch decision sort of gets made for me before I even have to consciously think about it. Tacos it is!
The guys next door are nice; they wave and do the “Hey, dude” salute or whatever (and I do not think there are any ladies, though I could be wrong). They have little cliques; I see them arriving and leaving together, so I sort of know who is in which group and who goes with who. There’s a subset of them that all ride their fancy motorcycles to work one day a week, like how the characters in “Mean Girls” all wear pink on Wednesdays. It’s not always the same day of the week, though, so I guess they all call each other to determine which day is Bike Day?
They line their bikes up next to each other—each with perfect precision—and every time I see them all lined up outside, I wonder if they go to a class to learn how to line them up like that. It seems like something that would be tricky to get just right … and if you got it wrong, well, I think all the bikes end up in a pile in a ditch. And we all know what happens after that: “Tequila.”
They work on weekends as well, and when I am sometimes here on weekends dealing with problem orders (not that any of them are problems!), I throw open the garage doors and listen to whatever music I am currently listening to as loudly as possible and I do wonder what the charter members of The Woodworkers’ Motorcycle Club make of the 500-decibel Greek Rebetiko music (OR WHATEVER, really) coming out of the fancy yarn barn next door. I guess every single bit of that gives them something to think about.
A Giveaway
The prize? A skein of Neighborhood Fiber Co. Organic Studio Sock in cool green Canton.
How to enter?
Two steps:
Step 1: Sign up for our weekly newsletter, Snippets, right here. If you’re already subscribed, you’re set.
Step 2: Leave a comment letting us know the name of your (actual or fantasy) motorcycle club. You know, like “Heck’s Angels.”
Deadline for entries: Sunday, July 25, 11:59 PM Central time. We’ll draw a random winner from the entries. Winner will be notified by email.
Come Shop With Us
Coffin Cheaters
Purled Choppers
Magnificent Seven Sisters
Veterans of Vietnam Motorcycle Club
Charlie’s Angels
The cloud riders
The Darwin Award Wannabes
Round and Round
In my region bikers go from Tim Hortons to Tim Hortons. Around and around and around. BUT this is also a knitting reference as we make socks, hats, mittens, and sweaters!
Charlie’s angels
That’s really clever!
Yamaha Mamas
Trekkers
Denny’s Darlings
Riders on the Storm
Born to be Mild.
Steel Pony Posse
As an actual riding knitter I’m a Solitaire
Riding a motorcycle looks terrifying. I’d have to go with Future Organ Donors.
The best of them all!
So true!
Sisterhood slickers
Born to be Wild
Steel Bikemen
Wicked Skulls
I sometimes work with a friend whose company sells sterling silver jewelry at bike shows and fairs. The bike show tent is “Wicked Skulls.” The county fair tent is “Very Beautiful Things.”
Harley’s Darlings
Ladies in Leather
Loner Donor
Peace Breakers
The Ewe Knits
Midcoast Yarnies
Midcoast Maine? Me too!
Me three!
Sisters Rising
Me four!
Wish I had a Corvette instead? It’s my fantasy!
No Drama Mama’s – just ride!
Hells Angles
Fiber explorers/wheels up
I’m going to have to go with Modern Daily Choppers. With club leaders Ann Sane and Olive Yalongtime. I have a thing about roller derby names.
Pocket rockets
The Yarniacs!
Gummikuh Süße
Valkerie Riders
love it! I hear the screaming!
Revving and Roaring!
Keep blathering! It’s true, I don’t know why I look forward so to reading it, but I do! Thanks.
Bedrock Riders…(as in the Flintstones) because the only bike I’ll be riding will be powered by my own puny legs.
Roll’in mAmAs
The Stranders
The Yarnovers
My husband has a Harley and it’s red it has its own room.
Yarn Hog Riders
Knitwits.
Bruiser Cruisers
Psycho kittens, just like our own furry marauders
Wildflowers Bikers. Because why not?
‘Snack Attack’. Isn’t that the point of owning any kind of two-wheeled transportation?
The question is whether you’re blasting Markos Vamvakaris or Roza Eskenazy?! 😉
Spinning Wheels…
We have a local restaurant that has a Friday fish fry with Perfectly Parked Bikes at the curb every week!
Silent Riders
Swineherds
Into the Hoods
Wild Skeins
I love Wild Skeins!
RipNBacks.
Sadly.
Knit Slickers
Park and Drafters
The Yarnbirds
Isn’t there a movie with Brad Pitt on a motorcycle?? If not, there should be. Thats what popped into my mind while I was reading your awesome inspiration.
Any chance that you are the Dawn Frank that lives in Indiana?
Born to be Mild!
My choice would be “Scooter Babes”
MDK WIPs
So many good ones already! Midcoast Marauders.
Old Farts Riding Club
Gassed Grandmas
Stash Busters
Black Cats
Leather Ladies
Roaring hogs: pigs with lions manes, roaring
I love the picture in my mind to go with Roaring Hogs.
My husband and I ride but haven’t had the bike out recently. Too many crazy things going on in our lives. Hopefully before Winter.
I’m thinking maybe Victory Vixens.
DG I always love reading your posts. But this one makes me think of my dad. He worked with wood as a hobby and made many beautiful things. You’re right about the wood aromas. I love that!
The Cast Offs
Cute
There are many really good ones, but The Cast Offs might be the best yet.
LOVE this one!
Love it!
Knitting Knockouts
Moon Shadow Maidens. Clearly all girls club!!
Harley Yarnies
Knitters Knots
Llamas momma’s
Stash of Steel
Al-pack-a Angels
Love!
Musketeer Mamas
Back in the 1980s I painted the back of an old army jacket with a cow skull and the words Devil’s Herd. Ay yay yay. Those were the days?
Bad Grannies
Open road riders!
The Skin Donors
So true!
Hell on Needles!
Pink Ladies
Roxys Angels
Hard Tails (could fit in w/ the last entry of eatery/here in town, great burger place!! Get their Iron Head: mushrooms, grilled onions, swiss on BIG burger & home fried chips)
Pearl’s Purls
Think I would call my group the yarnistas.
“Nice bike!” (Can’t help myself, DG-with whom.)
The Snarks.
Color Cycles
Hog Tied
My brother had a dog named Chopper (named after the leather gloves, not motorcycles) and he was the sweetest boy. I used to call him Chippity Chop, so I think my motorcycle club would be named just that in honor of him.
Curl up and Dyers.
Biker babes
Oma’s Roll
Amy’s Army
Circular Spikes 🙂
Thundering Carbs (They also enjoy baking bread)
‘Sidekicks’
Murdercycles!
Unwinding Ball
Yarn Winders
Road Hogs
Garter Guard
Knitting Mafia
Pointy Sticks Riders
I love this one!! I would join in on my tricycle! Maybe be the driver of the toy carrier that follows along on the long trips so the bikes can get fixed as needed!!
Burning rubber gang
Sons of Anarchy! loved that show
Balls Belles
The Tripsters
Future Donors Club
MKAL Society. A knitter on every cycle and a project in every saddle bag. Knitters would know, and non-knitters will spend hours trying to figure out MKAL.
Screaming Sisters of Wheels
Nu Movables
name for motorcycle club; The Knitass riders.
That yarn in Caton is so exquisite ! And to think it is Organically dyed is wonderful. Must put on my list to purchase. I would be able to sit on the back seat and knit while Hubby drives the motorcycle .
Like Elizabeth Zimmerman used to do!
My motorcycle club would be EZ’s Gaffers
The Charismatic Megafauna. (also my pick for my heavy metal band name).
The balls on fire
I think f call them the Fiber Hogs
Wheeler Dealers
Mountain Timers.
In the mountains, we all live on mountain time.
Born to Be Mild
Two makers shops side by side, so wonderful !
Sticky Buns Society
The Barefoot Knitessas
Cycle Sisters
As a former rider: The Red Nails
I’d like to belong to the Cat Mommas.
Pretty Pumping Pedal Pushers
Cause my bike club allows only bikes of the self-propelled variety!
Happy Tinkers. DG, it sounds like you might enjoy DAKHABRAKHA if you aren’t already listening to them…
Tinkers
Love it!
Stash Sisters
Three Wheelers
Wild and Wooly
Widow sisters
Worsted Weight Wheelers
Metamorphosis Mamas
Changing the world stitch by stitch
Mollie’s Merry Motors
40 Milers— that’s how much road there is here before you’d have to get on a ferry.
Wild Widows
The Steekers
Kell’s Angels
Limberdik Rumblers
The crafty coven
Mathy ladies
Rowdy Ravelers
Yikes! the Trikes
The Stash Hiders
The Knitting Marauders
Sisterhood of the Traveling Knitters
Love this one! The members could pass a log cabin afghan back and forth, each adding a layer to the afghan that represents their latest cross country riding adventure.
Twisted Purls
The Toecutter’s Gang 🙂
Fantasy bike club would be something simple like “The Lady Bikers “
Chicks in faux leather
Knit Pack
Spinning Wheels
Motoring DoGood Krafters
East bay Ducati daredevils
Freedom Riders
Knot Angels
Harley’s harem
Crown Royals. ❤️
Thunder Road Bike & Social Club
Vroom Vroom
I can’t get over the noise. You gotta go with the noise.
When my brother was little he had a v room attachment on his trike !
My motorcycle club would be the Flying Cowls!
DG you now have us all a flutter thinking about ( in no particular order) tacos, yarn and men on motorcycles. My bike club would be “The Yarn Bombers”
Ooo, Ooo! My husband & I joke that the tough guys on little scooters belong to the Moped Marauders!
My own scooter is 600cc, so not a little toy
Free Wheelin’ Bikers
Silent Muffler Cougars
I heard someone say that it’s not a stash, they are souvenirs. So I would be part of Souvenir Hunters.
Ride or Dye! Motorcycles terrify me.
The 3 Boumigos
Your musings are my favorite! How ’bout Purly Gates?
Purly Gates is it! I have a friend who is owned by 2 Great Pyrenees, Pearly and Gates.
Rhoda’s Roadies
Cast off
I’m laughing because after a divorce from my physician spouse my children were trying to decide what kind of guy would be good for me and they decided on some one with a big bike that I could meet in Sturgis ! I am not that kind of person but we had a good laugh
The Organ Donors
Mom’s Gang
Garter Choppers
I think maybe we would be “The Yarn Stormers”
The Gardenias.
Motor Mamas
The Wheelie Bobs
No idea, really. The Wild Ride?
Mobile organ donor transport vehicle
Full Leathers
Shake Rattle and Rollers
The Lost Herd
Death’s Riders…morbid, I know, yet……
Moth Riders (it needs to be scary, right?!)
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Club
Beethoven’s Babes.
Pronking Alpacas
Sons of Anarchy
Beach wine peps
We live in the seaside town of Bandon, Oregon
We are the MILD ABANDONS
Yarn Bombers
my biker club would have to be Cats n Gramma’s, just because I’m a gramma with a cat. i will come and knit with you to the smell of wood cutters working!
Rowdy Crowd
Knitches
Blogville Bombers
Mau tutu pupule (crazy grandmas)
The Lopi Pacers!
As coordinated as I am, it would have to be The Trikers & Bikers for me to be inluded. Keep up the blathering, you’re very good at it!
Slow Riders…because we’d probably be a golf cart club…
LOL Lisa!
I will be sniffing my next yarn order to see if it smells like toast…..
The free spirit club
Share the Road Riders
We live in a beautiful little community called Mountain Meadow. My husband rides, and one day he said he’d like to start a riding club. His suggestion for a name was Meadow Muffins. Wha, what?? True….
Mischief riders
Wheels of Love
Over the hill
Rev in heaven
Vroom Brooms
My Motorcycle gang would be the Killjoy Feminists. I heard the phrase on Fresh Air in a Terry Gross interview with Tahmina Anam.
Riders of RabbitHash
The Ridiculous Riders
MotoMoms
Gingersnaps. We’d all dye our hair red and snap our fingers a lot.
The Devil’s Bind-offs
The Yarn Cats
Close Knit Gang
Chain Gang
SSKs – Scooter & Skein Kids
Scooter Gang
K2TOG’s
Babes with Stix
Book and bike club. I am a librarian.
Holy Cowabunga Leatherettes. Really had a great time reading your post.
We always joked that we were “Motorcycle Trash” to the uninformed. (P S We are both successful professionals,)
Bunny’s Babes
Purl’s Garter Gang
H.O.G. (Harley Owners Group) It’s a real one! And, yes, I do often carry knitting in my saddle bags!
The Road Burners
Purl girls
Used to ride, can’t any more because sometimes I get vertigo. Didn’t belong to a club. The group I rode with were just independent bikers. Now my group has been christened the Fiber Mafia by the adult child of one of our “members”.
Inker babes
Hell’s Knitters
Wild Wings
This is a hard one for me as I am not a fan of motorcycles. Do-Gooders.
My fantasy motorcycle group would be The Krazy Knitters.
Motorcycle Mamas!
Psycho bike chicks
The knitting Ladies
“The Speed Kids”
The Worsted Wriders
Twin Valley Riders Club in VA. I’m always up for tacos too.
Road Eyecandy
Leather & the Suedes? (Owning my nostalgia for “Happy Days”)
Dream Weavers.
Fugitive Glue, which I learned is that only slightly sticky rubbery stuff that attaches inserts in magazines and so forth.
Imperial Batsh*t Crazies
Tangled Laceweight
Windy Women
Road Ragers
Slipped Stitch Sisters
The Yarn Chickens
Wild Piglets
Dream cycles.
Wild cats
Granny’s Bikes
Tangled tires
Hog hookers
Reckoning Road Rash
Wooly Mammoths
Road Rash
Harley Honeys
Motorcycle Mommas……
Sissy Sockies
wise river riders
Chances are
Chicks with Sticks
I hit enter too soon….Chick with Sticks and Kickstands
Skins and skeins!
The Iron Needles!
I have a t shirt from the History Hogs cycle club for the Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh. Their motto is Born To Read.
Also…My group of knitters is affectionately known as Sock Monkeys.
Roxy’s Riders (named after my dog)
Angelitos
I don’t ride but I think I would call my group The Red Hot Mamas!
Silver Streakers
Hippie Chicks Rule
Yarniacs Amok!
Left Coasters
Bookish Bikers
Cat Herders
Road Rash Riders. Also loved the “PeeWee’s Big Adventure” reference too. Brilliantly used!
Yarn or die
WIPits
Naughty knitters
Heck Fire?
I actually met my fantasy club. When I was 17 the Hell’s Angels hit Daytona Beach, Fla. for the Daytona Motorcycle races and show. So of coarse this crazy girl made a bee-line to the beach to see the bikes. There were show bikes as far as I could see down A1A (beach road that follows the beach). Yeah they were cool. A memory I won’t forget. Oh, it was 1964.
I’m going with “Squeals on Wheels”!
Tink or TAAT
Cast-offs
Works in Progress
CC Knight Riders
My fantasy motorcycle club is “Knit Witches”
The Flory Dory Girls – the Our Gang version!
Mamacita’s motorcycle mamas
Squishy Hanks
Wheel Girls
Stash Busters MC
S’Kool Club, That’s what I would call it.
The Roving Riders
Ladies Sticks and Gears Society
Electra Gliders
Rocket Riders
Knit Demons
Knotty Knitter
The Weekend Wakeup
My personal name for the neighbourhood contingent. 😀
I’m a member of a cycling club – does that count? – called Severn Belles, because we’re near the River Severn in beautiful Gloucestershire 🙂 cyclists appreciate cake and coffee the same as knitters do! I wonder if there is a cabinet maker’s blog that mentions the MDK warehouse next door and wonders what you’re doing in there – like a parallel universe!
Vroooom.
Mean Machines
Hot Momas
“46 Sisters”
For all of us oldies but goodies born in that year!
Green giggles
Happy Riders
Rolling Roamers
Cryptid Caravan
Cycle Cats
Woke Spokes
Menace to Macadam
Momercycle Moto Club
Wild Rider (this name is a caution to other drivers because I don’t know how to ride a motorcycle & it might be wild NOT in a good way, haha)
Motorbike Mamas
The Scotiables
Hog Wild Knitters
Big Uglies
LYS Travelers
Ride On
Grim Reapers
Swifts N Sticks
Ruff Riders and we’d all have sidecars for our doggos
Ignore Mom Motorcycle Club
Organ donors
I’m adjacent to the Classic British Motorcycle Club of Cincinnati. My dad’s a member and they put on a great show every year. (Weekend after Labor Day, Boone County KY fairgrounds)
My fantasy MC would be the Sidecar Knitters MC, where we all had sidecar rigs and took turns riding the bike vs in the sidecar knitting, and all our rallys end at LYSs.
Crash Dummies
Motor Maids, the oldest Women’s motorcycle club in the US founded in my hometown of Detroit
after my brother’s bunch of old guys who go on sedate road trips on their Gold Wings: Sons of Arthritis
VA Explorers
The Leather Hampsters.
The L7s (aka the Squares)
The Wiggly Puppies
Spinner knitters
I would belong to the Fraidy Cats
The Swarm
Wraith riders.
My motorcycle group would be women only and we would call ourselves “The Gray Ladies”.
Big Sky Bikers
Hot Needles
Road Rash Riders
Harley’s Angels
Leather and Lace
Ball Winders
Rolling Fat
Sons of Slipknots
—-Born to Knit—-
Colour Wheels
great name!
Actual. South county riders. And only remember this because I found my vest with patches. I also in women on wheels orange county Quit riding with first hip replacement. Lining bikes up to park is not hard. Riding in a pack is hard
Roo Riders
Girls Ride Too
Higher Noise Riders-the local gang roaring though city streets from midnight to 3 am
Swan Lake Riders
Fantasy biker group would be The Side Cars
Rolling Oldies
Three Wheelers – at this age, I shouldn’t try to ride anything else!
Dragon Cruisers
The Dusk Pixies
Rolling Thunder
I miss seeing these guys (and gals) on Memorial Day in my neighborhood.
Loose Cables
Bud’s Bunny Band – for my uncle, nicknamed Bud, who wore a bunny outfit for several years of his childhood, and then grew up to be a motorcycle racer until he switched to being an architect. His films of wild racetrack wrecks kept all of us from ever wanting to get anywhere near a motorcycle. He rode his until well into his 80s.
My husband thought I was saying “Hex Angels” when I told him about that giveaway.
I’m going with Future Organ Donors as noted below!
Robin’s Revenge — Robin is my younger daughter and this would be an inside joke/name. But she, her older sister, and her dad would really “get it.” And she lives in Baltimore.
The fighting mongooses 🙂
I’m too chicken to be in a motorcycle club, so maybe I’d be a Velociraptor or a Bicycle Belle? (Also, my in-laws live in Canton, the neighborhood of Baltimore the colorway was named after!)
Roadyarns Riders
Hot Wheeling Knitters
Motorcycle gang: The Gnarly Yarns
The Wheels Go ‘Round
The Yarn Swifts
Knaughty Knitters
Legal Eagles
The Knitwits!
Organ Donors Detail
Ha!
Old Chicks on Bikes
ABEC-9 (google it :))
Bad to the Bind-off
Chicks with Sticks
TBI Precursors
ICU Waiting Listers
Nashville Hotties
Donor not quad motorcycle club!
My fake biker club is called Sockaholics because I am on a streak with sock knitting!!
Road Runners
The Spin Cycle Devils
Mild Things (with the tag line ‘Yarn makes our hearts sing!’)
WINDY WOMEN
Gravel Rollers
Windy Women
Purl Posse
Mothers of Purl
Club Tri-umph – because my club is all about three wheelers!
Born to be mild
YOLO yarnies
The Yarn Chickens or perhaps Skeinin’ Along
Hocus Pocus/Three Sisters
Grateful Grandmas
Merino Motor Mamas
MamaJamas
The Double-Pointed
“Wyvern Riders”
Wooly Riders
Samara Liberators!
Roll Me a ‘Yarn – as my imaginary motorcycle group would be going from yarn store to yarn store
Circular Wheels
Just got home from an 1,800 mile trip on our BMW sport bike. I’m going with Iron Butts
Tricycle Travelers
The Crotch Rockets
Wind Riders
Bookdragons
Southern Cruiser Riding Club (my friend’s MC)
Cycles of Silence
Knit Hogs
Hog-sters in Pink
Toy Poodles
SSK Mavens!
Dead Giveaway (unless in helmets)
Pack in the Saddle… DG’s photo of the yarn helped me think of that. Just took my knitting to the County Fair today, and this year’s theme is “Back in the Saddle Again” since everything was shut down last year. I wouldn’t be in a motorcycle club called ‘back in the saddle’ since I’ve never been ‘in the saddle’, but I could pack my knitting there and be a happy camper.
Love your weekly posts, DG! Thanks a million.
Inneemeenimightymotorcycle band
I’m smiling as I type my motorcycle gangs name … “unicorn girls”. I figure that sounds pretty bada$$.
Wool on Wheels
Goodness, Gracious, Great Yarn Balls of Fire!
Yarn on Wheels
The Denali Rally!
Chopper Chix
The Pearls because it sounds like purls 🙂
Fiber Femmes
Woody’s Roadies
The Loquacious Sisters of the Order of Fiber Addicts.
Spinning Wheels 😉
I’m not part of an imaginary motorcycle gang but I am part of an imaginary roller derby team. The (word that can’t be used in mixed company) Unicorns. Long story short, my friends and I found an abandoned roller rink and used it for couple of nights while in a girls trip in our 40s.
Caffine and Machines Club, We would just ride from one coffee stop to another.
Pedaling Purlers! I’d have to be part of a gasless group of ‘bikers’
My fantasy motorcycle club would be “JUST ADD ASPHALT”
Knitting Knight Riders
Mine would be called Drinks on Us
EZ Riders. I can’t believe it hasn’t been listed so I’ll claim it- in honor of finding Elizabeth Zimmerman’s books in the library, which brought me back to knitting.
My husband is part of the FoVaMoRi motorcycle club – It seems more secretive than it is as it’s just the first 2 letters of every word for Fox Valley Motorcycle Riders. But he does love riding his Triumph. And in this group most of the guys don’t ride the same bike, so they are all inclusive. And it just so happens my husband is pretty good with a router and table saw. Hmmm. He’s also good at tacos!
The Cabled Choppers
the Knit Mistresses (sort of a knitting/motorcycle gang/dominatrix mashup)
This made me laugh. Way back in 19 mumble mumble I graduated from 8th grade at a Catholic grammar school and we created a yearbook. This yearbook contained a story about our 25th reunion. I was predicted as roaring up at the head of my motorcycle gang, the Bookers, which was apparently the most outrageous thing a group of 13 year olds could imagine me doing.
TINK Girls….
The Frog Jumpers
The knit avengers
Purl Trikers
Motorcycle momas
Slippery Skeiners
The Okie Wheels were the last motorcycle club I road with. They gave me a Radio Flyer wagon as a baby gift for my now-30-year-old daughter. Having a little one curbed my reckless tendencies.
Drunk Camels
they probably are, like me, SO happy you introduced them to Amythyst Kiah!