Equi-knocks

This afternoon just before suppertime will be an astronomical event that I dread every year....the Autumnal Equinox. Why, you ask? I will answer in just one word. Light. That's it -- Light. I crave light. Daylight, sunlight, bright light that is not fluorescent or otherwise artificial, REAL LIGHT. And starting today there will be less of it in a 24 hour period and more of darkness. Darkness is confining, depressing, discouraging, and just plain old not fun or exciting.

After having worked far too many 12-hour shifts in windowless NICUs where it was dark when I drove to work in the morning and dark when I left in the evening, never having seen the light of day all day, I have this pathological thing about light. I have to have a window seat at restaurants, I wear light and brightly colored clothes. I don't wear black. My bedroom walls are a cheery shade of pink. I have at least 7 lamps in my room, just so it is light enough where I need it (studio table, desk, by the bed, etc.). I'll do most anything reasonable to fight off seasonal depression triggered by insufficient light.

Fall is always difficult for me. My fibromyalgia flares fiercely every year in October. This year the flare came a month early and I have been completely miserable. Mind you, I have spent one afternoon per week with my wonderful dentist, "Dr. Michael". I think I have paid for the private school tuition for one of his sons this fall with all the work I have had done. But I am now officially worthy of being called a QUEEN....and I have the gold crown to prove it. Ouch! I have coped as best I can by doing what usually helps the most...meds and knitting. But somehow my right shoulder got hurt last week...it may have been the serious cleaning and dejunking I was doing. Whatever, the pain has been so bad that I haven't been able to do much of anything, most notably knitting. ARRRRGH! This has made me one grumpy gal...my poor family is still putting up with me though.

In my restricted state I found I could not knit on my complicated, twisting, CookieA Clandestine socks, but I could knit "plain vanilla" socks. And so this morning I finished another pair of socks for Daddy. I dubbed this pair "Ugly Man Socks" because that's what I call all of his socks. After all, I use pretty, colorful yarns and interesting lace patterns for my socks; for his I use plain stitches and dark, rather boring colors. The irony in all this is that this pair of socks is really quite attractive. I love the yarn. If I hadn't knit daddy's socks from it I would knit socks for myself from it. Awesome yarn. Sigh. I never was any good at cynicism, sarcasm, or any other of those acerbic things. I should know better than to label something "ugly" before seeing the end result. Double sigh.

Better luck next time...with the next pair...or two...of socks. Knitting on!

Nicht Mein Tag

I was trying to wade through/delete all the knitting group messages from my overstuffed Yahoo mailbox tonight (blame the distraction of the Olympics) when I came across this message from Birgit Freyer, a German designer of lovely knitted lace shawls:
Oh jeeeh,heute ist nicht mein Tag ;-). Birgit, I couldn't have said it better myself. Loosely translated she said Oh jeez, today is not my day. Me neither Birgit, me neither. My German is pithy poor, but I know enough to be able to translate that line. Some aspects of my body clock/biorhythms are disgustingly predictable. Like every 4th Thursday I will have a migraine, sometimes a little one, sometimes a monster...a migraine that may last until Sunday. Blame hormones. Today's migraine was a real doozy. Not being able to find where mother hid the Excedrin (my most effective weapon) did not help matters. I take more potent pain meds for my fibro, but for some reason Excedrin works as well or better than any prescription migraine med I've ever tried. I've tried lots of them, and at around $15-20/pill those other meds are budget busters. I'll stick with Excedrin and a Diet Coke thankyouverymuch >:-(


And while today was nicht mein Tag,, I did make some more progress on the 3rd design in my series of Tennessee sock patterns. In this design I abandon lace in favor of the more traditional/classic look of the orange and white checkerboard. The checkerboard pattern is a revered symbol at The University of Tennessee. Football fans know the endzones at Neyland Stadium are painted in orange and white checkerboard, but did you know that the checkerboard is an architectural detail on the bell tower of Ayres Hall on the Hill? I was looking at some photos of Ayres Hall the other day and noticed the checkerboard for the very first time...how cool! So inspired I designed this sock with a checkerboard band at on the cuff, and intarsia Power T on the top of the foot, and contrasting orange afterthought heels and toes. It's an ambitious project for me as it's my 2nd ever stranded colorwork project and my 1st experience with intarsia and afterthought heels. This photo is not good as this lighting is way off, but I'll get a better one when the 1st sock is done.

I'm quite thrilled with the results thus far. I'm enjoying the learning process. Even more shocking, I'm loving the break from lace (gasp!). I know, shocking. I may get into this colorwork thing yet ;-) Kick-off is only 4 short days away.... GO VOLS!!!