Solstice Socks

Ten socks. Ten solstice socks and all are hung above the fireplace in our December home. Five pairs ready for family gals. What a wonderful project this knitting socks throughout the months and seasons of 2012. Learning to knit in the round with four bamboo needles was a challenge so wonderfully accomplished because I didn't think I could do it. But I needed to do it. I needed this steep learning curve to turn my mind around and into the math and logic of stitching stitches that held together in a mutual sockness. When I knit close, elbows in, fingers touching, eyes focused on the stitch moving from one needle to another there is no room for anything else in my thinking brain. If I stray in thought a stitch is dropped, a row falls, the pattern dips. The recovery is an arduous task but recovery does happen. Knitting is sometimes dedicated to a process of recovery. It is a "work through" like baking or gardening or painting. Low these many months I have worked through a dilemma and now I can celebrate gifting. I am grateful to have people I love to give these pairs of socks to. Warm feet make for warm hearts--truly.

Holiday Traditions

In 1986, it became a tradition for me to view traditional holidays with a wide lens.  Single folks move away from families, parents die, divorces happen. Stir the pot and you get a new mixture of tradition--possibly every holiday. How to deal? Don’t plan, do. The Thanksgiving of 1986 was my first holiday following divorce and the first time my three children packed suitcases as part of a new tradition: Thanksgiving with Dad and Christmas with Mom. Bummer. But. . .my bachelor brother had a new job in the same state as my new job. We found a halfway point between our two cities and booked reservations for two at a place called “Hays House” in Council Grove, Kansas. As it turned out we had a wonderful time within the new tradition: don’t plan, do. The route from Manhattan, Kansas to Council Grove weaves through the heart of the Flint Hills which, in my mind, is silent with poetry and sacred beauty. And, the Hays House is fantastic. The feast is just like “home” really and truly (even the vegetarian, me, had plenty of delicious salads, side dishes, veges, etc.) and lemon meringue pie is now the Thanksgiving desert! The tradition my brother and I founded has continued low these many years. The people who show up change every year and have included in-laws and out-laws, uncles and aunts, best friends, sons and daughters and 3 year old grandsons. This year the group was back to two. Chuck, my most wonderful husband, spent the traditional Thanksgiving holiday with me. I’m just plain lucky that way.