November, and I have been knitting

So, I mentioned in my last post that this past summer was a reminder that I Am Not In Charge Here.  I don't think that's a bad thing, by the way - it's useful to keep that in mind, I think.  These reminders came in a number of arenas in my life, one of which is health-related.  In August, I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis.  I'm going to be honest and say I still have some trouble putting that down in black and white - there's part of me that looks at that and thinks, surely we're still really just spitballing here?  Because my RA is seronegative (meaning that there are no blood markers of inflammation; this is true of about one-third of RA cases), it's really easy to fall into the thinking that maybe we've just gotten it wrong, and at some point, we'll figure out what the "real" problem is (and it won't be a chronic autoimmune disorder)(hope springs eternal, right?).  However, the rheumatologist is pretty darned convinced.  A large part of that is because I responded to the ten-day course of prednisone that he put me one as part of his differential diagnosis (and by responded, I mean, all the joint pain went away, and I felt like I could rule the world)(at least, I did until I went off the prednisone, and then I kind of wanted to lay down and die; steroids are a cruel mistress, which is why they are NOT the course of treatment that we are going for here).  And I have also maintained most of those pain-free gains on methotrexate since then.

However, the fact that I'm a strong responder to drugs comes with a down side: I also tend to get the nasty side effects.  And this is why I've been largely blog-absent since then.  Methotrexate kind of kicks my butt for a couple of days a week - I can live with the queasiness, but I also get significant brain fade, and you can imagine how much not-fun that is.  I really like my brain, and there's nothing worse than losing words or trains of thought and not being able to find them.  So this week, the rheumatologist agreed that I need my brain, and we're trying something else.

What this means is that, when I am feeling good and I have a brain, I'm either catching up on work, or I'm trying to make space for time outdoors, and to spark and embrace some creativity in my life.  I'd kind of lost that habit, and then my beloved sister-in-law tagged me in a seven-day black and white photo challenge, and I started playing with my camera again.

I went to the beach at sunset with Rick and Kivrin and the dog. 

I took it to the trail on my morning walks.

I went to Coronado with Rick and just spent some time wandering around.

And I went to the Mingei (my all-time favorite museum) to see an exhibit of (get this, people) horse tack, and one of knitted jewelry and other objects.  Yes, the museum had simultaneous exhibits involving horses and knitting.  Rick laughed pretty hard when I suggested we go together.  It was an awesome day.  I immediately went home and dug out a wire-knitting kit I'd stashed away ages ago:

I turned out a beaded bracelet in a few hours (Kivrin snagged it before I had time for photos).  It was so much fun that I went out to a local bead store and got...  well, let's just say a got a LOT of 26 and 28-gauge wire.  I'ma knit myself a giant jellyfish, which Rick has agreed to string a lightbulb into to make a hanging lamp.  There are other wire-knitting plans afoot.  This may get entirely out of hand.

But first, I had to get a few things off the needles.  I finished a mosaic cowl that I thought was going to be for me.  But as I was wrapping it up, I realized that it really needed to go to my friend Jill.  That thought was clinched when I brought it to work on Tuesday, unbeknownst to her, and found that she had dressed to perfectly match the colors in the cowl (you can't entirely see it here, but her shirt is the exact same purple as the cowl, and her stockings are an exact match for the blue).

Yup.  That's where it belongs.  I also finished another project from the Year of Techniques:

Another cowl.  This one will go to Tess.  And I finally got some socks for myself off the needles.

I have been SO into stripes lately, that I cast on for the 21 Color Slouch hat, which probably won't look good on me (when you have hair as short as mine, most hats end up looking like chemo hats, which I don't mind in principle, but which other people tend to find distressing), but I wanted it anyway.  I can always give it to one of the girls if it's just unwearably hideous...

So, there it is.  What are you doing to spark your creativity these days?