At Ground Level: red socks

October is near

‘Tis the season for red socks. No, not that iconic Boston pair with their stats like RBIs & GIDPs. If you know me even just a little bit you know I don’t understand a GIDP but if you know me just a little bit more you know I am going to somehow manage to cleverly sneak in a mention of something hand-knit!

Actually, ‘tis the season for a lot of things and that’s why I felt inspired to get myself ready with a new pair of hand-knit red wool socks. What ‘lot of things’ do I mean? Runny nose. Sandpaper throat. Achey-breaky joints. Seems the ailments start swirling around us as we ease into Autumn. Thanks to my friend Dr. Carrie Kaiser, MA ND I learned how socks can help me avoid the malaise (tossing in a bit of French for your entertainment & education) with a good ol’ fashion home remedy.

You will need:

• One pair of thin cotton socks (Yes, I’ve been yammering about wool, but you’ll need both types and knitting a pair of cotton socks is not as fun.) The cotton socks can even be a cheap pair from the hosiery aisle at your grocery store -if your grocery store still has a hosiery aisle –L’Eggs!– just make sure they are made mostly of cotton. Any color works; For me it’s the fond memories of parochial white.
• One pair of wool socks. These need to be w-o-o-l because wool has natural wicking and thermal-dynamic properties. Think sheep. Think outdoors. Think wet and windy moors. Any color but I’ll explain a little further on why I am a proponent of red. Do you have to knit your own? No, but I’ll tell you later why I think this is a good idea, too.
• Ice-cold water. Ice-cubes-in-a-bowl-of-water type cold or a ‘Yooper toddy’ as we like to say in my house.
• Resolve. Yes. That.

How to use:

• The first day your body starts sending you signals that you have encountered “the un-friendlies” you want to assemble the items listed above. The sooner you take action, the faster your results, so if you already have the socks in your house you only have to remember where you put them.
• Just before bed, soak the cotton socks in iced water. Get them nice and wet and then wring them out as best as possible.
• Put the cold, wet cotton socks on your feet.

[not gonna lie, this takes resolve & will bring back lots of, perhaps un-fond, memories of writhing into a wet bathing suit]

• Now pull the dry wool socks over the cotton pair and climb into bed. You might experience a few minutes of weirdness, but really that’s just your mind trying to grapple with newness. Tell it to shush.
• Sleep.

The science behind it as told by me:

While you sleep the vessels in your feet will work to alternately warm then cool the body which activates your circulatory and lymphatic systems. These systems are responsible for delivering the nutrients your organs need to function. At the same time, these systems are working to remove the waste and “un-friendlies” that cause congestion, inflammation, etc. It’s like bringing in an extra cleaning crew to clean during off-hours.

The next morning you will probably feel like you gained the upper hand on this thing as your body continues to do its amazing job defending itself. You might want to repeat again the next night but I’ve never had to do this for more than 2 nights in a row.

Why red?

Colors have an impact on our sense of well-being and influence the flow and amount of energy in our body. Red supports health and physical vitality and studies have looked into the use of the color red to increase resistance to infection. Since the slow deeply grounding energy of red adds an extra boost of healing why not take advantage of the power of red by wearing some while you sleep?

Why knit my own socks?

[dragging out the sturdy soap box here…I’ll keep it brief] The act of knitting in itself is therapeutic and encourages the synapsis in the brain to be on their best behavior plus the wonder and fulfillment in creating something of substance from twisted fiber is divine. That said, in this case it is the purpose I give to knitting these socks that is of importance. I knit my socks as a means to take control of my health. It is that intent that is important. With each round of stitches and K2, C2/1R, I hold the intention of healing and health for myself. And intention is everything.

here’s your chance

Want your own pair of red wool socks? I’ll be gifting a pair of hand-knit wool socks to one lucky email subscriber – make sure you subscribe before October 10, 2019 at midnight PDT. I’ll randomly choose a winner and will notify this lucky-ducky by email to get all the sizing deets. Don’t think you want socks? Subscribe to my email anyway & you can give away your winning pair to someone else and pretend you knit them yourself!

Already receiving my emails? Leave a comment here and you will receive an extra entry for the hand-knit sock give-away.

Thanks for spending a moment with me looking at things from ground level,

For those of you fervent knitters in the crowd (is there any other kind?): I’m using Malabrigo Sock in Ravelry Red for the Slow Fade sock pattern by Kate Atherley published by Knitty.com First Fall 2017.