Chickenlips Knitting

In my last post, I was remembering Brad Delp of Boston, and today it was announced that his death was in fact a suicide. He sealed off a bathroom in his house, lit two charcoal grills, and died of carbon monoxide poisoning. He had left notes for his fiancee and his family. The family statement, delivered by the local police, said in part "he was a man who gave everything he had to his family, friends and fans, and he was very tired."

I imagine he was. Now, it's more than thirty years since I last saw Brad, and can't even begin to imagine what his life was like once he became a "rock star"--I put that in quotes because yes, he was famous, but by all accounts unchanged by the fame. However, that's not to say he was unaffected by it. He must have been depressed beyond what anyone could know, and to mask a despondency so great as to cause him to end his life, must have taken a tremendous emotional toll.

Brad's bandmate in the group Boston, Barry Goudreau, has a really nice tribute to Brad on his website and said he'd make every effort to respond to all messages of condolence. I emailed him tonight, not that I require an answer, just to let him knew I had once been a co-worker of Brad's.

Sorry everybody, to be a sad Chickenlips tonight--I'm gonna be struggling with this for a while. I don't even have any pretty knitting pictures to share with you--but I can tell you what I'm stitching on: a pair of ribbed socks in a natural shade of Silky Wool. It's soft and a bit on the nubbly side. I'm thinking they'll make good hiking socks for summer. (I'll have to get on the schtick and get some good hikin' boots.) I have been doing some musing about sock knitting lately:



Obligatory Sock Knitting Discourse

I love looking at sock patterns, but I tend to make my socks in a plain stitch, usually some ribbing, either 2x2 for 10 rounds or wide-rib from the cuff to the heel and down the instep. There are some fabulous sock designers out there--Cookie A. is particularly brilliant--but I myself can't see putting in all that effort, because who is gonna really be looking at your socks?

Or maybe I'm a lazy knitta at heart. All I know is, I was pretty freaked out by today's news, and stitching on my plain pattern, plain color socks felt powerfully soothing.

HTML Hell

I must thank butterflylane for her tips on how to get rid of the generic banner (hope you're feeling better, darlin!) It worked, but maybe I deleted too much of the HTML, because I lost my formatting!

I appeal to any and all HTML gurus who may be reading this, to tell me what the heck I should do now. (Apart from have something chocolate, that is.)