Q: How best to handle Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)?

A: Adriana advocates blood oranges (mixed with a few other ingredients); Patrick uses a light box. Jane takes lovely photos, and Carmen plans (then actually takes) exotic trips around the globe. Jenna does karaoke; Melissa does yoga. We all eat chocolate whenever possible.

The kids aren't feeling it at all; they are cozy on the couch right now, happy as Larry while watching House of Flying Daggers. They're still feeling fresh from a couple of hours outside hurling melting snow at one another with their lacrosse sticks.

I've been feeling logy all day. Adding to my low spirits, the cardigan in the photo above has been taunting me from the top of my dresser. I've been wanting to knit this particular sweater for years. The pattern is from Simply Beautiful Sweaters, by Beryl Hiatt and Linden Phelps, the first pattern book I bought after taking up knitting again about eight years ago. It calls for two luxurious yarns, both by Welsh yarn sorceress Colinette: Fandango, a chunky cotton chenille (I chose Velvet Leaf ), and Zanziba, a funky thick-thin viscose blend (I used the Lilac colorway). It was an easy sweater to knit, but the finishing was very time consuming.

I sewed it together a while back, then realized AFTER weaving in about 7 billion ends that I'd messed up the crocheted border on the right side. Look: the left side is perfectly straight, indicating that I was paying attention as I crocheted approximately two stitches to every three rows of knitting (thank you, Elizabeth Zimmerman and Theresa Vinson Stenersen). I must have done the right side during a particularly gripping part of some movie, however; that buckling you see means I've put in too many stitches. Not quite as frustrating as receiving the critique "Too many notes," but close.

There's nothing for it but to redo that side, which actually won't take long. It's just demoralizing to contemplate, as is the rain falling outside my window right now. Everything is gray and drippy.

My SAD coping mechanism this week has been working on a cardigan for Daniel, using Haiku, another genius knitting pattern brought to you for free by the ever fabulous Knitty.com. I'm using Filatura di Crosa Primo superwash wool in bright blue. It's soft, yet crisp enough for great stitch definition, so the box stitch interspersed with a lot of garter looks terrific.

I bought the yarn when I was pregnant with Daniel, intending to make him a tiny sweater. He's now a strapping almost-three-year-old; I only bought four skeins, which means I won't have enough of the blue. I figure, though, that I can do an Asian-type color block thing with another color (maybe a turquoise or a clear yellow; I'll have to see what Penelope has in stock). A trip to Knittingsmith is antidote for almost any problem, I've found.

But I think I'll take a break from Haiku for the moment and see if I can't tackle that Colinette cardigan edge. Finally getting to wear that lovely fiber will definitely help chase away my winter blues.