401....402...403...

So much in the world feels out of my control -- governments, climate change, wildfires. Those are things almost too big and nebulous to even try and wrap my thoughts around. And then there are large stressful changes that are local -- a new semester starting with new students and courses, new job responsibilities, staffing changes one did or did not expect, friends who need extra support. All of us trying to

I watched on Twitter these past two weeks as the complete and utter soap opera / this can't possibly be real / how on earth will this get worse nonsense of the Romance Writers of America implosion. Every and I mean ever non-profit member organization I know of should be looking very carefully around their own houses and processes and procedures and also cleaning house. 

And the work that I do feels so often ephemeral. Physical evidence of teaching information seeking and critical appraisal work can be thin on the ground. Data management is best when the disasters are prevented --thereby not leaving evidence. 

So I need tangible because my other work is not; I need complicated because I want a challenge I can make a difference on; I want bright because it is winter and dark most of the time, even though yesterday's sky was gloriously blue.

I am 5 rows into a bottom-up lace shawl knit out of what feels like the equivalent of hot pink dental floss (very very nice wool dental floss). Currently my row count is 443 stitches and the rows are taking somewhere around 40 minutes (less for the rest rows).  Each row gets marked off on the chart. 

The yarn is Hedgehog Fibres laceweight in the Merlot colorway. I can honestly say I've never had a glass wine that was this color. The pattern is Aello by Marnie Maclean, whose design work I've been meaning to knit for years.  

I donate, I work, I call, I write, I send another 100 endless email responses. 

And I knit another row before I go to bed. It's slow magic, but visible magic nonetheless. I have accomplished something, I can accomplish other things too. 

Eventually there will be a shawl.