Thinking happier thoughts...

(Though first, I think the anonymous commenter who noted that a lot of the body-size bossiness is a way of reducing people to a number - and therefore making them "less" and "not count" - was spot on. We don't do that with IQ any more, so I guess we have to find some new way of pigeonholing people.)

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This is the progress, as of night before last, on the shawl:



You can just see where the color changes over to the next color. (There are four more in the progression - through violet and into a light purplish blue).

I find that knitting on a lace shawl, because of the level of concentration it takes, is actually better at "decoupling" my mind from the stuff that's bugged it during the day than many other forms of craft. I need to keep that in mind when I get home and think, "Oh, man, do I have the energy to work on this?" Because actually I feel better after having spent time on it.

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The soil invertebrate work continues. I'm not quite half done with the samples, but I have all day tomorrow and all day Saturday that I can work. (And it works out well: campus is closed tomorrow but one of my students who had been ill was going to try to come in this afternoon to finish a project, but when she called me on another matter, I told her if she would rather take another day to feel better, I could let her in to the building Friday morning.)

Actually, it's kind of peaceful working on them. I can work in my office where it's quiet, and I can put a classical internet music channel on while I work. And it's fun seeing what's there. Kind of a treasure hunt.

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I had earned a 25 dollar gift certificate from the Loopy Ewe (I have several "favorite" online yarn sources; they are one, Simply Sock Yarn is another). I had thought of saving it longer, until I really REALLY really needed a treat, but then I got to thinking about the Bee Fields Shawl pattern I bought a while back, and how I really wanted sort of a golden yellow yarn for it, and how I had no laceweight in that color...so I went looking. The yarn I chose is actually a sockweight, but it should work fine.

Yes, I have about 10 shawls worth of yarn in my stash, and it can take me a year to finish one. I know. But there's something about buying yarn for myself that feels like I'm taking care of myself. (I suppose it's actually not such a positive thing; like the husband who brings home flowers for his wife after stomping out of the house and being angry with her, I sometimes buy myself stuff after I've been not-very-nice to myself - like with the whole "I'm fat and I suck" post below).

But anyway. I like the idea of knitting on a shawl, I like the idea of it growing under my fingers as I create the lace.

I think also working on a difficult or complex project, when I'm maybe not feeling that great about other areas of my life, helps. Like, I can't be a total mess-up if I can at least knit a complex shawl. Or something like that.

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I really need to finish up and go home. It will be nice to have an evening off.