a little larger

 * I knit more this weekend (and tonight) on the shawl. I guess it looks a little bigger:

 

 these kinds of things go slowly, even though it doesn't take that long to knit a single row.

* I finally did something I'd been threatening to do for a while - I pulled down the blinds in the living room and replaced them with sheer curtains (in a taupe) on tension rods. The problem with blinds is that the strings rot out (sunlight) and it seems that one set goes about once a year, and EVERY YEAR the company I can purchase locally (Levolor) changes their hanging hardware, and it's enough of a nightmare to have to try to put in fresh hardware for the new blinds by myself.

 

 

 Already one of the rods, though, has let loose, and I'll either have to get a slightly longer one or else maybe put a little more rubbery bits on the end

And I ordered all the same length and found that I had forgotten the front windows are longer than the side windows, and those curtains are too short by about 10". So I reordered longer ones (and longer tension rods, because those windows are wider and the tension rods are a little loose). No big loss; the shorter ones can be moved to my sewing room and provide a little privacy there - I had had no blinds when the set that was there when I moved in failed.

I do need to go out some evening after dark and leave the lights on in the living room to see how easily you can see in; that may change how I do some things. Or if I get frustrated with these I could buy or even make* replacements that are more opaque

 (*sad lol not so easily now that there's no more JoAnn's to easily buy fabric from) 

* I did the first three sample-sortings today.

That's 3 of 36. This is going to take a long time. I hope I get some good results; one of the reasons I think I don't try more things is I hate the thought of investing time for no results. (This is not just or even primarily true of research, where I can at least still show evidence I TRIED on my required annual progress reports, but also in things like attempting to design patterns myself or even any more trying things that I'm not sure I'd understand how the pattern will work out and where I might have to rip back and redo. I have become much more restricted and less willing to experiment, and I think that's partly an aftereffect (still) of living through the pandemic and also the more concerning times now - if you feel like "well, what if we all only have six months left? I don't want to waste time trying something I won't finish"

And yeah, I need to break out of that. But I think in some way I am still affected by ~everything~ that has happened. I also think the losses big and small over the years have had an effect; as I said before I've reached the point of not really expecting good things any more. 

I wish I could think of something fun to do but it's unbearably hot ( to the point of, I'd rather pay more and have very limited choices at the Green Spray near me than drive ALL the way out to wal-mart and have to walk across their giant parking lot (because they are always crowded). So even if I could think of a fun thing, it would be hard to overcome inertia to want to go out and do it, when the heat index is like 104 F or something.

I really hope the humidity goes down soon