I’ve been making steady progress on my lace shawl. Of course, it doesn’t really look like much progress. It is fairly slow going, but also it’s just a long crumpled snake of unblocked lace at this point.
I’ve been marking progress with locking stitch markers after every five repeats, so I know that I’ve moved from 16/23 repeats to 19/23 repeats. Technically, I could stop here. It looks super long! But I have to remind myself that it’s not as long as it looks since this is the curved lower edge, and doesn’t reflect the final distance across the top.
But what really made me feel like I’d made progress?
That second empty bead container. That’s right – I’ve used up two things of beads. I am not worried about running out as I’m over 2/3rds of the way done (19/23rd to be precise which is a little more than 3/4ths).
Someday, I might be done! I’ve even got it sufficiently memorized and automatic at this point that I can work on it during conference calls, greatly improving my overall rate of progress. I’d also like to highly recommend the purchase of a dedicated bead needle for any major bead projects (such as this one). Its much easier to work on in bits and pieces when I have a bunch of beads pre-loaded onto the needle, rather than trying to pick them up 2-3 at a time on a tiny crochet hook from a little dish. It also makes emergency-cat-on-the-desk storage much much quicker and safer.
Still time to VOTE
At this point, I know many of you who are US Citizens will have already voted (whether by mail or using early voting options). And many more will have your plans set for how to vote safely on Election Day or in early voting in the last few days.
If you are still undecided about whether or not you are going to vote… I would like to think its more because you aren’t sure your vote will “count” rather than being undecided about who your preferred candidate is. So let me tell you, you vote ALWAYS counts. Even if you are in a state that’s considered “Red” or “Blue” rather than “Purple”.
First, there are the various local and state level officials on the ballot for whom races may be much much closer. For some positions, you even get to pick out several from a larger list (various committees, judges, etc… depending on your state) which means you may even exert influence on the final line up of who within a party is elected. Your Senators and Representatives in the national Congress often got their start at the local or state level. Who you select now will impact your choices in later years. Don’t underestimate the importance of this, nor of the impact they’ll have on your day to day life during their term in office.
Secondly, even for Federal offices, it’s critical that those elected understand to what degree they have the support of their constituents. Even if “your person” doesn’t win, the person who does will represent you and they should know how you feel. Knowledge of the degree to which somebody won or lost will shape national narratives. For example, President Trump is a minority president – he won the electoral college, but not the majority of votes in 2016. If loads of people had stayed home in “Blue” states in 2016 just because they knew how their state would go… he might not have been a minority president. He and the rest of the Republican party have had to work under the knowledge that most Americans who voted in 2016 did not vote for Trump.
In short… your vote always counts for something. And sometimes it might be more than you realized. So please please vote if you haven’t already. Help send a message at all levels of government about what you care about. And I hope your message includes that you are concerned for your fellow citizens under thread from Covid-19, that all people matter, no matter their color, gender, sexual orientation or where they are from, and that helping the vulnerable and those in need is a civic and moral duty. So let’s vote out the current administration, because they’ve shown over and over that those things do not matter to them. And let’s do so with large and decisive numbers of votes.