My Pi Shawl

So, my circular shawl is coming right along…

After you graduate from the double pointed needles to circulars, you are really cooking with gas!

It’s so easy to knit.  Most of the rows/rounds are just the knit stitch!  In fact, 5 outa every 6 rounds are just the knit stitch.

After I knitted on this awhile, I decided to read up on circular shawls on the Internet.  Pi shawls, I learned, were “unvented” by the incomparable Elizabeth Zimmermann. 

I found out that they are the July featured project in her book, Knitter’s Almanac, which I promptly checked out of the library.  She wrote that this pi shawl is the perfect knitting project to take along on your summer vacation.

After reading the chapter, I fell in love with her concentric circles variation, and decided to switch to that pattern midstream.  Fortunately, I was in just the right place to do that.  This pattern is even easier and perfect for this yarn, where the changing colors are the main attraction.

You see, the only yarn that I had gobs of yardage available for such a big project was the one that I unraveled and wrote about in another blog post here:  Unraveled

To refresh your memory (or not), this is what the yarn looked like knitted up in a trinity stitch rectangular shawl:

Yuk.  And too stripe-y.

But with this new circular shawl pattern, what were stripes are now rings of color!  And I could never have anticipated how perfect this yarn would be for this pattern.  What a great accidental discovery.  (Yes, it's the same yarn!)

Here are some photos of the new Pi Shawl at various stages of its growth.

I’ve had to change to a longer cable twice because it’s growing so big.  Thank heavens for my Chiaogoo interchangeable set of small Twist needles.  What would I ever do without them?

I’m already up to 288 stitches around the circle.  And it does take me awhile to knit around it once.

But it is so easy and relaxing to knit that I imagine I will just keep going until I’ve used up all my yarn, if I ever get that far.

I may have to stop soon and try this pattern with the always beautiful laceweight yarn:  ♥ Rowan Kidsilk Haze ♥.  <Eeeeee!!!>  How fun would that be?!?

And of course, I will still be knitting on all my other lace projects along the way…

This must be why some of my knitting projects don’t get finished very soon!  LOL  Too many WIP’s (works in progress)!!!

XOXO,

Lucky Dog

♥

Updates. StarDate 201004.23

#1. Well, Roly-Poly and Gimpy must be doing okay, but there has been a strange absence of raccoons lately.  :(  The food is gone in the morning, so someone’s eating it... But all we’ve seen lately are skunks and possums. Boo. Where are those cRaZy raccoons?!? Don’t they know we put the food out for them??

#2. I finally finished the scarf for my nephew and am slowly working on my silver triangle shawl.

But I can’t knit much because…

#3. My tennis elbow is still not very happy. And the doc wasn’t so helpful. Unfortunately, it gets a little better and then I use it (duh), but then apparently overuse it, and am now in a vicious cycle. Aarrrggh.

This week I’m trying something new: heat.

My good ol’ rice sock buddy that got me through the winter (see January 6 post) has yet another use. I zap it, and since it’s so floppy from tons of use, I’m able to wrap it around the elbow area to warm it.

And so far, my elbow has really responded well to it. I am hoping that this is real progress. That would be so wonderful! But that’s kinda weird, because most things on the Internet were saying to ice it, and I thought that would be good, too, because that’s what helps my back so much. But it just wasn’t helping like before, and somehow I got the notion to use heat instead.

Once I did and my elbow seemed to love it, I googled “tennis elbow” and heat, and got some hits that indicated that the elbow area doesn’t normally get much blood flow. So the heat helps get more blood flow to it and helps it heal. Sounds logical to me. Hopefully this will do the trick, because I’m really sick and tired of not being able to do normal things, like pick up a mug of coffee. Oy. I mean, it’s Spring, for cryin’ out loud, and I need to be out there weeding and planting flowers! Double-oy.

#4. Life with the little dog continues to be Heaven-on-Earth. ♥  The kennel cough has cleared up and we have one happy dog! One thing that is especially nice is, he doesn’t seem to have issues with a collapsing trachea, like our other Pom did. What that translates to is, he can lie on his back without choking, and thus wriggle on his back in utter bliss. Such happiness!! It makes me smile just to think about it! 

It also means that I can get photos like this:

It’s too bad that he can’t just relax and enjoy himself, isn’t it?? Hahaha

And

#5. The highlight of the week was the afternoon that Mr. Man and I went to the annual local art show downtown. We had the best time ever. The weather was nice and cool, the art was fabulous, and we even splurged and split a funnel cake.

In fact, Mr. Man told the guy that we wanted it piping hot, right out of the grease... so hot that it would burn us. Hahaha Ya know, a lot of times those vendors want to fry ‘em ahead of time and give you a cold one. Ha! That’s not even worth the calories!! So, sure ‘nuff, it was too hot to even pull apart--just perfect. And I even choked on the powdered sugar!  Good times. ♥

And… we even made a few art purchases. (!) One of them is a gold pottery plate with inset dichroic glass made by our friend, Ed Taylor. Ed is an artist who learned some pottery techniques from a Canadian friend of ours, who used to snowbird in Texas. It’s so nice to have a connection with the artists and the art that we collect, and this is actually the third piece that we have purchased from Ed. This latest piece has transformed my “rustic” hearth into something a bit more colorful for my tastes, and I couldn’t be happier.

Here’s hoping that all the artists sell tons of pieces at the art show and make enough money so that they can continue to create their art for years and years to come. ♥

XOXO,
Lucky Dog
♥