Knittinggarden: Addicted to Pi

Here was the problem: 1) I messed up the socks I was doing two-at-a-time toe up, and have to start over. 2) I have to cut the armhole steeks on my Kauni and then pick up the stitches for the sleeves. 3) I posted the progress on my Printed Silk Cardigan to the ravelry group, so it feels like I'm done for awhile. 4) It's too hot to work on my wool throw. 6) I finished my scarf for ISE6. 5) The basic socks I have going in Tofutsies are boring, so....

I decided to start a Pi shawl. (Link shows you Wendy's.)

I considered my lace yarns, almost started with the lovely Perchance to Knit I got at Spring Fling, but then remembered this pretty, although troublesome yarn I had in the stash. I bought this yarn when I first started to knit, off eBay, and had never managed to get it to work with any pattern. It's Madil Luna Park, made in Italy, 90% cotton and 10% polyester. It's a beautiful blue with a little bit of white and pink thrown in. It's not easy to work with because it's comprised of a bunch of fine threads twisted loosely together. It's slippery and splitty, but I still think it's beautiful. So I decided to try the shawl out of it.

Step one: Emily Ocker's circular cast-on. I got the hang of it finally, (this tutorial is great) but the part where you have to put 9 tiny, slippery stitches onto dpns and then increase on the second row kept biting me in the b*tt. I'm terrible with dpns anyway, and I just couldn't get it to work out. Did I give up? No, I intrepidly soldiered on and figured how to begin with two circular needles. (I was using 8s, so it shouldn't have been too hard either way, but it was.)

Success! My two circular method worked, and the center looks pretty much like the photo in the book.

I'm contentedly knitting on, counting the 144 stitches each time and finding I have some other number frequently, which entails going back, finding the missed YO, and fixing. Keeps me out of trouble.