The cast-off stole is, of course, Sonja’s Pelty Stole which
we finished at Stitches.  We (shamelessly)
made her wear it to the hotel lobby bar where we (shamelessly) made her parade
to and from the ladies’ room in it – and the rest of the time we gazed at her
wearing it in (shameless) admiration of our own work.  At some point, when I can get Sonja and the
Pelty Stole and a camera all together in the same room, I will get a picture to
post.

Now that the Pelty Stole is done, I am free to knit the
projects that have been whimpering in their various baskets and bags.  Out comes the Short-Row Tapestry Stole!  Out comes the baby blanket and matinee
coat!  Out comes the Joyful Ferocity
(which means my dear and patient friend, Joyce, can look for it to be done for
spring wear)!  And out comes the lace
yarn for the Gull Pi Shawl!  Much
rejoicing.

Working out the arithmetic for the Pi Shawl was of those
nice chewy challenges.  I do all my
figuring on scratch paper (it’s not that I distrust calculators, but I am
highly suspicious of myself with a calculator) and it was pure delight when the
numbers just melted into suitable repeats. 
Like magic.  There were some
non-magical moments as well, certainly, but really it mostly fell into place. 

I do think I need to take a class in transposing patterns
written for back-and-forth rows to in-the-round instructions, though.  My final brain twist of the evening was to
get a wrong-side row of twisting to work out on a right-side row!  I did a little research and a little
experimenting and think I have it figured out. 
I made notes so I will recall what I decided to do when I finally get to
where I need to do it.

I have worked 13 rounds now and am up to 72 stitches (one
begins at the center and increases outward). 
I have had to cast on 3 or 4 times to get it right, but cannot really
complain as the cast-on is a mere 9 stitches. 
Having read The Yarn Harlot’s recent blog about her lace shawl
beginnings and re-beginnings and re-re-beginnings – well, I cannot compete with
that!