I finished the latest pattern repeat on the shawl last night. Now just 10 more rows until I get to the stopping point again and have to decide if it’s large enough to stop or if more knitting is required. I don’t think I’ll be getting it finished in time to wear it tomorrow night. No biggie. Though I do hope to be done with it soon. I want to move on to another project, and I never allow myself to have more than one thing on needles at a time.

Last night I offered to make one of these shawls for Mom, because she’d expressed some interest in having one. If she wanted one, I wanted to get started on it right away while this pattern is fresh in my head. After hemming and hawing around about what color she’d like, she decided she’d rather have a really nice cowl instead, so she can wear it to the store and such with her jacket. I couldn’t have been happier to hear that, because I don’t know that I actually want to make another shawl right now, and I love to make cowls (love to wear them too). Now I’ll have to find a really exquisite cowl pattern to use, which shouldn’t be difficult since I have about a million cowl patterns saved to my favorites at Ravelry.

The hard decision is going to be what yarn to use and what color to make it. She’s not overly fond of wool, so it’ll probably have to be an acrylic or an acrylic/something blend. I was looking for an excuse to go to craft stores tomorrow anyway (Hobby Lobby has McCall’s patterns for 99 cents right now), and now I have an excuse. I have to look at inexpensive yarns!

I’m glad the weather has cooled down and I am back to knitting regularly again. Though I have been griping about how long this shawl is taking (not really long at all in the grand scheme of things), I have been enjoying making it. The pattern is a little challenging for me though, not because of difficulty but because of monotony. I get bored easily when doing the same thing over and over and over, unless I can turn my mind to other things and not pay attention to what I am doing. I have had to pay attention to every stitch I have made on this thing. Mistakes would neither be easily hidden or easily corrected, and I don’t want there to be a single mistake in the finished product (and so far, there are none).

It’s time to go back some cookies and start chopping veggies and such for tonight’s pizza. Then I think I’ll squeeze in another row or two on the shawl before Lin gets home. It may not be done by tomorrow night, but I bet I can have it finished and blocked by grocery shopping time on Monday!