I finally finished this last Wednesday - in fact I put in 12 hours on it Wednesday to get it completed and over to dad on Thursday.  Of course I forgot to bring my camera too :)  Anyway, it’s done - thank goodness.  Eventually (but not right this second - I’m not up to another afghan just at the moment!) - this ancient article…

...will also be replaced :)  I made that more than 25 years ago.  No, I don’t know what I was thinking either but it is a testament to the durability of Red Heart acrylic which is all I could afford at the time.

Now I’m trying to plan another project and, until yesterday, had been kind of flailing around.  I haven’t really been sparked much by the various attempts at lace entrelac so my mind turned to another shawl idea that had been simmering for almost a year.  It’s related to classical music and to one composer in particular.  Since the Faun’s Eyes pattern wasn’t working in entrelac for me, I wondered how it would work circularly.

Now here’s the problem.  Well, the problem is with me because I had myself convinced that I couldn’t do a circular cast-on.  I’ve tried them all, but never got anywhere.  But yesterday I spent about 8 hours working it out and then working on a…well, I suppose you’d call it a “prep” piece.  Not really a swatch because I’d be using different yarn (which I don’t even have yet) and different needles for the real deal.  But just a sort of preliminary to see if the idea was feasible.  In the process of that, I quite accidentally found the solution to the problem with the musical shawl that had been stumping me for quite a while :)

Hey Ev - it worked!  Because this lace is worked on both sides of the fabric, I fretted about “translating” the wrong-side rows to knit stitches.  I pretty much fret about everything - think of it as a form of exercise :) - but it turned out to be easy-peasy and made the lace incredibly simple to work.

Now I know the center looks like the dog’s breakfast, but I also know what went wrong and how to avoid the issue next time.  And yes, there are two colors here but it’s what I had at the time that I was willing to sacrifice for the sake of experimentation.  This is basically the Pi shawl formula (explained in Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Knitter’s Almanac).

I have never made a circular shawl so it seemed like a good idea to try one.  I do have one last reservation about it.  When I fold it in half to wear, won’t the lacework be obscured?  Is there a way to minimize or avoid that?  Regardless, I intend to go forward - in fact I ordered two different types of yarn this morning so I’ll have a choice.  Of course that could be a mistake :)

Looking at this, I recognize the possibility of beading too.  Of course it’s only a possibility :)  At this point, everything about it is only a possibility - but I’m champing at the bit to get started and will be checking my mailbox, oh…2 or 3 times a day, until my yarn and needles (wooden ones!) get here.

We finally got to see the sun - for about 10 minutes this afternoon - before things clouded over again.  We’ve had tons of rain this last week and things aren’t due to really clear up until Thursday.

This is what the sky looked like at about 2:00 PM EST and at the very bottom of the photo, you can see the trees starting to get some color.

Dad and I went out to lunch today…

...and will be doing so again on Thursday.  My Uncle Howie is coming up from Florida for a short stay and dad and I are taking him up to Lord’s Harborside in Maine for a late lunch.  I’m looking forward to my Uncle’s visit; I always enjoy him.  I particularly enjoy observing his interaction with my father - they both turn into 13-year-olds.  And watching this pair of octogenarians instantly revert to mid-pubescent teenagers in each other’s presence can be a lot of fun.