Pie Are Square - Round 2

Well, I decided to turn the Grape Jelly colored "Shadow" from knitpicks into another Pie Are Square shawl, the pattern by Elizabeth Zimmerman. I love her stuff, I regularly borrow her videos from the library and watch her explaining how to knit. She's simple - there's no frou-frou accents, hand dyed yarns, or crazy notions. She's simply trying to make a fabric to keep the body warm and look decent while she's at it. She also likes to do things with formulas, such as her EZ Percentage Sweater. Well, I'd tried to make this shawl from some turquoise wool/silk yarn last year and got so tired of the color that I didn't get too far. This time I decided to use a smaller needle, a size 6 I believe, with the lace weight merino wool yarn. I'm about 20 rows or so into the pattern and think it's coming out great so far. The tighter gauge is making for something warmer and ultimately more neat looking. The pattern has a round back and square front, which is a little funny looking but it should be quite practical, unlike the half-round shawls I've made which don't sit on your shoulders properly. The problem with this pattern is that you have to keep track of how many ridges of garter stitch you've done, and the only way I'm able to do that is by checking off each row as I knit it, so it's not so much a mindless project as garter stitch should be. I am using my pink Go Knit bag, but no so much for knitting on the go - more for keeping the ball of yarn from getting messy. There's nothing worse than a tangled mess of lace yarn (except if it were mohair! Ask me how I know!) I think that this project has the potential to make it all the way to completion because the yarn is pleasant to work with and I think it would be great to wear at work. Or even if I go for a walk in the evenings. I definitely want to make a poncho for this fall. Maybe after I get the shawl and stockpot scarf done (it's about 1/2 way so far), I can start thinking about yarns. I'll probably use the pattern in The Knit Stitch.