Father's Day Sale at the Yarn Shop

Exhibit 1
I attribute my venture over to the local yarn shop to Sharon - it all started with her. She brought me a shawl pattern that she thought I would be interested in - Madli's Shawl - from Interweave Magazine - Summer Issue 2004 - an example can be found on this page.

I knew, in the back of my mind, that there was some kind of sale going on, but couldn't remember the details. So Mom and I traipsed (spellcheck didn't like this word) over to Thomasville to check it out. It was "mystery" sale, which means you draw the discount out of the bag to see what kind of discount you get after your purchase is added up. Lo and behold, for once, I hit the jackpot and got the yarn for 50% off - now THAT is pretty exciting. I knew I should have shot for the silk skeins I saw..... anyway, I got some nice merino wool yarn for the shawl.
WEll, all the hard work searching for the perfect yarn for this shawl created an appetite and we moseyed over to Liam's, a nice local restaurant that serves urban cuisine. We split the chicken pasta dish and a fruit bowl that hit the spot.

Back to the shawl...Madli's shawl has some challenges with one that I think is a bit sadistic - it calls for a purl 7 together in several places, and I will keep you apprised of the progress. Right now, it is at cast on 101 stitches on size 5 needles. I chose not to worry about the gauge since it is a shawl. We will see if that matters down the road.
The second challenge is this is the first pattern I have knitted with that is by chart only. We will see if my brain can switch the gears to reading the hieroglyphic font without insanity taking place.
The third challenge is to find quiet time to focus on the knitting. This is not the type of project you take to a sit and sew unless you want to create pandemonium in your work while trying to carry on a conversation. Based on Murphy's law, once I begin this

• the phone will ring
• the dog will want out and will be scratching furiously at the door
• someone in the house will ask a question and wonder why it will take 5 minutes for me to answer while I try to get to a stopping point to answer it, and to process it.

If anyone has completed or worked on Madli's shawl, I would love to hear your comments and recommendations - this one will stretch me to new frontiers into the knitosphere.