I'm up to row 31 on the Flower Petal Shawl (no images because I don't have that kind of time right now) and the needles are being more tolerable. For one thing, as the shawl grows, it weighs down the springy bit of the circular that kept boinging around and causing chaos -- this is a 40-inch circular, so there is a lot of extra needle.
Also, I discovered that the needles work very well if you are covered in a fine layer of spray glue after working in the studio for a few hours. The glue has since rubbed off, so I will have to re-apply it tomorrow. Maybe other people have stickier fingers than I do and naturally have more grip on their needles.
I can only knit a couple of rows at a time before being called off to class or having to glue something to something else, so I'm enjoying the pattern, which is simple and kind of mindless (though with the occasional abbreviation I've never seen before: k0? Knit no stitches? Do I honestly need to be told that? I guess so, if I assume that I knit one after every yarn over). I generally don't care for overly fussy things, which means easy knitting, but while puttering around today I found a couple more lace shawls that are quite nice and slightly more complicated than stockinette with a few yarn overs. Maybe I will try one of those during a vacation. Lord knows what I will do with several lace shawls, but I'm sure they will find good homes, if not with me.
Oh, and the yarn? Wonderful. I am definitely not allergic to alpaca like I am to wool, which makes me very happy.
I am so glad to see your beautiful shawl! I just started making the same pattern (elann.com) and I just got to row 13, the K0 row. I was totally puzzled! When I googled it- google sent me to your page. So I thouroughly enjoyed reading about the progress of your shawl and glad to see that knitting "0" turns into a pretty cool thing! Thanks