Progress continues with my renewed enthusiasm for the Southern Skies shawl!  I stretched it out on two long cords to check out just how much progress I’d made.  It seemed like a lot…

…until the yard stick came out.  Circle shawls need to be extra huge…this is no where near done.  Except, I’m nearly out of yarn…

That’s all I’ve got left.  That’s it.

Apparently, I decided 660 yards would be just enough to cover the patterns recommended 1200 yards?!?!

True Story.

And then, just to reinforce how far off I am, I did a little math.  I’ve completed charts A, B, C & D for a total of 17,856 stitches.  I’ve just started chart E , with 576 sts/row, has a whopping total of 31,104 stitches.

Meaning I’m not even half done, I’ve got just over one-third completed but I’ve used half the yardage necessary.  Thank you, loose knitting for reminding me, I’ll actually need 300 yards extra to compensate for my gauge!

What the heck was I thinking?!?  I’m pained to have so many projects run short of yarn lately, knitting from the stash is expensive!?!  (The crochet shawl is still stalled, just waiting on more yarn in the mail.)  This is definitely an argument for planned shopping and hesitant stashing.  One day, I’ll be better at that.  In the meantime, the decision is pretty clear here.

This is too gorgeous to abandon now and that’s nothing compared to how it feels!  It’s purple cashmere…there’s no way it’s a bad decision.  It just stings a little, champagne taste on a beer budget, ya know?  So, while I sulk over having to buy more cashmere (really?!?), I’m swatching with these goodies from the stash…

Some of Mom’s hand dyed Unicorn Farts and rainbow beads I got in a de-stash last year!

It’s a holiday weekend, why not have a little cast on party?  It’s been 5 whole days since my last cast on!  5 AND a half, if we’re being precise!  What could possibly go wrong?