Large, lacy temptation

Over the summer, I made an impulse purchase at my LYS: four skeins of laceweight alpaca/silk blend, in a lovely dusty rose color. I've been looking for the perfect lace shawl pattern ever since, but lately I've done a lot more searching. I'm telling myself I'm not allowed to cast on any more new projects, because 12 WIPs should be enough for anyone, but naturally, as soon as I made that decision the temptation to cast on for a sweater or a shawl tripled. I really, really want to knit a sweater, but I thought maybe I could subdue the large-project hunger with something large, intricate, and lacy.

I was out searching for patterns when I stopped dead in my tracks. Because, of course, I already have something large and lacy (and, conveniently, pink) on the needles. I'd been neglecting it because of an error I couldn't quite fix with my crochet hook, so it sat abandoned until I could summon the strength to either fix it or live with the mistake. I hauled it out the other day, and here's what it looks like now:



A large pink butterfly in the garden. The yarn is Cascade Sierra, a 80% cotton/20% wool blend. Here's the lace pattern, spread out (indoors this time- 20% wool isn't enough to protect a shawl from January temperatures for very long):



The completed non-trivet wanted in on the glamor shot action.



All this knitting seems not to have had much of an impact on my stash count, however- I have finished off exactly one ball of yarn this week. I've made sizable dents in some others, but I can't change the stash count yet. Maybe with the next non-trivet.