When Yarn Speaks

I've had a skein of Sausalito from Crystal Palace Yarns sitting on the top of my stash pile for a while now.  It was too soft and pretty to use.  It deserved the perfect pattern but I couldn't decide what that perfect pattern would be.  Besides, I liked petting it each time I dove into the stash pile.

Yesterday, I decided that it needed to be mittens.  I cast on and knit a 2x2 ribbing for two hours and still had barely an inch of ribbing.  I love this yarn and know it would make a beautiful pair of mittens, but at this rate, it would be five or six years before I had a completed pair.

What to do?  The skein is only 198 yards.  The skein wanted to be a shawl, but again, it's only 198 yards.  I could mix it with some other yarn, but there didn't seem to be anything else comparable in my stash.  And it really, really wants to be a shawl.  The yarn's quiet whisper began to scream at me that it wanted to be a shawl, or at least a scarf.  It didn't care that it was only 198 yards.  "Figure it out!" it hollered at me.

Ok, ok.  How to turn 198 yards into 420, which is about what I use for my favorite, basic shawl pattern?  Obviously, I need to knit very loosely and on large needles.  Oh!  Duh!  Elizabeth Zimmerman Pi shawl, but cut in half, and with dropped yarn overs.  Yarn overs don't take all that much yarn and if I drop them, they'll stretch out and make huge rows with very little yarn.

I cast on and quickly became obsessed.  It may end up being the world's smallest shawl, but it Will be a shawl!

The only problem is, Saulsalito makes me think of salsa which makes me think of Corona.  Is 9:00 a.m. too early to start drinking?