A tadpole from the Frog Pond

I won some new lace patterns on eBay yesterday - Yaaay! Before I elope with the next pattern that shows up in my mailbox, I thought I'd better be true to some projects already started/spoken for. I spied the purple merino/silk I spun a few months ago that had a false start as a Fir Cone shawl. When I started it, I chose Fir Cone because I wanted a very simple motif that would not overwhelm my humble handspun. Plus, I'ts a no-brainer to figure out the increases on a triangle shawl with Fir Cone. Easy pickin's right?

Well, not so fast. I wasn't too sure after I'd knitted a few repeats whether I really liked the fabric. Did I listen to the Wee Knitting Muse whacking me up side the head? Of course not. I kept plugging away....

I had knitted nearly the entire shawl when I decided that the fabric was just too dense, and that the yarn wanted to be something airier. So... a-waltzing to the frog pond I went. My big ball of reclaimed yarn sat on my dresser until this weekend, when thumbing through my pattern binders, I fell upon the Diamond Fantasy shawl!

Eureka!! Yarn and pattern entered my head at the same time and the Wee Knitting Muse sang in my ear (she's fickle, though - so I'm hoping she doesn't box my ears again when I'm nearly through). What's more, I'm following a pattern, which means the increases are already figured out for me. I love charts done by somebody else.

This pattern is airy, but not intricate, and I have enough yardage to make a full-size shawl. So last night, I cast on and proceeded. The picture shows the first few repeats.