Pouting, Posing and Purchasing

Firstly, I apologise for the pouting sort of pose I have adopted in the picture (my other half informs me this is so).  I did not intend this.  A woman of my age should know better.  But old habits do die hard and all that.  Anyway, the photo is really of the top I'm wearing.  I knitted it in Lanartus Broadway on 12mm needles.  It took 3 balls and I LOVE it.  I really love it.  I made up the so-called pattern as I knitted (hardly really what you'd call a pattern anyway) and it just went all kind of fab and lovely.  Of course, it's meant to be worn with a green or blue strappy top underneath, but there you are.

I've also finished my Noro Blossom Shrug and I LOVE that, too!  Will post a photo.  I love the Blossom yarn.  It's so cosy and yet light, it literally warms up in your hand the minute you touch it.  And the texture is all uneven and bobbly and gorgeous.  I'm going to make up a variation on the Knitty Tubey in it next.  Can't wait.

I know everyone else did this last year (I wasn't knitting then) but I'm going to have a go at the Ella Shawl.  I'll be using Lorna's Laces in Irving Park.  Don't know about anyone else, but I find it really tricky when I see some great yarn on an abfab American website and can't get it here (and don't want to pay the shipping charges from USA).  The thing I find so difficult is tracking down the right substitute.  Is there a secret to making this easy?  And once I've found a suitable alternative, it takes me ages and much to-ing and fro-ing between online stores, to decide which colourway etc....  In fact, until I've decided, it's pretty much on my mind very waking minute (and sometimes in my sleep).  And there is a kind of side-effect produced every time...while I'm looking and seeking and seeking and looking for the right and perfect yarn, I come across something really divine and wholly unsuitable for the application I have in mind and I then I have to think of something I could knit with it and then this newly-thought-up project has to go on a list with all the others and just sit there, with all the other hopefuls, waiting to be realised.  This is a never-ending process. 

Back to the Ella shawl.  At first I found Orangina tricky enough, so Ella should probably go some way towards actually killing me off.  And, do I want a shawl, anyway, or is it just the challenge?  Is it all just for the challenge?