FO: Poseidon Adventure Shawl

Sometimes a pattern comes along that I have no choice but to absolutely love.  It sits in the back of my queue, and I never believe that I'm going to truly make it, due to time/budget/insanity needed to start the project.  I also have a huge problem with knitting something for myself- especially something this large and unnecessary to my everyday living.  Sweater?  I can justify you.  Intricate mittens?  Even those are a daily thing.  But a shawl?
With this shawl, the odds were stacked against me from the start.
The beautiful fishnet on the outside with a large, loose edge... the leaf motif in the middle... the beads inside the lace like grains of sand...`the thought of a water-colored knit...
The stars aligned one day when I was innocently browsing my local yarn and came upon the Three Irish Girls yarn in the Eavan colorway- an incredible blue/black/green that reminded me of Lake Superior on her temperamental days when I wanted to squeeze in one more climb above her.  There was enough at Yarn Harbor in the Adorn Sock weight to make the shawl, and something in the air made me had me rethinking possibly making something for myself.
6 months later, after a lot of (YO, K2tog), swearing at tiny needles going into thousands of tinier holes in beads, and fights with kittens about yarn NOT being a play-thing, I finally finished my own Poseidon Adventure Shawl!

Pattern: The Shipwreck Shawl, by Bethany Kok (free pattern online!)
Yarn: Adorn Sock in "Eavan" by Three Irish Girls
Needles: The amazing interchangables got me through in sizes 4, 8, 9, 10, 10 1/2, & 11.
Made For: Myself!  (Believe it?  I barely do...)

Timeline: October 12, 2011-March 4, 2012
Modifications: I didn't have beads throughout the entire fishing net section (because I ran out) but I'm actually really happy with how it turned it, so it's all good.  Plus I wouldn't have wanted to string any more beads on.  At all.
Worst Part: This might be a three-way tie between the seemingly endless 50 rows of over 500 stitches, the last increase to over 1100 stitches and subsequent binding off of said 1100 stitches, or the poking and painful stringing of well over 500 beads onto the yarn when I switched into the fishing net section.
Best Part: Three way tie yet again between the immediate feeling of elation when I finished binding off aforementioned 1100 stitches, the shock and excitement when I was blocking this thing and it easily draped over the sides of my full-sized bed (this thing is taller than I am at 5'4''!) and how AWESOME this yarn is!

I never thought I would finish anything this elaborate or big, and not only does it give me confidence in my lace abilities, but it makes large projects seem do-able when I can finish something like this in 6 months.

::le sigh::

Guess I'll have to finally pull out and finish that Dale after all... :)
At least I'll have a huge blanket of a shawl to keep me cozy while doing it!