Ok…so this is my second project, or should I say rendezvous with Rowan’s Magazine # 42. I would almost like to say shame on me if I wasn’t boycotting guilt altogether. I started this shrug how long ago? Oh yeah, right before Christmas gifts. After making 12 hats, 4 pair of slippers, 3 pair of striped elf socks, 10 washcloths, and a big batch of lavender soap for the holidays I finally finished the shrug….for me! It lay on my bookshelf for weeks meeting all sorts of buttons….wooden, metal, glass. She just didn’t like any of them. I couldn’t wait to wear my first shrug, but I couldn’t rush the finishing touches. On the way back from Luminous Threads I stopped off at the local thrift shop to rummage as I love to do. I found a little plastic bag filled with beautiful old hair clasps waaaay down in the bottom of a huge box of shirts. BINGO! Now, my shrug was instantly adjustable. She was very cordial to her new clasp. I wasn’t about to tell her (her…made of pumpkin-colored Rowan Big Wool) that she had just been wed to a five cent hair barrette from a second hand shop. I’ll still get to wear my Alpine Shrug quite a few chilly nights here in the Santa Cruz Mountains before she’s tucked away with much care into a cedar chest for next winter and many winters to come.