Book review: Shawls, Wraps, and Scarves

Have you ever jonesed for a book, finally got around to actually buying, you brim with excitement while waiting for it to arrive, and then, when you get it in your hands, your response is . . . meh?  You contemplate returning it because you're on a yarn and fabric budget and you have to preserve each dollar.  Yet you paw through it, hoping to find more than one or two patterns you can use. Of course, while you're doing this, you muck it up. And now you can't return it. Suddenly, you find that, yeah, that shawl does look cute. And I could bang that scarf out for what's-her-name.

Well, this is that book.

Something about how you could use something three different ways to come up with sixty patterns!  I'm a sucker for options, that's why I love books by Ann Budd.  I want the ability to disregard the recommended yarn and use what I have on hand.  It's not often that I visit a yarn store with a specific project in mind and buy just for that project. This might account for my large yarn stash. (Have I mentioned that I love yarn?)

Initially, I bought this book because I have several lots of just 1-3 skeins of yarn, and, since moving to SF, the weather and fashion climate is definitely amenable to accessories.  Somewhere in the description or maybe the pictures, I saw or perhaps envisioned, options.  I guess I should have paid a little more attention.  The book sort of gives you options. You get a particular stitch or stitch pattern offered in three styles.  Some of them use different weights of yarn.  But, really, it's just sixty patterns.

To be fair, its probably more me than anything else.  I was looking for something in particular, and I thought it was this.  Now that I officially own it, I've managed to look at it with somewhat fresh eyes.  Some of the shawls are cute, though I'm not terribly into using mohair - very fiddley.  The scarves are almost up my alley, but the jury is still out on the shawlettes.  See exhibit A - the capelet that has been hibernating since 2008.

So, maybe this was less a book review and more about my how I bought a book, ottered it, and now I'm stuck with it.  Have I mentioned that I've already casted on one of the projects?