Spurred on by a broken resolution

Thank you Crobbles and Knitting Nurd for making me feel less guilty about breaking my first resolution. A bit of guilt on my part worked wonders though and spurred me on to finish all the pieces of my blue cardigan. I still have to stitch it all together and crochet all the bands as you can see but I feel fairly chuffed that I have managed to get rid of a 5yrs lingering WIP.I have managed to find some buttons in my stash which although not perfect will be in keeping with my "not buying anything unless I absolutely need it" resolution.

My excuse for carrying on with the green shawl last night was that I would need to lay out and pin all the pieces of the cardigan to stitch them up and I didn't feel like crawling about on the floor whilst watching Poirot on TV. I still have 10 rows to crochet to complete the shawl so that will take me a while as the rows get wider and so take longer to crochet. The shawl will certainly be warm as the wool is thicker than the one recommended on the pattern. I was making the shawl for warmth rather than decoration so I am not unhappy with the result.

Although this is the second shawl I have made from this pattern I am still struggling with the way the Blue Curacao pattern is written. Too many * to * and ** to *** including one more * to ** for me. I understand that the pattern would have been very long to write out fully but I do think it is really off putting unless you can crochet to a half circle diagram where following the rows isn't easy either. I have the added drawback of learning crochet UK way and using UK interpretation of stitches for 50 yrs and now having to relearn all the names of the stitches when following new crochet books.

My name was mentioned on Ravelry as a suggestion for leading a CAL (crochet a long for people like me who had no idea what CAL meant) on Tall Latte. I don't feel confident enough to lead anyone even though I have made 3 so far. I still have to watch every row and count every increase plus the added thing that I still convert the stitches to UK which would just confuse everyone anyway! I have replied that I will try to help anyone who is stuck but I don't want to lead. I don't want to make another Tall Latte at the moment as I have other things planned. Plus I don't like the short sleeves and have only made one with those sleeves and that was for my niece. I presume that when you join a CAL or KAL then you go along at the same pace as everyone else row by row and that alone would drive me potty :)