What me, swatch?

I spent three days stalking this yarn at Stitches West in February. It called me every time I passed their booth. I finally gave in; 18 oz. of handspun worsted in a colorway called Spiced Mullein, to make a large shawl. I spent another two weeks researching shawl patterns. I knew I wanted to go top down, with some kind of interesting but not too brain-twisting pattern. I finally found this one and then sorted through needles on hand. I picked a size 8, for some reason I cannot now remember, and knit for what seems like 932 rows (actually 90), coming to a sudden realization that this fabric was much more sweater-like than shawl like. I tried it on as best I could (accidentally yanking out about 120 stitches at the same time) and noticed it was like wearing a piece of berber carpet. Hmm, time to rethink this whole gauge thing, even in a shawl. I'm now starting over, using size 10s. Anything to keep me from working on the Pomatomus sock.