I threw in a Red Herring.

After looking over the patterns and yarn choices, I went back to Ravelry and found the Argus Shawlette by Wendy Johnson.
The yarn is Sock Options Good Harbor by Serenknity and the color is, of course, purple people eater.

I started it this morning and since the pattern gave permission (gauge in lace is not critical it said) I went down my usual needle size and began the pattern on a size 4. It became apparent right away that this was not the right needle size and I went up to a 5. Now I'm happy with it.

I looked it up, here's the definition of a red herring from Wikilpedia:
Red herring (logical fallacy), a deliberate attempt to change a subject or divert an argument.