What was I thinking?

I have two projects I'm casting on for today.

One is Barb's Koigu Ruffle by Churchmouse Yarns and Tea that I'm knitting with Koigu PPPM.The initial cast on is 648 sts! I started this morning and I have about 150 left. I have to take breaks because it's so time consuming. It's a nice, small, portable project.
Wendy Knits has designed a Mystery Shawl that is a knit-a-long. I actually learned of this as it was beginning. I've never participated in one before and I'm excited about it. Danni and Ann are doing it too. We also had a customer come into Westport Yarns to buy yarn for it, so we traded Ravelry names to keep tabs on each other.

I'm knitting it with yarn I picked up at Rhinebeck, Periwinkle Sheep Watercolors II sock yarn, 400 yards, Meg's Royal Purple. I learned that Wendy is a loose knitter so I actually got gauge with the needle size the pattern called for. That's virtually unheard of for me.

Oh, I forgot to mention that the cast on for this shawl is 241 sts, the pattern starts with the largest number of stitches.

If you decide to do the KAL too, let me know.

What was I thinking? Combined that's 889 stitches to cast on in one day. Plus they are both knit in fingering weight yarn.
My 11th hour knitting project was done in time to block last night. It's a shrug I made to go with an outfit. I just have to seam up the sides! Once the pattern is written up, I'll post it.