Last minute substitution

Since the World Cup Sweater has been sent to purgatory (the spare room in which my stash and other stuff is stored), I decided to come up with a replacement project. I bought this dress at a consignment store by my office last week, and decided to make a shrug so that I could wear the dress to work without feeling too bare. I'm starting with this Fibertrends pattern, but am making several modifications: lightweight yarn that's smaller gaugue than the pattern calls for, short sleeves, and no collar - I think I will try to do a Picot type edge instead. This is partly to make it more lacy, and partly because the pattern calls for 600 yards for my size, and I have 400 yards, and I don't think that shortening the arms will cut 200 yards off the requirements. I am also using an m1 stitch which is untwisted, so it makes for a more hole-y effect; because it's easier to do, and also to add to the loose knit effect. This is being designed for coverage rather than for warmth. I guess I could have done the project in a lace or eyelet pattern, but I didn't want to make it even more complex. This plied yarn (Silk/linen/cotton - Cottage by Berger du Nord - ebay purchase) splits like there is no tomorrow, which is quite the change from the kureyon. My original intention was to make the shrug out of this lovely 100% alpaca yarn. This is my first skein that was sent to my by my OneSkein upstream Secret Pal. It's wonderfully soft, and has a nice mixture of greens in it; I'm curious how they will blend together once it's knitted. I found some of the same colour theme at my LYS, and bought a few more with the intention of using it for the shrug, but I then came to my senses and realized that an alpaca shrug would not get much use in 34 Celcius weather. I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to make with this yarn. It's so soft that I want to make something that I will wear directly on my skin, rather than just a hat or scarf. I need to look up the qualities of alpaca - other than knowing that it gets very fuzzy if you felt it, I don't know much else about how fragile/stretchy/etc it is. Sandy has a good thing going with her Saturday Skies blog ring. This was the sky above town this evening. Canada Day Fireworks, seen from our balcony. We love you, Canada!