I had seen the "Knitty Gritty" episode with the lace sampler shrug but I was too lazy to look up the pattern (or in too much of a hurry to cast on) so I cast on a bunch of stitches (two hundred possibly, it was a rectangle, I wasn't thinking too hard about it). And I picked a pattern out of the stitch calendar and started, and then got bored and picked another and I kept going until I was about to run out, and then I cast off. And I measured it and it had enough give (more the stitch than the yarn) so I sewed up the ends and viola - a shrug.
My apartment gets enough sun that it's usually pretty warm, this is perfect for the days when it's a little nippier.
As we head into more shrug like weather next year, I may whip up some more, since the sheen of the yarn makes it snazzy enough to go well with jeans or a dress.