Why do I do this to myself?

I just took pictures of everything (despite the fact that it will most likely make me late for work), and now I can't get the stupid things to upload. Grr...

Anyway...I found myself in a panic yesterday. In about four weeks, I have to get up and do a reading at our friends' wedding, and Barbara talked me into knitting a pretty lace shrug (my first real lace project, and no one dissuaded me from using black, darnit). So it never seemed to be the right time to work on a lace shrug, so I had gotten nowhere (which is funny, since I've gotten a long way on my mom's lacy alpaca scarf, which doesn't need to be finished until Christmas). So last night, I put it into high gear, and I made it past the elbow of the first sleeve. Still, I've got a long way to go, and I'm working on coming up with a backup plan -- something I can quickly knit the week of the wedding to replace the lace shrug, which will inevitably have only one sleeve.

Anyone have a good recommendation?