Lace! Lace! Lace!

While I'm in the midst of knitting another baby knit (cute little wrap cardigan in a honeycomb stitch pattern), I'm thinking ahead and am planning my next project. The Insanity Project is, of course, on my radar, but after I realized that it is knit on US #1 needles (!!!!), and after it took a whole day of knitting to finish just a gauge swatch, I may not start it for a while but give Hubs, the Bean, and myself a chance to get to know each other and develop some sort of routine. (No no no, he isn't here yet.)

So, what's next?

My grad school advisor is completely awesome and, in her awesomeness, kind of scary: she's been nothing but cordial and nice and helpful, always responsive to my troubles and supportive of my endeavors, and yet, until recently I've been a bit terrified of her! I hear that's normal: part of the grad school experience is to be scared s***less of your advisor. Now that we're degree-equals (chuckles) I want to give her a present that makes her forget the times that I stood in front of her stuttering and staring at my feet glossy-eyed. My advisor is a very beautiful woman who likes to dress up with accessories, and I think she'd appreciate a knitted scarf in a bold color. One week after I defended my dissertation I came across Madelinetosh Pashmina, a gorgeous five-ply merino-silk-cashmere mix, and got two skeins:

Although it's a sport weight yarn I'm hoping to make a lace scarf. Not too lacy, because that's not my advisor's style, and so I deliberately chose a heavier weight to give the lace scarf a more rustic feel. I got 720 yards to play with. Big question: which pattern?

For some time now I've been meaning to try either a Nancy Bush or an Anne Hanson design, and here is what a weekend of Ravelrizing and book-browsing has produced:

Bush's Lily of the Valley Scarf looks so simple--until you discover row after row of five-stitch nupps. I suppose I should try nupps to see for myself how I feel about them before I commit myself to a nupps-everywhere pattern.

Or I go for Bush's Lilac Leaf Shawl (with fewer repeats for a narrower scarf): just a little bit of nupping (alas, seven-stitch nupps) at the top and bottom edgings, and vast center field of lilacs in between. The pattern is designed to be used with a laceweight yarn, but Cattywampus's scarf--narrower, knit with five-ply yarn--looks gorgeous, no?

Of Hanson's designs I like the Birnam Wood Wrap. Since I don't have enough yardage I'd have to fiddle with pattern repeats etc. to downsize the wrap into a scarf. Dunno if I want to do that.

Hanson's Tudor Grace and Campanula Scarf have the advantage that they're easy to make (I'd hope): small pattern repeats that look pretty simple. But perhaps they are too simple?

Whatcha thinking? Which scarf do you like best?