I will sometimes make a shawl purely for the fun of using a new pattern/different yarn. When they are finished those ones go into a hatbox to wait for their owners and the right person for the shawl always comes along.

I have to make a shawl for someone I really am not 100% sold on - as much a political thing as anything - and I am finding it difficult to make a start on it. Hopefully I will never be in that position again.