All right, intrepid knitters. I need your help with something. I'm still working on the Print O' the Wave stole for MacKintosh yarns, and as predicted it's knitting up very quickly. I flew through each of the separately-knitted sides. I grafted the two sides together in the center. I picked up the 640 stitches around the outside and knitted the inside border. I casted on the 17 stitches for the outer border and started working my way slowly around the outside. And now...Now I'm afraid that I won't have enough yarn to finish it.
It's a nightmare. If this stole were knitted in one piece, I would jut rip back a pattern repeat and go from there. But it took me EIGHT HOURS just to graft the two halves together, pick up stitches around the outside and knit up half of the inner border. It took me another EIGHT HOURS to finish the inner border and knit up 25% of the outer border. Ripping back right now would not only be excruciating, it would leave me with several (rather long, it's true) lengths of yarn.
So here's where you come in: I need you to tell me what you would do! Would you, a) keep knitting the border and hope that there really is enough yarn to complete it, or b) cut your losses and not waste another moment of your time by ripping back right now?I've never been all that good at estimating how much yarn I have left--I usually end up with much more than I thought I would need. I'm worried that I'm using that as an excuse to blind myself to the truth: there simply isn't enough yarn here. I suppose I could try to figure out how much yarn each border repeat uses, and then measure out my remaining yarn to see if I have enough. That actually works in two ways: I will know for sure before I rip out all my work unnecessarily or waste more time knitting, and it will also force me to spend time troubleshooting and therefore postpone the inevitable. Hmm...what do you guys think?
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13 comments:
I would email the yarn people and see if they can send you another skein. Even if it's not the same dyelot. You could rip back all the edging, use the new yarn and call it a project.
I would guess and say you do not have enough yarn but I don't know how much edging you have left. I would hate for you to be a few inches away from done and run out. Talk about heartbreak.
I'm sorry, sweetie.
If it were me, I would definitely not rip. Do you have a kitchen scale? That would probably be the easiest way to carry out the last option you mentioned. You could put your ball of yarn on there and record the weight then knit one or a few repeats of the border pattern and see how much the weight decreases. Then if you know how many more you have to go, you can figure out if you have enough yarn or not. That shouldn't take too much time (I also don't like to postpone things by spending too much time troubleshooting!) and if you do end up having enough yarn, you'll have made progress on the shawl.
Also, if it were me and I ran out of yarn, I'd just rip out the outer border and call it done!
You've already gotten good advice. I'd start out with what Hilary said. If you calculate that you don't have enough, use a new skein to do just the outer edging. I'm sure they'd send you a new skein since you're doing a sample for them, right?
I would keep knitting and on the off chance I ran out of yarn pay a kings ransom for more. Not that I've had that happen before.
Man, that's tough. If I were in your situation, I know that I would keep knitting and hope for the best, but I don't know if that's the best thing to do with this one. I like the idea of figuring out how much yarn each repeat takes, but you don't have a scale to do that with, do you? I also like the idea of just getting new yarn, but the point is to use up as much as you can...
crap. And you can't even spit splice this yarn either. In any event, I would say don't rip until you know you absolutely have to.
that's awful! I would contact the yarn company to see if I could get more yarn in the same dyelot, and if not I would try to get the same yarn in a complimentary colour to do the outer border in.
FYI- last year I was working on a Christmas gift, and in the middle of December ran out of yarn. I contacted the company, and they happened to have more yarn in the same dyelot. They shipped it to me immediately, and I had my project done a few days before christmas. So, it's worth checking.
Don't rip just yet! Definitely try to find another skein, I'm sure someone would be able to help you out. If I had that yarn, I'd definitely send you a skein to help finish it off!
Julie
My advice: close your eyes and jump, sweetie! If it were me (and thank goodness it's not), I would just knit and knit and knit and see where you end up.
you have probably already solved this conundrum, but if you don't have a scale, you could go to a grocery or coop that has one in the produce department, and use theirs. . .
Oh Nos! I hate when that happens. I haven't any knitterly suggestions, but I'll keep my fingers and toes crossed for you.
I would also keep knitting to see what happens. I have also used many skeins of yarn that had different dye lots without a problem.
Good luck with all options....I wouldn't rip out, though. I hate that part of knitting...
What did you decide?? I checked in last week and saw your SOS but didn't manage to comment at the time.
Ripping out is so yucky...
I just back from Boston to see your post. I hope it works out. It sounds like you got some good advice.
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