All’s well….

Posted on | September 8, 2008 | 10 Comments

You know how the saying goes. Thank you all for your crossed fingers, offers of yarn, sympathy and humor (Shannon’s comment added some needed levity)! Despite all the good vibes floating around, I did in fact run out of the purple yarn. Even though I took precautionary measures by leaving out a few stripes and starting the border early (figuring I could fix the other side to match). The inevitability of the situation became more and more clear the closer and closer I came to finishing and yes, the faster I knit. I swear my fingers never fly as fast as they do when I believe I’m running out of yarn – I’m glad to know I’m not alone with my frantic fingers!

Here we are about 8 rows from casting off, and about 4 rows before running out of yarn:

Drastic measures were taken:

A few stripes were ripped out from the first side front – enough so that the sides would match – leaving me with a separated left front button band and two extra lengths of purple yarn. And then the nerves set in. So the little sweater had to be set a side for a bit.

Grafting followed over the weekend when I had the needed focus and quiet time:

This was a new trick for me – I wasn’t at all sure it would work out – especially when my first attempt had me increasing the width of one of the green stripes instead of grafting it back together to seamlessly match the others. After ripping another row of green, and trying again, it began to look like it would work.

And, all is well. Phew. Blocked photos of the little Sweet Caroline Sweater to follow soon – thank you my friends for the good vibes. They definitely helped! After grafting the stitches to close the sleeves, requiring more of the purple (the stitches, some of which were fortunately on “waste yarn” which just happened to be a perfect match!) and weaving in the ends, this is exactly how much I had left over:

No joke.

In keeping with every other big knitting mistake I’ve ever made, I learned a lot from this one.

1. Make sure you have enough yarn before beginning. If that’s difficult to determine due to a sub, size change, or what-have-you….

2. Check by weight once you have a bit knitted. It may be time to invest in a scale that can read grams (or, alternately and more cheaply, trek myself over to the local kitchen store to use their floor model) since this is not the first time I have attempted to get more out of a ball of yarn than seemed possible.

3. Desperate times call for desperate measures – Creativity, or at least, a little bravery. I had nothing to lose even if plan A failed, I would still need to order another ball of yarn or hunt for one on Ravelry and hope it matched. So I held my breath and snipped – and it worked out. No more yarn needed! Ripping and grafting this gained me a whole lot of confidence, but not without enough stress to ensure that I remember lessons 1&2 in the future!

Contest update & news to follow!

—————-
Now playing: K’s Choice – Believe
via FoxyTunes     a little triumphant music for the way this made me feel!

Comments