Yarn Chicken!

I've been very slowly working away on my Douglas Fir hap shawl.

The pattern is knit end to end. You cast on a small number of stitches (30 in this case), then increase a few stitches each repeat for awhile, then knit the center part for awhile, then decrease a few stitches each 12 row repeat until it's back to 30 stitches, then bind off.
 
This is one of those patterns that you can use any amount of yarn, you just have to calculate how much you'll need to do the decrease part.
 
You can see where this might be going, right?
 
I weighed, calculated, weighed and calculated some more, and waded in. I'm now well into the decrease section, and playing the REALLY fun game of Yarn Chicken.
 
I have 16 repeats left. The repeat before last took 2.6 grams of yarn. The last one took 2.4 grams of yarn.
 
I have 18.5 grams left.
 
Now I know the repeats are taking less yarn each time around, but I'm not seeing any way here that I'm not screwed. If I'm not screwed, it's going to be very close.
 
Four options:
1. Buy more yarn. I've had this in the works for so long that there isn't a prayer of finding the same dye lot. There are a lot of variations in dye lots in this particular yarn.
2. Rip back to before I started the increases.
3. Decrease at a little faster pace.
4. Just throw caution to the wind and knit faster, because we know THAT always works out.
 
1 and 2 really aren't options. I'll never find an exact match, and there isn't enough whisky on earth to make me rip out that much. 4 is probably delusional, though I'm going to stick in a life line where I am right now and forge ahead for a few more repeats.
 
Stay tuned.

Author: Lorette

My name is Lorette. I learned to knit in 1999, and took up spinning in 2009. I'm a physician specializing in internal medicine, and live in the Pacific Northwest. Enjoy my blog!

7 thoughts on “Yarn Chicken!”

  1. I LOVE option 4, which I have used successfully a few times. Of course, unsuccessfully many more times over but do I learn?? I also play that game with my stitching. Sometimes the thread tail is only about 1-1/2″ long and I need to stitch 10 more X’s. Yeah 1-1/2″ is plenty….

  2. I frequently go for option 4. However, I often do Option 5. Throw knitted item in project bag and forget about it for a while (months?) and hope that magically once I pull it out again that the problem has solved itself. When that doesn’t work, I’m left with option 2, which sounds painful, or option 3, which is probably the best option. Also, in a shawl which is usually wrapped around you in some way it’s very possible that no one will ever see that the decreases aren’t “even.”

  3. Option 5 – find another contrasting yarn

    Go to the other end. After deciding where you want the contrast strip to lie, but in a life line, snip and knit a few increase in the contrast yarn. Graft together a new join after frogging those 2-3 -4 repeats. Now go back to your decrease end Put in the matching stripe of 2-3-4 deceased. Now take the salvaged yarn from the other end plus youn18 gym from this end. Bey you know have enough to finish

  4. a black tip might be interesting on this shawl if you run out.I’ve done that before. Or a rich brown tip…Or whatever color amuses you.
    Julie in San Diego, where it is way too hot for Nov. Whatever happened to our fall rains?

  5. Yarrgh, I feel your pain. Had my Taize in the middle of the Atlantic sans scale and held my breath on the last few border rows. Turns out I could have continued a wee bit, but it’s good the way it is. Now for the blocking. Good luck.

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