Stay In School
My Rhinebeck Not-Sweater caused me quite a scare this morning.
Tuesday night at Stitch ‘N Bitch it dawned on me that I might run out of yarn. So this morning I decided to calculate my progress by using the mathematical process I blogged about a while ago. You can see my instructions here. Or you can check out Dorothy’s post on calculating the progress on a top-down triangular shawl. Her formula is more tidy than mine but it’s basically the same.
Anyway, to make a long story short, by my calculation I have completed approximately 77% of the shawl (36,284 stitches so far). When I weighed the remaining yarn and realized there are only 31 grams left, I went into full panic mode. Why? Because I suck so much at arithmetic that I thought I had 33% remaining to knit. 77 from 100 is 33, right? Well, no, of course not.
After contemplating all the possible ways to alter the design so I could squeeze the shawl out of the one, 875-yard skein of Alpaca With a Twist Fino, it finally hit me that I only had 23% left to knit, not 33%, and I would have plenty of yarn. Doh!
A word of warning to all you first graders out there . . . pay attention when your teacher instructs you in basic subtraction.
Well, I know I have enough yarn but it’s looking like the shawl will be huge on me. Right now I have about 400 stitches on the needle and I still have 26 rows to go. I’m just about to start the trees in the lower border.
Will the shawl be finished in time for Rhinebeck? Maybe. Maybe not. One thing’s for sure, I could probably make better progress on the shawl if I put down this mitten I started on Sunday.
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Susan | designing, shawls, mittens, lace
Love the shawl, love the mitten! I’ve missed you. When do you leave for Rhinebeck? We need to get together!
Cute mitten!
It was actually chilly this morning! Chilly! And of course I started thinking, “I need to make mittens.” Nevermind the 100 other things otn… Yours look great!
Sounds familiar. I’m sure I’d be farther along on my cardigan if I hadn’t knit 2 pairs of socks,plus one plus started fingerless mitts on Tuesday…
Are you going to be at R’beck both days, ’cause I’m really not up for the Saturday crush this year?! (But, I’ll brave it if that’s your only day!)
I’ve been known to make that exact arithmetic mistake. More times than I would really like to admit. And I’ve taught math, too, so I have no excuse. Either way the shawl looks lovely. I have some AWAT Fino waiting for the right pattern to call out to me. It seems like great yarn.
I’m not so good with the maths either but even I could have figured that one out.
My Rhinebeck shawl may or may not be finished, too.
Admit it, deep down you’re disappointed you won’t be finishing the shawl with mere inches to spare…
They’re both gorgeous!
Well if it’s already looking huge, perhaps rip back 30 rows and begin the trees, or rip back 10 rows and add a border. But what to do with that leftover yarn?? Maybe knit in a secret pocket.
ha, ha–what Beth said
I love the mitten! I have become so addicted to mittens that I gave myself a mitten intervention. Now that I can no longer knit mittens, I will get vicarious pleasure from seeing yours!
Thanks for giving another “fickle knitter” a good laugh!
The other day I was trying to comvince a coworker that I was old enough to be her mother. She said I didn’t seem like the ‘fast’ type, but my subtraction mistake was 50-36=24. Once I did the math correctly, I assured that I was definitely not the fast type at 14. Doh to me, too.
Not to worry — my Rhinebeck sweater is so NOT happening. I think I’ll wear Forest Canopy in your honor!
OMG - it’s too early to laugh so hard. I’m glad that you have enough yarn to finish your project, but sorry that you had the moment of panic.
Both projects are looking really terrific, so it must be hard to concentrate on just one!
The Not Rhinebeck sweater looks great. It is important to do the maths! I’m glad you won’t run out of yarn!!
Like Erin said, “isn’t knitting so exciting?”
It’s so funny (and annoying) when we get things like that stuck in our heads. Like 77 from 100 = 33. Once it gets there, it just won’t go away!