I’m Knitting As Fast As I Can

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.

Marcia correctly, and quickly, guessed that I used my handspun singles to knit a shawl. It’s a long overdue gift for a friend and I wanted to use a pattern that would work well with the dark colors in the yarn (despite the brightness of the photo in my last post, the yarn is actually quite dark). After combing Ravelry for ideas, I settled on the Luna Moth shawl.

Since the pattern calls for a much heavier yarn than the handspun I was using, my plan was to knit pattern repeats until I ran out of yarn. Toward the end, I monitored my progress by weighing the ball each time I completed two rows. I was using up about 1 gram of yarn for each row.

When I had 10 rows to complete, my scale showed this:

It would seem that I was possibly destined to run out of yarn. Of course, because I was using handspun, purchasing an additional skein was not an option. And I had no more of the roving so I would not be able to spin up any more. Admittedly, at worst I would be forced to rip out a few rows and bind off in the middle of a pattern repeat or rip out a few more rows and bind off at the end of the prior pattern repeat. At this point, though, I had about 350 stitches on the needle so I wasn’t too thrilled with either prospect. But, what the hell . . . I knit on, oblivious to the fact that my calculations might be tainted by my total inability to spin singles with any real consistency.

Did I make it?

Indeed I did (with a bit to spare).

Pattern: Luna Moth Shawl

Yarn: My handspun singles, spun from Wasatch Watercolors Corriedale-X roving in the Spring Violets colorway

Needle: 4.5mm Holz & Stein ebony circular

Modifications: I worked twice as many repeats as the pattern called for to make a larger shawl and compensate for the thinner yarn.

Oh, and my Sitcom Chic made her debut on Wednesday.

Ignore the mess in my daughter’s room. I do.

As many of you guessed, the mystery weekend project was a lace item knit from handspun. But not my handspun. Nope. I used some yarn Margene spindle spun and gave to me for my birthday last year. Obviously, that’s why it was in the “special” yarn stash.

Before I reveal the item and its destination, I’ll show you how much yarn I had left:

No surprise there, huh. Although I confess I was sweating a bit more than usual this time since . . . well . . . it is handspun after all and not replenishable.

This next photo should give away the pattern:

If that doesn’t look familiar, I’ll help you out. It’s the Shetland Triangle Shawl from Wrap Style.

The design uses an easy lace pattern that produces a great looking shawl. And the handspun was an excellent choice.

Because I love the finished shawl so much, I have decided to donate it to Claudia’s Knitters Against MS Prize Basket.

Go here, make a donation, and the shawl could be yours.