Ah Sh*t, I Need More Yarn

I didn’t think I’d say that any time soon, but I came to a realization this evening: I need more yarn to finish my Drachenfels. At least, I need more to finish it the way I had planned to. I was knitting away happily at the solid grey section that is supposed to come right before the end when I realized that the longer rows are really chewing up the yarn a lot faster than I thought they would. I’m almost halfway into my third and final skein of the grey, and I don’t think the second half is going to get me through to the end.

I’m adapting a three color design to use four colors. The way I eventually envisioned this was to have two background colors and two contrast colors. I started at one tip with charcoal as my first background color and spruce as my first contrast color. As the shawl is knitted, you end up with a four stitch net increase for every six rows knitted so it grows into a triangle. Eventually you bind off along what has turned into a long edge. So, I eventually added the grey and phased out the charcoal, and the grey became my second background color. Then I replaced the spruce with light blue, my second contrast color. I did the transitions as garter ridge stripes. After the stripes, I had intended to knit 21 ridges of grey then do the 15 ridges of edging, approximately half grey and half blue. The bind off would be blue.

This whole plan developed after I had started knitting. I didn’t think yardage would be an issue. If I had, I might have switched the charcoal and the grey since I have four skeins of charcoal and only three of grey. I don’t have a great way to predict exactly how much yarn I’ll need, but it looks like each garter ridge is around 2-3gm. The original plan calls for 11 more ridges solid then 8 more in the edging for 19 total. I would need at least 40 gm and maybe close to 60. I’m down to 28 gm.

So, options. I could end the solid section early and just start on the edging sooner. I could bring the charcoal back in. I could add a fifth color from my stash. I could scout around and try to get another skein of the grey. I could ignore the issue and just keep knitting, knowing that I will lose this round of yarn chicken.

Let me back up a bit and consider the symbolism of this shawl. I’m going through a rough spot, as I’ve mentioned, and found I was having a hard time coping with everything life was throwing at me. I needed more support and wasn’t sure how to get it. I decided that, while it is important to ask for and receive support from people close to me, I need to be my own primary source of love and positivity. My first thought of how to do this was to knit something awesome for myself as a gift. So, this shawl was born of my conscious decision to pour positive energy into myself. This shawl represents my self-love, my self-care and my adamant refusal to accept less (from myself, at any rate) than I deserve. This is knitted defiance. Maybe that sounds overly dramatic, but it really is a pretty big deal to me.

I think I just talked myself into dropping $14 to see this thing through.

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