Victory is mine. Sorta.

I made it, just barely! I had 2 grams and change remaining. I ended up doing 7 repeats of the wing chart on the right side (1 less than the recommended 8 in the pattern) and 6 repeats on the left side. If I had had just one more gram of yarn, I could've done the whole thing. I averaged roughly 3 grams per repeat.

But, alas, I was just a bit short for that. Part of that is likely owing to the number of knots I had in this skein. I actually ended up just knitting one into the project because I was afraid I didn't have enough spare yardage to untie it and do a Russian join. Oh well. It's gorgeous - or at least it will be, when it's been blocked, and I don't think the asymmetry will be too noticeable.

I'm getting that antsy, Christmas is on it's way, I must knit everything feeling lately. My best friend just got engaged, and something possessed me to decide to knit her new soon-to-be-hubby an accessory set, so I stocked up on some Shepherd's Wool. I asked her what colors he liked (not realizing that she would go ask him, thus ruining the surprise) and it was a typical male answer - dark grey, dark brown, maybe some dark red for interest. Sigh...so shall it be.

I also decided to make them a blanket for a wedding present. Because I am insane. So I got some Lana Grande and started the blanket. Here's what it looks like.

Yeah. I always ask CodeNinja to count stitches for me, and usually ask him to check (or often just do) my math for me. I wanted to do a few extra repeats so I asked him the math question, as I usually do, and he told me how many stitches I was short, I cast on a few more, and off I went, knitting the first 6 rows of seed stitch. Then, I did the first pattern row and - I was off. Grossly off. Four stitches short. I was both flabbergasted and totally furious with myself, because that little voice in my head kept telling me maybe I should count my stitches again and just be sure, and a couple of times I started counting as I knit across the row, but I would inevitably lose count before I got to the end. So, a whole evening's knitting, frogged back into a squishy ball of super bulky yarn. Boo.

I'm almost done with the first Saxifrage socks. I was hoping I would be able to end at a nice place in the pattern, but I measured and it became obvious that I had missed my opportunity to switch to stockinette at a nice place. I ended up fiddling with the pattern a little bit to make the transition work to my liking, but now all I have left on this one is the toe. Then...I have to knit the second one, of course.

In real life it is nowhere near as neon as it looks in this picture.

I will be working on my Desert Peach as my lace project now. I can cast on the scarf/hat set for my BFF's fiancé and that can be my mindless travel project, and the Umaro I can only work on for relatively small chunks of time anyway, as the big needles hurt my hands. I haven't gone too overboard yet, right? It'll be fine. Just fiiiiine.

 

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Knitting on the Edge

So I've been working on Fiori Autunnali, and I'm running into some yarn issues.  I knew when I started that I was taking a bit of a risk.  The original pattern calls for a 1200 yard skein and I only had 1040 in mine.  It's a OOAK color that I bought several years ago, so there's not much chance of getting more if I do run out.  I checked out Teresa's project notes.  She is one of Romi's test knitters and she takes terrific notes on yarn usage.  I looked at what she did and thought I would be okay.

Well.  I started knitting, and as I started the first wing, I noticed that my ball was looking a little smaller than I was expecting.  I had already done a couple of repeats, but I stopped and weighed my yarn and I looked at what Teresa had used at the same point in her project, and I could tell I was several grams ahead of her.  I thought I would still be okay, but when I finished the wing repeats, I weighed again and concluded that I wasn't going to have enough.  I decided to eliminate one wing repeat.  There are 2 charts after the repeats are finished on each wing, so I before I knit the last one, I weighed my yarn so that I would know how much I need to reserve for the last chart and bind off on the second wing.

After I finished the first wing, I have about 30 grams left.  Because I wasn't really careful enough about weighing everything before I started...I'm not really sure whether that's enough or not.  I think I am right on the line of "just enough" or "a few grams short" and there is nothing for it but to soldier on and see what happens!

If it looks like I'm not going to have enough, I will eliminate another repeat on the second wing and have an asymmetrical shawl.  I would rather have it even, but I think after blocking that I will have enough length to wear it comfortably even if it ends up being uneven.  The only other option would be to frog the shawl entirely, and I really don't want to do that - so I'm just going to commit and see what happens!