An experiment

Remember the center-out square of Fountain Lace that I knit a couple weeks back? I decided to turn it into a stole, extending two sides of the square to create “wings.”

But how to make the most of a limited amount of yarn? My knee-jerk reaction was to weigh the yarn remaining after the square was complete, then knit one wing until it was “long enough” (whatever that might mean), or until I’d used up half the remaining yarn. After that, I’d knit the other wing to the same length. If that didn’t leave me with enough yarn for the edging, no problem, I’d buy some more Vice Yarns Carnal in a coordinating colorway… say, a slightly darker shade of blue.

And so I weighed the yarn and starting knitting, but here’s the rub: I didn’t like having to re-weigh the yarn repeatedly to see if I was getting close to having used up half of it. Didn’t like dragging out the scale, didn’t like not being able to weigh the yarn while knitting out of the house.

So I’ve started a little experiment. I’m still knitting the first wing with one end of the yarn, but with the other end I’ve started the second wing.

first wing on the left, newly started second wing on the right

Once the second wing has the same number of pattern repeats as the first, then I’ll alternate between the two: one more repeat on the first wing, one more repeat on the second. I figure that counting repeats ought to be a quick, easy, and reliable way of getting the two wings to the same length… with no scale required.

We’ll see how it goes. Let’s hope that keeping the two ends untangled doesn’t drive me batty and make me wish I’d stuck with the scale.

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