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.
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.
You and I think alike. In fact, when I have a knitting quandary, I say to myself, 'what would JC do?' :-)
» AnnP
Another thought: weigh your yarn at the beginning and end of a repeat. Then you know how much yarn gets used in a repeat, and from there can do math to figure out how many total repeats you can do with the remaining yarn.
» Karen Frisa
Another way to have go would be: 1) weigh the remaining yarn 2) start at one end the remaining yarn & weigh out half of what's left. 3) put a simple knot in the yarn at the halfway point.
The downside to this is that unless you're really watching for it, you won't know the knot is coming up until you came smack upon it.
I've used this method for toe-up socks & taught myself to pull out a couple yards of yarn at a time as I believe I've nearing that halfway point so that I know which round should become my bind off.
As a total aside: I get to take your Cast On Cornucopia class at Looppy's Spring Fling later this month. Yippee!
» Sarah JS
Sheesh. Please forgive the grammatical errors in the post above.
Is it the weekend yet?
» Sarah JS
Thanks, all, for the suggestions! Karen, your idea of figuring the weight of one repeat makes the most sense to me. But really, I want to get away from weighing anything. That’s what this experiment is all about. And, so far, it’s working okay: I haven’t (yet!) been driven batty by yarn tangles.
» JC