Coming Up Short

This spring has brought out the gambler in me with regard to yarn yardage and knitting projects.

Remember the tan/green striped baby blanket (1) I had to frog?  If not, just click on the words baby blanket for a photo at the bottom of the post to see this ill-fated adventure. It is now frogged and the tan yarn will show up this weekend being used in another way.

Then there was the found yarn (2) shown here.  I knew the amount of yarn would be very close to being the right amount to complete the Barley toque.  This time the guess was right, but it was very close, though.  I won the bet.

A success, the completed Barley toque

Finally, I've been knitting the Dot Pattern baby blanket, the start of which can be seen here.  It has been a slog, an infinite sea of stockinette, with the ever so slight respite of knit stitches on the purl-side every 4th row.   The luster and excitement of knitting this blanket is wearing off and it is feeling more like a negative thing to do than a joy.  And to top it off, earlier this week I've realized there isn't going to be enough yarn to finish it off the way it was planned (3).  Another loss with regard to my addiction to yarn yardage gambling.

Dot Pattern so far.  See the ball on the left, that's it for the green yarn

Luckily this time rather than frog the entire thing I have a workable Plan B.  Because I am me, there generally has to be a Plan B sometimes that plan is more workable than others.  Last night at Knit Night I shared my plan with Tena and she helped set me straight.  Here's the revised and final plan.

• Finish off the entire project with the minimal light green yarn that's left.
• Cut a single stitch to separate the blanket right down the middle.  This will  create two sets of live stitches.  (I seem to have to do this a lot so the process doesn't really scare me as it should.)
• Pick up one set of live stitches while the other set is placed on waste yarn.  Then with the picked up live stitches knit a solid yellow strip wide enough to make the blanket usable.
• Kitchener stitch the two pieces back together. This blanket has over 260 stitches so I should have the Kitchener stitch well practiced when I've finally stitched it back together. 

This need to build on to the sea of stockinette will be a short reprieve because the yellow band in the center will be knit in solid stockinette.  But hey, it will help save hours of knitting so I'll suck it up and do it.  

Perhaps you can see why instead of trying to use up what one has in a stash, one purchases more yarn when starting a new project.  The yardage with brand new yarn is generally much more accurate than guessimating and one can avoid this game of knitting roulette.   I have rolled the dice three times recently and so far have won only once.

So the plan's in place; let's see how well it will be executed.  May the knitting force be with me as the idea proceeds to reality.  Fingers crossed, again, sigh.