More Yarn Options

Sometimes I surprise myself . . in a good way. Most often . . not!

The Blue Gingham yarn I showed yesterday – I thought I had ordered 8 skeins of it but only 7 skeins were in the bag. I went back to my spreadsheet – yes, I had ordered 8 skeins. That would be 1,800 yards. The pattern calls for 1,687 yards for the size I’m going to make. Seven skeins would be 1,576. That doesn’t leave much extra for swatching plus, I’ve read that several people had more yarn than they needed, and ran short. There are a couple of modifications I’m going to make to the pattern, one of which is probably make it shorter. Another is that I’ll probably leave off the pockets. I don’t like pockets on sweaters, so I wasn’t too worried about starting with 7 skeins but where was that 8th skein?

Last night when I started to go to bed, Vince said “Are you going to bed now?” and I said “I’m going to look for a lost skein of yarn first.” He said “You’ll be up all night!”

I did remember that a while back, I brought over several single skeins to photograph when I was trying to decide on yarn for a project – maybe this project. Single skeins separated from the group sometimes never get found around here so I wasn’t optimistic.

I took one step from my chair towards the bedroom, looked down and there was a skein of yarn sitting behind some candles on the fireplace hearth. I picked it up . . yep . . just the one I was looking for. I said “Found my yarn!” Vince couldn’t believe it but neither could I.

These are the yarns I have that I can use that will require no sweating over whether I’m going to run short of yarn. Things to note:

• The pattern calls for 1,687 yards
• Some have mentioned running out of yarn or coming close to running out, even though they had more than the amount suggested in the pattern
• I am not making the pockets
• I will make my sweater somewhat shorter – at least a couple of inches
• Some have also mentioned that the stitch pattern on the sleeves leaves a horizontal stitch that easily gets hung up or snagged so I may do something different with the sleeves – maybe leave the cable but not do all the texture stitching, which will also save yarn.

Top down:

• Miss Babs Yowza – 2,240 yards – Color: Dancing Spirit
• Wollmeise DK – 1,872 yards – Color: Mauseschwanzchen
• Madelinetosh DK Twist – 2,000 yards – Color: Blue Jay
• Madelinetosh DK Twist – 2,000 yards – Color: Margaery
• Madelinetosh Tosh DK – 1,800 yards – Color: Blue Gingham

I might be a little hesitant to use the Blue Gingham because after a swatch, it’s going to be close with just 1,800 yards but I could stop after getting so far, make the sleeves, and then just knit down til I get as far as I want to go or til I feel I may run out of yarn.

All of the colors really make me happy so I’m not sure which one I’ll use.