Knitting Drama — What To Do When The Yarn Runs Out

I should be ashamed.  Really.  I knew, I knew in my heart, that I was going to be short on yarn for Ollie's Ragman.  But I thought it would only be a bit at the end and I would compensate by shortening the sweater a bit.

What I didn't count on was that my gauge would be off and the sweater would eat more yarn than anticipated.  I'm here.

Onesleeve

And this is a bad place to be with less than one full ball of yarn left.  I realized I was in trouble last night, and started knitting the sleeves before finishing the body, thinking I would just make it with a slightly shortened measurement.  (And yes, I'm annoyed that the sleeve patterning is inconsistent with the body, but I haven't decided yet if I'm going to rip it out and see if I can play with the number of stitches to "fix" that.)

I'm now accepting that I am, in the vernacular, screwed.

I once knit Ollie a cute little hat with this same weight yarn and striped it with this yarn in gray, an effect I really liked.  I think something like that, at the bottom of the sweater, is my only option.

image from images4.ravelrycache.com

I don't have any of that particular yarn left and I do wish I had planned better and knit the collar in trim, but unless I want to rip the whole sweater out and start over with the trim collar, my only option is to  squeeze out as much of the sleeves as I can and then use trim for an oversized cuff there  at the bottom of the body.

It doesn't help that it's my own fault and I should have planned better.  I've sulked and I've pretended it wasn't so, but like all drama, ultimately the only thing to do is confront it and move forward.  *Sigh*

5 thoughts on “Knitting Drama — What To Do When The Yarn Runs Out

  1. What if you just ripped back that one sleeve you’ve been working on and striped the sleeves? It might actually look pretty cool and give you enough of the crayon to make the full length of the body? And the striping on the sleeves might distract from the different patterning of the crayon in the smaller circumference.
    And then maybe tie in the stripe color as the edging on the bottom of the sweater…
    Dont’t worry…all is not lost…there is a solution!

  2. Don’t beat yourself up. Happens to the best of us. Just think, this is where the creative process really kicks in. I like the stipping idea, bottom of sweater and the sleeves.

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