A Real Nail-Biter

In every project I knit, no matter what the pattern or how much yarn I have, there is always a moment when I worry I'm going to run out of yarn. In many cases it's a ridiculous notion because I always have more than enough yarn (or can easily get more), but I suppose it's just part of my process. But in the case of the project that just came off my needles, it was a reality.

In the case of this shawl, which was of my own design and using one skein of yarn (the only skein I had), I very nearly didn't make it. Concerned about how much yarn I had left, I had run a lifeline through the work before I started the last section just in case I ran short. This shawl was knit top down, so of course the rows got longer as I went along. Complicating things was the fact that each section I knit on this shawl was bigger as well in terms of total number of rows, plus I chose a bind off that eats up yarn at an alarming rate, so I had a number things working against me.

Fortunately, I made it -- just barely. I had to adapt my planned edging a bit, but I'm actually very happy with how it turned out. So that you can a sense of just how close it was, here is the yarn that was leftover (and this includes what I trimmed off the ends after the shawl was blocked). It's less than a gram worth of yarn.

I am really, really pleased with this shawl, in spite of the palpitations it gave me. I was worried that it would end up on the small side -- it really is so hard to judge on the needles -- but I blocked it out pretty aggressively and got a good-sized shawl in the end.

This was knit as my entry to the original design contest for Mad May. I used the one skein of Tosh Merino Light that I won from Mad May last year in this gorgeous gold color called Chamomile. It's not a color I would normally wear, but it makes me happy with how bright and sunny it is. I especially love the spots where the color veers ever slightly toward an orange gold.

Now that the nail biting is done, I have to finish up the charts, get the pattern in layout, and send it off to the tech editor. All of that should be a heck of a lot stressful than knitting the last row of this shawl was, though!