To frog or not to frog
This is where I’m at with the Leaf Lace shawl: 12 repeats done, and the shawl is about 4 ft wide unstretched. The blob at the bottom is what I have left. I was nearly done, with half the border completed.
But here’s the problem. I don’t know how much I have left, and as the shawl is growing, I can’t tell how much yarn it will take per repeat. I did 12 repeats, and then thought I’ll play safe and do the border, even if I have some yarn left over. 9 rows of the border in I realise I had enough left for at least one more pattern repeat, if not two.
Now that little voice in the head that was quietly whispering – "are you sure you don’t want to stop the border right here, frog, and do another repeat? Think of what you’ll do with the leftover yarn, which you’ll be able to use neither in a sock nor a hat. It will sit there in the drawer and mock you for your laziness. It would have been simpler to do another repeat or two, and then frog if you didn’t have enough. Now look: all this work, and 10 rows frogged for nothing." – is getting louder and more insistent. Somehow continuing to knit the border in order to ignore it isn’t helping.
So I flung the thing into a corner, made some alu parathas for dinner, and then brought it back out and figured that if not display the completed shawl, at least I could complain blog about it.
So now qu’est-ce qu’on va faire? I just know it, there’s a sucker deep down somewhere inside me who’s going to force me to frog back to the last repeat, try out another repeat or two, and then do the border. I’m going to love the longer shawl in the end, because it’s already a little short and some more length will look good on it. Of course, if there isn’t enough yarn, I’ll still feel good about having tried.
Arrrrrrgh! When I came so close, too. How the heck does one figure out these yardage per row thingies for triangular shawls? I tried weighing this thing at the post office and it doesn’t mean a thing. It only got me weird looks from people. I wish I could tell how far this blob will go: one more repeat or two?
Ah well. Check back in a few days, hopefully I’ll have finished it, to let you know. I’ll also try to photograph it in the sun, to bring out the colours properly.
But in happier news, do check out Spudsayshi’s glorious Orenburg shawl, finally complete. It is one of the most beautiful lace projects ever. I have been following this project like a good groupie, and now I think I’ll have withdrawal symptoms like a cricket fan after the world cup is over.
Also, talking of gorgeous knitting links, surely all of you know about Brooklyn Tweed? It’s the latest blog I’ve discovered (although I’m sure folks have known about it for months), and some of his stuff, especially the Urban Aran cardigan.
Frog. You won’t be happy if you don’t. Granted, you won’t be happy while you do it, but there you go.
It’s lovely, for what it’s worth! And I was thinking of how to figure out the math of how much yarn you need. I suppose you’d have to weigh it before and after a two separate pattern repeats, to see how much it increased after one, then after the second, larger one, and then the difference between the two is the increase allowance, plus whatever the previous weight was. Uh, or something.
Anyway. Thanks, too, for the praise! I’m also a bit at a loss for what to do now, this has been going on for so long! So I’m making a couple of booga bags for gifts and to avoid making decisions. They’re like the total opposite of the shawl, in a way.
I recently found Brooklyn Tweed also – just beautiful stuff!
I’d say frog also. Not only will it not be long enough and what you want, you will have the large ball of leftovers staring at you every time you go into the stash….
That weighing thing also occurred to me: except that I’d have to sit at the post office for hours, or knit at my office and periodically go to the mail room (actually, there’s an idea…). But you’re right, that is the way to do it. But since it’s already so light, the numbers are small enough that I’m worried about the error margin.
Calculate the number of stitches needed to finish the shawl – say your current row is 200 stiches, you have 10 rows left and each row increases by 10 stiches, row 1 will be 210, row 2 220 etc (total for this example will be 2550 stitches left) Frog 50 stitches and measure – say it is 15cm of yarn to knit 50 stiches, 15cm/50st = .3cm average per stitch (it is probably best to measure complete pattern repeats). Unravel and measure your remaining yarn (surely easier than frogging?) say you have 800 centimetres (8 metres) of yarn left, divide 800 by .3cm = 2666 stiches approx. In this example you would be able to knit the remaining 10 rows.
hope that makes sense – ps I put an incorrect email in the previous post.
Wow, Genny, thanks!! That does make perfect sense, and I am definitely going to try that. I’ll frog the border rows I’ve done, then measure the remaining yarn and figure out how many repeats I can do. This is a very neat idea.
I know the feeling… I am nearly done with this gosh-awful throw I’ve been making as a wedding gift (the wedding was more than a year ago, sadly…), and I was so sure I was done, even though I had more yarn, that I did the border and bound off… only to convince myself that it was indeed too short.
So, frog away.
Oh, how frustrating! I’d totally be frogging, though…but I’m anal like that (and I know you are too, bwa ha ha).
Genny’s method of figuring out how many more repeats you can do is tres cool…especially if you have one of those nifty yardage measurers (I don’t).
I’m always impressed by those who find real-life applications for high school math.
On Brooklyn Tweed– wow. Have you checked it in the past few days? Just look at his Shetland Triangle.. it puts mine to shame. Beautiful. Thanks for the link!
Hey, it’s gorgeous, but so is your’s: I’ve seen a photo of it too. But I love the way it’s wrapped around her neck; his site and photos just add to all the glamour, no?
Yes, beautiful photos of just enough person to make you assume that the person is also beautiful…