Persistence pays off

Did you ever have one of those projects?  You struggle, struggle, struggle, but stay with it and it finally pays off?  That’s the story with this little sweater.

I had bought 10 skeins each of a beige and a taupe alpaca fiber from Craftsy early this spring in preparation for Milo May.  They were on sale, and I can’t resist a sale . . .  Then Milo May came and I only made two using the alpaca.  I had a ton of it left in both colors, and I promised myself I’d use every last yard of it.  So I made a larger size Milo (the one that looks brown below) and a couple using two strands of yarn held together to try and use it up, but I still had more!

(The photos make it appear that there are more than two colors here, but there are only the taupe and beige.)

Next, I decided to make a sweater with the beige.  I looked at my patterns and chose the Flax Light.  Adding up the yardage in my remaining skeins, I figured that size 1-2 would use it up, and I was right.  I used up all of the beige and got this far:Uh oh.  Ran out of the beige.  I still had two skeins of taupe left, but I couldn’t just continue that sleeve with a different color.  I had to come up with a plan how to use some of the taupe without it looking like a mistake.  What I decided to do was to unravel the hem and the cuff and use that yarn to finish the sleeve.  Hopefully there would be enough.  Then I could knit the hems and sleeve cuffs with the taupe.  It was enough!!  Just!  So then I knitted the cuffs and hem with the taupe and it looked purposeful.Except that the ribbing on the neckline was beige.  I decided to rip that out and make it taupe, too.  I had never ripped out knitting from the top of a garment, only from the bottom.  Guess what?  It doesn’t unravel!!  I had to cut the fabric to pick up my yoke stitches.  It took an hour, and I lost one stitch somewhere.  Should have had 100, but only had 99 . . .   Close enough.  When I finished, there were lots of ends to weave in.  But you know what?  I love how it turned out!!There are 156 yards left of the taupe, then it’s all gone.  That’s enough for a newborn Milo, especially if I go down a needle size.  I’m going to make a project bag for travel knitting with it.

Just in time for the Fall Fiber Festival, which is two weeks away!!  😉

Evelyn