I learned to crochet first. Crochet, by nature, takes up a whole lot more yarn than knitting does. It's just a fact. That's how it works. I've been crocheting since I was in my early teens, so I'm very used to how a crochet project will be going along swimmingly and the ball of yarn will shrink quite rapidly. I know how to estimate how much yarn I have left for a crochet project. I can say for certain that this shrunken little thing will get me so far in this stitch pattern.
Knitting, I haven't been doing as long. Probably 3 full years, all told. So I don't know how to estimate stuff like that. So when I'm knitting along on a shawl, and each row I do increases the width by two stitches, I get a little concerned. Then I look over at the ball of yarn, and it's barely changed shape. I went through this on the first part of the shawl pattern, when that first ball just kept going, and going, and going... Then I did a Russian Join on the second ball and started in on the second section. The number of stitches per row were getting up in the 300's and then 400's... and the ball of yarn started noticeably getting smaller. I got closer and closer to the end of the pattern, and that ball got worryingly small. I kept pushing, determined to get as far as I could until it was down to this:
That's a bottle of Dr. Pepper in the upper right hand corner, to give you something of a sense of perspective. That ball there is only slightly bigger around than the bottle itself. When I took that picture I had four rows to go, including the bind off. 561 stitches, then 563 stitches, then an eyelet row of 565, and a bind off row of 565 stitches... 2254 stitches in total, of fingering weight yarn, on size six needles. If you're not a knitter, I don't know why you're here, so I can't explain how intense this situation was for me. I got through the 561, and the ball didn't look that different. Then the 563, and the ball suddenly looked small and weak; like other balls of yarn would have picked it off in a hunt.
I knew I was stressing at this point. I could feel my knitting get tighter. I tried really hard to relax, but I could still feel how the yarn sat differently on the needles. Trying to breathe, I put the whole thing down for a second to take a break and let my hands dry off. Then I threw on a movie that I knew would leave me relaxed and thinking about something else: Mystery Science Theatre 3000 - The Movie; the lines in that movie are practically memorized at this point, so with it on I'm more focused on saying the lines with the right timing than anything else. With my mood chilled out I kept on going. Finished the first 565 and looked at that sad little remnant of yarn sitting on my desk. I was worried, but I wanted to see how far I could go; wanted to get some idea of how much of the other yarn I might need to use for the bind off. I looked over the pattern and I realized that I would have to bind off in a different sized needle.
Thank heavens for my Knit Picks Interchangeables. Took off the one size 6 end, and put on the size 8 the pattern called for. Queued up another movie (Disney's Mulan) and started in on the bind off.
All 565 stitches of it. Standard knit bind off.
Long and boring.
Thank heavens for the movie. I stopped paying attention to the yarn, and let the Disney magic fill my mind and let my knitter out to play. In the middle of binding off, I even caught where I'd missed a yarnover in the previous row, and picked it up to correct that missing eyelet. My conscious self, that part of me that was taking a back seat to the knitter, was absolutely amazed at how I caught it. The knitter just scoffed; this is nothing, I've fixed worse.
Then, the unexpected happened.
I was done.
All 565 stitches were bound off loosely.
They did what I wanted them to: they made little purl bumps and kept the eyelets open all along the edge.
Then I took a moment to weave in all the ends, and make sure there weren't any weird bits sticking out, and tried it on for the first time. No pictures of that yet. My hair is a mess from mussing it up in frustration, and I'm in full weekend mode.
After all that was said and done, I looked over on my desk to see this:
Do you believe that? That's about the same size the ball of yarn was when I started the first 565 stitch row. It still looks small and puny, but there's still more yarn there! How the heck to knitters *deal* with this miracle?? I knit and knit and kept knitting and knit some more, and the rows got absolutely massive, and I still have bits leftover. Consider my mind completely blown.
Many thanks to Babelglyph and Langwidere from the NGY Ravelry group for offering to hack into their own skeins of the same yarn if I ran out. Please accept my apologies for even making such a thought necessary. I will learn to have more faith in my abilities and in the pattern requirements, and in the contents of the skeins. Your generosity was heartwarming beyond belief, and I am truly touched by it. Thank heavens it's all over, and totally gorgeous, to boot.
Now I just have to learn how to block. Tomorrow may include a field trip for foamy mat things, and pins.
And a grownup drink or two to celebrate.
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