cutting it close

Lately, I've had a rash of projects where I've had just enough yarn to do the project. First, there was this pair of shorts, where I had about three yards of yarn left (not blocked in this photo, pardon the lumpiness):



I was pleased that I had enough yarn to get exactly the measurements that I wanted. Didn't have to unravel and fiddle around with the stitch numbers, which is kind of a pain, not to mention anxiety-inducing.

Next came this pair of shorts. I dyed the yarn for these, and estimated that I would need about 5 oz. I had about a foot of yarn left over. I was pretty pleased about that, since I have been wondering what to do with all my leftover bits of skeins. But apparently a foot of yarn does not trigger my pack rat tendencies.



Then six ounces of DK yarn, I think Blue-Faced Leicester, came in the mail. The customer wanted a soaker skirt, but she lives in a hot climate so she didn't want the skirt part to start until the hips, instead of starting up by the waistband. Since it was DK yarn, I decided to do a slightly ruffled skirt with a lace edging, to take advantage of the drapiness and the more delicate stitch size. I ended up with zero leftover yarn on this, except for four inches from the cast-on tail, after I used it to sew up the elastic waistband. Usually when I'm this close on a project, it's on the other side of the line--I'm just a few yards short, and I have to redo big chunks of my project to try to compensate. Can I say how thrilled I am that I didn't have to do that with this skirt?



detail shot of lace edging:


I really love how this turned out. My husband says it's the coolest thing I've ever knitted. "It's pink and it's ruffly, but not too ruffly, and it's feminine but not over the top. Just about perfect, really," he said. High praise indeed.