Focus on the Needles

Though my mind is busy with what will be next, my hands are busy with one of the things I have on the needles.  It is simple knitting, just stockinette and a nice change from the patterning of the never ending Shetland Shawl edge. Simple doesn't mean without needing thinking.

I've skipped the collar and moved on to the sleeves of this top.  Part of it is concern for yarn quantities (the polo collar seemed to be taking a lot of yarn) and part of it is that I am just not certain that I really want a polo type shirt, even though that is what this top started out being.

And another part of it is serendipity.  I was digging in the cabinet for the green yarn I showed you yesterday, when I came across something very interesting.  

Webs Valley Yarns Colrain Lace.  The colour matches perfectly in daylight.  The difference you see in the picture seems to be a matter of sheen and perhaps, slight difference in intensity, but that doesn't show up in natural light. I am just so amazed at the matches I find to Colrain Lace. For every yarn in my stash there is a matching lace.  Or so it seems.  

I'm not sure how I would use it,  but maybe it will provide me a way to gain a precious inch or so of length.  By the time I get these sleeves done, I will have used much more yarn than I planned for (the sleeves seem to be gobbling up yarn like nobody's business) and if I decide to add the lace to the mix, the rich rust cotton is very likely out, making every inch of teal even more precious. 

I have to get the sleeves done before I need to make a decision.  If  I really wanted to know, I suppose I could do some math and calculate how many square inches I will get from how many grams of yarn remaining but that would be, ummmm, all mathy.

Nobody told me there would be this much math in knitting.  (There's probably tests too.)  All that math takes the joy right out  of winging it.  I'll probably just keep knitting and see what happens.  

PS, Sandra, thank you for you input with the yarn choices yesterday.  That is exactly what I was thinking and you have confirmed it.   Still not sure about how to use the yarns to their best advantage, but I'm going to keep looking till I find a pattern that is just right.