As soon as I got this club colorway from Evergreen Fiber Works, I knew I wanted to use it in a big, circular sunburst designed shawl. I picked one from my library - Ra and Apep by Anna Dalvi, from the Ancient Egypt in Lace and Color ebook. This is the second shawl I've knit from that collection!
I also knew going into this pattern that the single skein of laceweight yarn wasn't going to be enough, and since this was a club colorway that wasn't available dyed-to-order, I was going to have to come up with an alternate solution to my yarn shortage.
I took the time to calculate the number of stitches in the shawl, then created a spreadsheet to track my stitch count progress percentage as well as my yarn usage percentage.
This shawl is based on the pi method of increases, meaning there is a single increase round followed by a certain number of rounds with no increases. The distance between these increase rounds grows as the more increase rounds are worked.
This construction gave me a pretty solid estimate on my yarn usage, since the rows aren't constantly increasing in length. By the third section, I was able to tell that I wouldn't have enough yarn for the last section. I could either shorten the last section to use only the amount of yarn I had on hand, which could possibly distort the shape of the shawl, or I could find another skein that looked good with my main color to pick up the slack of yardage I didn't have. As you can see, I chose the latter option. I'm really happy with the complimentary color I chose from my scrap bin!
Bonus tutorial - How to Fix a Dropped Stitch
Beyond the known issue with a single skein being insufficient, I also found a problem when I was blocking this shawl - a dropped stitch on one of the applied edging sun rays!
This is such a bummer when you find it, and it is no picnic to fix it. That said, I was not willing to rip back to the dropped stitch and re-work that entire edging. So now I'm going to share with you how I repaired this dropped stitch in a way that it will not come loose!
Pick up dropped stitch
First and foremost, the stitch that was dropped was close to the applied edge. This means that the column for that stitch should have continued almost all the way across that sunray wedge. I used a crochet repair hook to pick up the stitch all the way across that wedge to the end where it should have been incorporated in a k2tog to continue the decrease line of the wedge.
Identify piggyback stitch
Next, in order to prevent my loose stitch from unraveling back to where it was dropped again, I need to secure it to the established fabric. To do this, I chose a stitch to piggyback to in the finished fabric of the shawl. Ultimately, my dropped stitch will lay on top of the piggyback stitch in a way that it's not discernable in the finished fabric.
I cut a long length of matching yarn, and threaded it around the piggyback stitch (this means under two legs of the piggyback stitch) and then through my dropped stitch (through not around).
Create a duplicate stitch
With the end of the yarn that is coming out of the dropped stitch, go around the stitch above the piggyback stitch (i.e. behind the two legs of the stitch as pictured). This mimics the way a knit stitch goes around the stitch above it in a column when it is dropped off the needle.
Then insert your needle back into the dropped stich to complete the loop (again, this is through the stitch, not around). This creates a duplicate stitch over the top of your piggyback stitch.
Duplicate stitch path
Here you can see the path of the duplicate stitch. The far side of the yarn to the left originates around the piggyback stitch to anchor it, then passes through the dropped stitch we are anchoring. Then the yarn loops around the stitch above the piggyback stitch; that is, under the two legs of the stitch above. Then the yarn passes through the dropped stitch again to close the loop, and exits out the right side of the dropped stitch. The duplicate stitch anchors the dropped stitch on top of the piggyback stitch.
Weave in ends
Here you can see the dropped stitch below the duplicate stitch in the column of stitches.
The last step is to weave in the ends for both sides of the yarn. I use duplicate stitch to weave in my ends as well. This not only anchors the yarn firmly because it loops up and around in two directions, it also hides the loose end in the pattern of the fabric and ensures the end woven in doesn't hinder the flexibility of the fabric. Use your newfound duplicate stitching skills to weave the left end below the fix, and the right end above the fix. This will doubly ensure that your duplicate stitch is firmly anchored.
Fixed!
Once the ends are woven in, you can barely see where the dropped stitch has been anchored. Since I had to pick up a long column of stitches, it distorted the fabric a bit, making it look denser towards the base of the triangle, so I will re-block that one wedge to even out the stitches a bit. And because I wove in my ends in pattern and in opposite directions, my fix is secured and stable, without having to rip out a huge number of stitches and re-work my edging!