Range Anxiety when Knitting

           Recently I was knitting a Tutu for my Mahalia Doll pattern. I was using a partial skein of yarn and I wasn’t sure if I’d have enough to finish the entire garment. I was able to knit the body, the straps, and the first layer of the skirt before I began to get nervous. Normally, running out of yarn isn’t a huge deal, but the skirt portion of this tutu is lacy, and adding a new ball of yarn to a section of knitting with yarn overs isn’t a trivial process. Fortunately, there was a row of plain knit stitches between the rows of yarn overs.

           So, then the question became on which row will I run out? When I made it through the second layer of the skirt, I was optimistic that I would be okay, but I still wasn’t sure which row would be the one.

           Eventually I made it to the last few rows of the third, and final, layer of the skirt. I knew at this point that I would definitely be running out. I was hoping to make it past the last row of yarn overs before running out.

Fortunately, I had a second partial ball that I could use to continue knitting. It turned out that I ran out in the row right before the bind-off row.

           Now, one could argue that I could have stopped in a place where it was easy to join a new piece of yarn. However, I wanted to use up everything I had so as not to be left with only a yard or two of white yarn.

           Truthfully, if I had run out while in the middle of binding off, I would have backed up and joined the new yarn before beginning the bind off to keep it looking neat and smooth.

           What about you? Do you get range anxiety when knitting? What techniques do you use to ensure peace of mind? Let’s have a discussion in the comments!