Help - I have some gorgeous yarn in my stash but is it enough?

You may have experienced this yourself - there is that beautiful yarn that you bought at that gorgeous little yarn shop one time, and now you have a jumper in mind and you are just not sure whether it's going to be enough. What do you do?

What if you can't get the same dyelot any more or worse still, the yarn is no longer available?

Here are some "first aid tips" for finishing a jumper when you are not sure you have enough yarn.

First, knit the back and observe how much yarn you have used. The front uses a similar amount (assuming it's not longer or shorter). If you are making a cardigan, you need to take into account the width of the button band. Two long set-in sleeves will generally use a similar amount of yarn as the back.

Assume you realise you don't have enough yarn after knitting the back. Do you have enough to make the front? Rather than frogging everything, maybe you could be a bit creative with the front and/or the sleeves and still finish it?

Here are some ideas on how to rescue your jumper project:

• Work the front and/or the sleeves in stripes.
• Work the hem ribbing in a darker or lighter shade and gradually change towards your main shade.
• Work the front in a multi-coloured Norwegian pattern and integrate the shade used for the back in addition to other yarn.
• Work the front in a completely different colour.
• In a cardigan, work only the button band in the same colour as the back, but work the rest in a different colour.
• Work hems, neckline and button bands in a contrasting colour.
• Work the top of the jumper or a yoke in a different colour/different yarn.
• Work 3/4 sleeves or short sleeves (or even a sleeveless top).
• If you are able to get the same colour but it is a different dye lot and the difference isn't too great, alternate one row each in each dye lot. That way you gradually change over to the new yarn and any differences in the dye lots are less obvious.

With a bit of creativity, you will probably come up with even better ideas! So don't hesitate to dig into that yarn stash - you never know what gorgeous and unique pieces you can make out of what you have.