Dogi, part 1 update

sigh, nothing like starting a new project and then finding out one does not have enough yarn.  OR in this case, enough fiber.  sigh....      I have spun about 4 ounces of the darker fiber, completed the blue singles and almost got to the first buttonhole pattern row plus had plied up enough of the bright salmony with the blue to do that first stripe row when I realized I might not have enough of the main salmony color.  That stopped me cold. I stared at the knitting for awhile but felt just the same; then did the math and got 35 ounces minimum for the whole vest. 11 of the bright salmony, 16 of the darker fiber and 8 of the blues.  Yes, that adds up but not in the correct proportions.   The rest of the bright salmony is barely 6 ounces.  Probably enough to do the other underarm side but not much more. sigh.....

BTW-notice those beautiful needles?

I don't like the darker color enough to exchange it for the main color.  sigh.  What to do?   What to do?  Have some coffee, think, do some rinsing, feed the fuzzies and think.   No matter how creative I get there would not be enough of the salmony fiber and I just do not want to start again with a whole 'nother fiber and colorway.  sigh.   more coffee, more chores, a bagel.

  OK-- what if I dye up some angora/merino/silk?  I am already dyeing 4 batches today so another one would fill out my 5 pots.  Sounds viable but then what color dyes do I use and just how much of each?  Fortunately, before I ran myself into a circle, Jim came in and agreed to be my consultant.  I gave him the numbers, my preferences and the color charts.  It took  him only a few minutes to come up with a good solution.

He suggested dyeing a pound of the angora/merino/silk as a matching semi solid and letting it be the base for the rest of the vest.  I have enough of the salmony to do the other underarm so will ply the blue merino/silk with the new semi solid, the darker fiber with the new semi solid, and the semi solid with itself.  The stripes will be darker/semi plus blue/semi, with the buttonhole striped row and the edging being semi/semi. This means tossing the yards of salmony/blue that I plied last night but that is minor in the overall picture.

We played with the color cards 

and made some good decisions resulting in:

I now feel much better about this project, although it is resulting in being behind in the spinning.  I'm looking forward to getting the new fiber rinsed and drying.