In which I impersonate an anal knitter

I spent much of last week cruising along on Aestlight, enjoying every minute of it.

The yarn is fun to work with - a little bit grabby but nice and soft. I'm loving the way the colors are going. It looks like a sunset. And oh! the garter stitch cushiness! Gudrun's pattern is beautifully written and presented, and the hold up I had at the end of the lace section of the border was due solely to operator error (otherwise known as I-am-a-dumbass-and-can't-follow-simple-directions syndrome).

Bird's eye lace, how do I love thee? Let me count the purl stitches...

But here's where the OCD kicks in. I finished with the border section in Maine, and had to stop. Because I didn't want to have the edging change colors suddenly in the middle. And I didn't want the colors to be asymmetrical. Harumph. The last few rows of the border were the same blue-green of the center triangle, and there was quite a bit of that left in the yarn cake. But the outside of the yarn cake was that gorgeous pinky-orange hue.

Of course, I was positive that I didn't have enough of the pink section to do the entire edging, particularly since I'm knitting the large size shawl. Erf. So I broke down in a heap, put down the garter stitch, and realized that I needed my niddy-noddy before I went any farther.

Now that we're back at the ranch (and Ironman and the girls have gone blackberry hunting again), I busted out the ball winder and my scale to get things set up for the final stage. First up, the yarn left:

You can see that the part I've balled is bluer then the rest of it. Deciding where to divide between the blue/green/yellow and the orange pink was tough, but finally I bit the bullet and broke it. The remaining pink/orange stuff got wound on the niddy noddy and I counted the number of wraps (19.75).

I set up the ball winder next to the niddy and wound off half of the yarn available. Then I broke the yarn and wound up another ball of pink/orange. The first ball got rewound so that the end that was in the middle of the pink/orange section ended up being the end that I'll start with. That way if I run out before the halfway point in the edging, I'll be able to seamlessly blend in the blue/green/yellow ball (also rewound). Hopefully I'll use up enough of that ball to be able to blend into the second ball of pink/orange without too much contrast.

Yes, there is an orange ball and a pink ball. I'm hoping it won't make that much difference in the final product.

Pink/orange yarn, 18 gr.

(My dubious math skills are up to this one) Blue/green/yellow yarn, also 18 gr. Given that I started with 121 gr total, I have no idea if I'll make it through with just the pink/orange. I suspect I will be weighing what's left after a few edging repeats to see if I'm going to make it.

Gosh, I feel like Grumperina!