This Is What A Problem Looks Like

If you look in the dictionary under 'problem' you will see this picture.

This is the Multnomah shawl I've been working on.  It's on schedule to be a Christmas present.  We will not talk about what year it was supposed to be done for, only that this year it will actually reach the recipient.  The yarn is some of my handspun done from a wool and bamboo blend I bought at Rhinebeck some years ago.  The midnight purple is way out of my normal color box but will look super with my aunt's silver hair.  (She's not hooked to the interwebs - no danger of a spoiler.)  As I knit along on it I realized I wasn't going to have enough yarn to do another section of the curvy lace part but that's OK since she is very petite.

I finished the pattern repeat for the last time, knit a row of plain knitting just to give it a "done with that part" look and then I looked at the remaining yarn.  Hmm...  Do I have enough to do another row of plain knitting and then bind off?  I think so.  I mean, that is still a substantial little ball of yarn.  So I knit another row.  OK, the shawl looks nice that way, good choice.... but the ball is smaller than I'd like.  Well, it's probably enough.  I only have to get across the shawl one. more. time.  Of course, you are supposed to bind off loosely.....

If became apparent very soon that there was not enough.  No where NEAR enough.  What was I thinking?  See that sad little strand of loose yarn?  That's what I have left that was supposed to bind off alllll those stitches still on the cable.  In what universe was that pathetic bit of yarn supposed to yield enough yardage to bind off a shawl bottom??  Crap.  So now there's a decision to be made.  I could tink the binding back to the corner and THEN tink back a whole row of knitting so I can proceed forward with the bind off.  That sounds about as much fun as setting my hair on fire and putting it out with a hammer.  Or, I could find a yarn in the ridiculous ample stash of handspun that is close enough to what I have that the binding off row doesn't look too obviously different. 

Well, that's not going to happen.  The darkest thing I had in the stash is this mocha brown and while the lighter raspberry singles might work to pick out the original fiber's highlights I need a dark purple or even a black to run with it.  No gots.

I suppose I could deliberately bind off with a contrasting color and say I planned it that way to draw one's eye to the few rows of curvy lace.  I mentally ran through ROYGBIV, picked a few possible candidates and tried to imagine what would work.  Everything seemed to scream "you made a stupid mistake and putting one of us in the last row isn't going to fool anyone and will, in fact, make the shawl look like the dog's dinner."

Well.

There is one other option.  I can take the shawl with me to The Fiber Festival of New England this weekend and find either similar colored fiber to spin, a small skein of yarn that's close to what I need or at least something that will work with that pale raspberry singles.  And..... I still have the option of tinking back, unappealing as it is. 

On the upside, pawing through the stash brought to light some yarn that I had forgotten that might make a nice ruffled scarf.......assuming the skeins are big enough :-/