Too Big For My Britches

I've been working on this new baby shirt/sweater all weekend.  I started with 440 yards of fingering weight yarn.  I wrote out the pattern and did the math and figured out that a long-sleeved 12 month size sweater would take about 430 yards.  Cutting it close, sure, but I wasn't scared.  I could always adjust the sleeve length if I needed to. 

As I worked, it was like that story about Jesus and the loaves & fish.  I knew I was using yarn, but the ball was getting smaller at such a slow rate that I got cocky.  Instead of doing a simple ribbed hem or whatever, I did something fancy that probably used an extra 30 yards of yard.  You know, because the yarn was lasting so much longer than my logical math skills had told me it would last.

I worked my little edging trim and button band, then triumphantly put my remaining 19 grams on the scale.  The plan was to evenly divide the remaining yarn into 2 balls and just knit the sleeves as long as the yarn would allow.  I might have to rip them back to short-sleeved length, but maybe I'd get 3/4 sleeves out of it.  And, for a thin summer knit sweater, I actually thought 3/4 sleeves would be perfect.

So I divided the yarn into two balls, made the cut, then it dawned on me:

I haven't finished off the neckline yet.