I ran out of yarn.
You started your rug two years ago and just as you're rounding the final corner, you find yourself out of yarn. You must have ordered from Serranofil. :-| I've worked four rugs from Serranofil and have run out of yarn in two out of four rugs. Too bad they have beautiful patterns!
For example, in the rug below (about 5x7 feet), I was shorted on tan (which I used for the field pattern outlines) and dark brown (which I needed to fill in the medallions and stars in the field:
The challenge here is that they send a color from a dye lot and by the time you figure out you don't have enough (perhaps two or three years later), the lot has changed and now it's almost impossible to match. And, it's entirely possible that they subbed out a color on you (as they did in the rug pictured above).
Here's what I recommend:
The arraiolos method says that you create your border, do your border outlines, your field outlines, your border pattern fill, your field pattern fill, your border background fill, and then your field background fill. Depending on the size of rug you're working and the amount of time you spend working it, it could be years before you know whether or not you're short.
After being burned twice, I've changed my process slightly so that I have the opportunity to test yarn amounts as early as possible. If you order a kit from Rosarios4, the pattern should include the amount of each yarn by grams required to work the rug. Check it before you begin! If you order a kit from Serranofil, test as early in the process as you can. In this case, I could have/should have tested my yarn color once I'd completed outlining the first repeating pattern in the border, and again, after outlining the first repeating pattern in the field. Then I should have tested the yarn amounts needed to fill the first repeating pattern in the border and the first repeating pattern in the field. And finally, I should have tested the amount of yarn required to fill the background surrounding the first repeating pattern in the border and the field.
Will this approach ruin your rug? By no means! The order of operations for a rug is designed to help you keep the tension in the rug consistent (which produces a rug that is rectangular and flat). The tension changes when the weight of the rug is awkward. Completing one "unit" of the border and background before moving forward with the standard process should not change the weight distribution significantly at the beginning stages of the process.
How to test your yarn amounts:
Buy a small scale that measures grams and ounces. When you suspect you're running short, select a section of your rug that uses that color and count the number of times that section repeats (you can also do this by using rough estimates of area).
Weigh all of your remaining yarn, complete 1 section, and weigh your yarn again. Subtract the second weight from the first to figure out how many grams of yarn you used to complete that section. Multiply the grams you used by the remaining number of areas that require that color to get a fairly accurate number. If you order from Serranofil, I recommend testing all of your colors this way as early in the process as possible so you can reorder as soon as possible if you need to.
In the rug above, I tested dark brown by calculating the weight of yarn needed to work a single medallion and again to test the weight for a single "star". I then added the results of my calculation to get a total amount of dark brown yarn needed.
I also was nervous about the white fill. So I visualized a square that bisected the four diamonds that surrounded a medallion. Turns out I had enough...barely.
Working with a different yarn dye lot:
If your re-ordered yarn is the wrong color, ideally, you can separate a second pattern and do all or most of that pattern in the different color. Alternatively, you can alternate patterns using the original and the new yarn. If neither of those options are options (as I found with the pattern outlines above), just go for it. Once you get the fill in, the color variations shouldn't be too noticeable. And to be honest, everyone will be so busy admiring your work that they won't notice -- or certainly won't comment -- on the minor color variation.
However, if Serranofil got sneaky (bad, Serranofil!) and subbed out a color without telling you and you reorder the color they were supposed send the first time (again, see the rug above), you can try two things: 1 - order a yarn palette (actual yarn, not the photos online which are rendered by graphics cards three times before they get to you!) and match the yarn as best you can; or 2 - send a yarn sample to Rosarios and beg for them to help. I'm trying the second option on this rug. I'll let you know how it goes.
Fellow Ruggers - have any other suggestions? Let me know
