Opinions, please.

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I've been plugging away, knitting on the shawl I'm making using Blue Heron's Rayon Metallic in their Heather colorway. I love this yarn -- it is so soft and shimmery and silky -- I'd love to knit a shell or tank top with it on smaller needles -- I think it would be incredibly cool and comfortable to wear in the summer. (Look at me -- talking about garment knitting! I may be growing up after all!)

shawl progress thus far - slow going!

width, unstretched: ~18", stretched: ~24"

length, unstretched: ~9", stretched: ~10.5"

But I'm worried that I'm going to run out of yarn before this shawl becomes a decent length. The tape measure in the pictures is more for scale than for an accurate measurement. In reality, when held up vertically, the width is about 24" and the length is about 10.5", so far. (I'll be happy when the length is longer than the width!)

I have 550 yards of this colorway to work with. I guesstimate that I have knitted up about 150-200 yards so far, so I'm guessing I'll get about 36" in length before I run out of yarn, (please correct me if my estimate seems way off), and I don't think a 3' shawl is long enough. Five feet would be the minimum, I would think, to comfortably wrap a shawl around one's shoulders. The recipient I have in mind is a fairly small woman, but I still think 5' is about as short as one should make a shawl.

And so, it seems I will need to purchase more yarn. And I have found some on ebay which is actually cheaper than what I paid locally, even with the shipping.

So here's my question: once the first ball of this original yarn is finished, and I've ordered and received the ebay yarn, I'm thinking that before I start the second ball of the original yarn, I should start knitting with the ebay yarn and when that's done, finish up with the second ball of my original yarn. That way, in case there is a noticeable difference in the new yarn's dye lot, (unfortunately Blue Heron doesn't put dye lot #'s on their labels), it will just look like a design feature that the ends are different than the middle, rather than an abrupt change in yarn color in the middle of the shawl.

Am I thinking clearly here? Is that the way to go?

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