A bit short

A few weeks ago I joined Wendy Johnson's Summer Solstice Mystery Shawl Knitalong on Ravelry.

I bought the pattern (a bargain at US$2).  Then I started to think about yarn.  I knew I had a braid of light blue 'fluff' that I'd bought from Lucy (Bearium) so set to spinning it up as thin as I could with the hope that once plied I'd have enough yarn for the shawl (384-411 metres).

It's short.  By about 40 metres (that was before soaking, thwacking and hanging up with a weight hanging off the bottom, but that's unlikely to make much of a difference).  It's spun up nicely though and I'm pleased with it:

So, it's dilemma time.  Do I try to wing it and use a 3.5mm needle instead of 3.75mm, leave out the nupps (I think I worked out that allowing for 2" of yarn per 5-stitch nupp = 10m of yarn) and hope?  See if I can find some yarn that's a very close match to the colour?  Hope that at some point in the pattern there's a clue where I can leave out a repeat or a few rows?

Or, choose another skein of yarn.

I've got a skein of Natural Dye Studio Scheherazade in a light, sagey green which hubby bought me for Christmas.  It's 65% silk, 35% baby camel so I'm  not sure how it'll block (although others seem to have had success, judging by the projects using it on Ravelry).

Maybe I'll go with that, see how much yarn it takes and then make another one in the handspun if it works out that I've got enough after all (either with nupps, or nuppless).  Everything else in my stash will be too variegated to show off the lace pattern, I think.

In the meantime, the third clue was released today and I haven't even wound any yarn, let alone cast on, which makes me more of a spectator than a participant in this KAL!