I’m sure this only applies to Aussies of a certain age, but I have a jingle stuck in my head. Remember Mental as Anything “The Nips are getting bigger”? It keeps running through my head.

“Woah-oh, the lace is getting bigger

Woah yeah, it’s getting bigger”

But yes, the lace is getting bigger.

Slowly, as lace is wont to do. I am already having issues about the border (which I should get to in approximately 10.5 years). The yarn (Yarn Place Graceful) has long, gradual colour transitions. This is fine for the lace, it’s not going to distract from the pattern in the way a heavily variegated yarn might, but at the end it has a knitted on border, so the direction of the knitting will change, and instead of continuing to grow outwards, I’ll be knitting around the edge.

I’m worried about the effect the colour changes will have. Right now I’m thinking I’ll use a plain yarn in a solid purple to match one of the purples in the yarn. I don’t want it to scream “Different border!”, but to look as if it’s a natural transition for the yarn. So I’m looking for a readily available cobweb weight (900yds/50g) non-superwach merino or wool yarn in a solid purple. Baruffa Cashwool is discontinued, Centolavaggi might be an option, but I can’t think of any other yarns that might work – mainly because I don’t think picking it off a screen is going to work. I could end up with a great deal of mismatched purple laceweight! Rosered has suggested colourmart, and theat I might be able to send them a sample to get them to match it, but the colour changes are so gradual, I think I’d have to send half a ball. (Which I might need, because Yarn Place isn’t available in Australia, and they’re ignoring my emails about how to order from outside the US). Ideas?