Tempest in an empty teapot

I was trotting along handily on my Tempest Cardigan.  The pattern is well-written (thank you Weaverknits!), the yarn feels fantastic in my hands.  

A blurry image of the first three pieces of my Tempest sweater, pinned to a board all together, waiting for their sleeves

As I finished up the third piece, one of the fronts, I peeked into my knitting box at the yarn I had left.  Ack!  I weighed the yarn.  I weighed my pieces.  I looked at my pattern.  I took a deep breath.  Now, I planned this project very carefully.  I have never swatched and measured and mathed so much for a project in my life.  But apparently somewhere in that mathing I miscalculated.

There was not going to be enough of the KnitPicks Gloss Lace - Celery (the green).  No way. No how.  

No problem, I thought.  I’ll go to KnitPicks and order another skein.  No dice.  Celery has been discontinued.  I even sent an email, wondering if there might be one or two skeins hanging out in the back of a drawer.  

Nope. 

So I poked around Ravelry.  For those of you who don’t know Ravelry, it’s a social networking site for fiber enthusiasts, (knitters, crocheters, spinners, etc).  If YOU are a fiber enthusiast, take care when you click that link.  It’s entirely possible that Ravelry will swallow you up in its amazingness.  Yes, I know that ‘amazingness’ is not a word, but it’s a good not-word for Ravelry.  It’s not for nothing that someone once called Ravelry crack for fiber people. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.  

I searched through stashes (users can catalogue their yarn holdings online).  I found people with Celery.  I found people with my exact dye lot.  I could not have hoped for so much.  I sent a couple of tentative emails to people, offering to buy their yarn.  I posted an “ISO” (In search of) on the appropriate message boards.  

While I waited to see if I had a Ravelry Hero, I wondered if I could turn my three pieces into a vest (um, yes, but I didn’t want to).  I wondered whether I could make the sleeves solid pink (I have plenty of pink, but again, didn’t want to).  I set aside the pattern and cast on a pair of anxiety socks.  Those would be socks you knit when you’re worried about something else.  Socks make great stress-knitting.  

And then, lo! A Ravelry Hero has come forward.  Not only is she sending me her remaining Celery, which should be just enough to finish my project, she’s also sending it to me as a GIFT.  A gift!  I am so grateful for her sweet generosity.  

I hope to finish the first sleeve today or tomorrow, and start the second sleeve this weekend.  In the meantime I will watch my mailbox for my rescue yarn and thank my stars for cool knitters in Ohio.  

If you’d like to nose through my stash or see the few projects I’ve posted, you can find me as “Eglentyne” over on Ravelry.