A NaKniSweMo Miracle (NaKniSweMo 2015 – Part 4)

As much as I wanted my NaKniSweMo sweater to be made from stash yarn, I ran into the problems of having enough of two single colors in the same weight to do any substantial.  I also faced the dilemma that many of the yarns in my stash have been discontinued. I chose to start off with Caron Shepherd’s Wool in Cranberry and switch to Lion Brand Fisherman’s Wool in Oatmeal and Nature’s Brown.  I had this last brand in stock from a hat order over a month ago.  At just under 465 yards per ball, I thought I would have enough to make it through the remainder of the sweater.

Over the weekend, I got to the point in my sweater knitting where I began to feel the heat, or more precisely, notice the thinning of the skeins.  This worried me greatly as I’m not half way through the body yet.

So, after a couple of days of mental anguish over the situation, I grabbed my coupons, my yarn and their labels, and headed off to the local big box store known as JoAnn.  My goal was to find the same dye lot.  Short of that I would match as closely as I could to the yarn already in use.

I needed the dye lot 020, specifically, and all I could find were of the dye lot 019 which were of a different hue entirely.  But, can you believe it, I spotted one solitary skein of 020 in the back of the bin.  Quickly, although no one else was in the aisle, I snatched it.

Then I went up a few bins to look for the tan yarn, and surprisingly, I easily found the 022 dye lot.

I felt so incredibly lucky.

Until I went to the check-out line.

That was so long it snaked into the store.

But that wasn’t enough to dampen my high spirits.

Ordinarily, I would have just returned my items to the shelves and returned another day as I live quite close to this store, but what I had in hand was necessary and precious.  An elderly woman walked towards the back, and I let her in front of me.  Hoping to make the best of the situation, I struck a conversation with the woman who joined the line behind me who also had yarn.

Realizing the line hadn’t moved in a while, and remembering I had brought along my project, I took it out and began to work on it.  The lady in front of me offered her cart as a makeshift table, and the mood of the line improved as people began asking what I was making (a raglan sweater), was it for me (oh, yes, I can’t wait to wear it), what are those plastic things attached to the needles (stitch markers).

Everyone shared what they were making (a toilet top runner among other things).  It was fun sharing in the comradery of likeminded crafters.

That’s what I’ve enjoyed about NaKniSweMo.  We are all in this together.  Although we may have chosen different patterns and yarns, and whether or not this sweater is for us, we are working in harmony.  The end might not be in sight, but we have each other to encourage stitch after stitch.

I’ve enjoyed following everyone’s NaKniSweMo progress on Instagram (#nakniswemo).  If you are taking part in the challenge this month, I’d love to follow your blog, too.  Please make sure to leave a comment with your blog address below!