Benefits of Being Bored

It's crazy! My search may almost be over. I stress the word almost as nothing has happened yet. Let me back up. The scene is me, at work, bored. It's really hard to keep going on stuff you're not interested in and are no longer really responsible for. I've begun to disengage a bit, to move on. Understandable. To deal with this, I work for a little and then reward myself with a break. But I was running out of ideas for my breaks. Until I remembered I hadn't done a search lately on ravelry (awesome place) and low and behold, someone updated their stash and their was the yarn I needed. Di.ve Cotone Egitto, colorway 815! Two balls.

Wait, I skipped some parts. Let me back up. The scene is me, matching some yarn in the stash to a new pattern. I begin to knit, one my few cotton sweaters. And I'm loving it. The yarn is the perfect weight for the cables. And the color is wonderful. It's grey, but yes, it's wonderful. It has a nice sheen to it and with the cables, it just plays with the light. As you can see, I'm falling in love with the pairing. And, as with all great love stories, there is the obstacle to overcome, to test the love and dedication. The yarn in the stash was bought at one of my very first forrays to Webs in Northampton. I bought a bag of 10 balls probably about 5 years ago. They were on sale, and I knew I'd find some pattern eventually. Of course, the yarn was on sale because it was discontinued.

Fastforward to this year. I've now learned that, yes, quite often, I can knit a sweater for myself using 10 balls of yarn, sometimes even less. However, this is not always the case as certain parameters need to be taken into account. Is it thick yarn or thin yarn? It makes a difference. Is the sweater pattern long and bulky or a turtle neck? And I'm starting to think color might even play a role.

So about half way through, not even, I realized, doing the math on this cardigan, that at the rate I was using up the balls, I just might not make it. Of course this made me knit really fast at times and at other times just completely abandon the project (if you don't finish it, you don't have to face reality). Some of my friends have named it the "doomed" sweater. And yet I keep knitting. The back is done, one front side panel is done. Even both the sleeves are done (and no, I will not make this a 3/4 sleeve sweater - it needs to be extra long sleeves, that's just the way it goes). But still, I have the other front side panel and the collar. I keep wavering on whether I'll make it or not. I think I only really need one ball, but then again, I'm really bad at estimating. I hope it's not something ridiculous like 4 balls.

Now comes the tricky part. I've scoured the internet for one ball of the same yarn. And nothing. I thought I found one stash at the very beginning of the search on ravelry but it disappeared before I could make note of it (which makes me question my sanity - did it even exist or was I making it up?). I've checked all the stores, even the ones that specialize in discontinued yarn. I've carried the yarn label with me in my wallet for 9 months now. I even brought it with me on my trip to europe - just in case. I've given the label to friends in case they come across a potential match. And nothing. Absolutely nothing.

I feel like I've been searching for an elusive, rare, endangered animal. And now, in my stroll in the forest of ravelry, I've caught a glimpse of it. It's there, just yards away, almost within my reach. And yet completely out of reach. How do I proceed? How do I make contact but not scare away this rare beast that I need to exist. (Yes I'm determined I need this sweater now and my life won't be complete without it. Below is a picture of it, although it's supposed to have a zipper.)

I figured if I thought about it too long, I'd make a horrible mess of it all - the ask. So I just went for it and below is the message I sent. Fingers crossed.

Hello stranger,
I just found that you have in your stash two glorious balls of Di.ve Cotone Egitto colorway 815. I have been looking for this colorway for some time and was wondering if it's part of your permanent stash or something you'd be interested in swapping/selling? My sad sorry, of my own doing of course, is that I have been working on a wonderful sweater that just won't make it on the amount of balls I have. My friends have named it the "doomed" sweater, and are in awe of my stubborness to not adjust it to 3/4 sleeves or use the yarn for something else. But the yarn and the pattern were made for each other and I know it'll be my favorite sweater once done. It's just a matter of finding the additional balls needed. I can ramble on, but rest assurred I've started seeing someone about my reoccuring problem of not buying enough yarn for projects, especially for discontinued yarn. And this is my problem, not yours, so no worries if you weren't planning on parting with the yarn. I'm convinced there are several extra balls out there somewhere for me. We'll be united eventually. Thanks for your time!
Sukeyknits