Some of you may have noticed that the progress bars in the sidebar don’t move regularly. A few projects seem to be . . . stuck. I noticed that, too. This past week I decided to attend to that by picking up the Chinese Red Vest and going to it. I was making incredible progress–both vest fronts complete and finishing the second button band! Then I looked at the “collar” instructions (which were only a few lines) and found that it involved picking up 100 stitches and more than a pattern repeat (18 rows) of knitting. The bad news? I was down to 1/2 ball of yarn. I was at least one ball short.

The woman who’s been known to do math in her head, really messed this one up. It was a meters/yards issue (with the math), or at least that’s what I’m telling people. I only need one more ball, but it needs to be this dye lot.

I got a lot of suggestions on how to find it–call around, check eBay, put WTB (want to buy) emails out to fiber buy/sell mailing lists. I did all of them. And, then I contacted Plymouth Yarns, the distributor of Country 8-ply. I sent an email listing exactly what I needed. The next morning I got a response from Pattie with a list of Maine stores; all of which I had already called.

But another email got me a longer, New England, list of retailers just a few hours later. I started calling and found that everyone has the color, but not the dye lot. Sigh. I kept calling.

Carol at Knitting Treasures in Plymouth, MA was just as lovely as all the other Yarn Store Ladies I spoke to (no offense to you Yarn Store Gentlemen, but I didn’t speak to any), but she also had four balls of said yarn on her shelf! Yipee!

It should be here before the weekend. I will wear this vest before Memorial Day!

Huge Thanks to Pattie at Plymouth Yarns and Carol at Knitting Treasures!