I know knitters are wonderful. I know they’re kind. I know they’re generous. I know they’re thoughtful. But I still get blown away sometimes when I experience those traits in action.
Consider this scenario—
I wanted a one-skein shawl to work on for meeting knitting. I chose Vlad and decided to knit it in some lovely Tosh Sock in the Georgia O’Keefe colorway. There’s enough yarn in a single skein that I was tempted to live dangerously and do an extra repeat of the body pattern before moving onto the edging.
“I’m a tight knitter,” I told myself, “Surely I can squeeze out a bit more.”
You know what comes next. I could not squeeze out a bit more. In fact, I was stuck with about ten rows to go, plus the bind-off, and I only hand about five rows worth of yarn.
After brooding, self-recriminations, and time spent trying to redraft the pattern without ruining the design, I turned to Ravelry and posted on two discussion forums asking if anyone had a bit of leftover yarn they’d be willing to sell.
I didn’t get any responses offering the yarn I needed, but I did get one exellent suggestion from another Raveler: “Go to the Tosh Sock page, click on ‘projects’ near top of page, then search for your color name. That’ll bring up all the projects that have used that yarn. You can then send PMs to some of those to see if they have leftovers they’re willing to part with.”
I did as she suggested, sent out my plea—and, wow!, did I ever get responses. MistySnow had a response in my in box before I’d even gotten off of Ravelry: “I have only 2.8 grams remaining but it is yours (no cost – I’ve been rescued several times on other projects so I’m paying it forward).”
TheSpinningDaisy offered me another few grams. Lezzel and TelaCat did, too—again without asking for payment, just saying they’d had knitters be generous when they needed it and asking that I do the same someday when the chance offers itself.
I also hear from bflaible, who offered to send me 60 grams for ten dollars (over half a skein and a great price, given what Mad Tosh usually runs), so I said “yes” to her too.
Here’s what I wound up with—
Look at all that wonderful, wooly generosity!
MistySnow, SpinningDaisy, Lezzel, Telacat, bflaible—thank you, thank you, thank you for coming to the aid of a fellow knitter. I’ll promise you I’ll do the same.
Of course, now I’m thinking about tinking back to the body section and working another few repeats before the edging…