I always forget just how much yarn sleeves use. To me, they’re always an afterthought. They’re just little tubes after all, right? Wrong. They take up a lot of yarn. And you have to make two of them. I was reminded of this as I started knitting sleeve #1 for Starsky this week:

I started thinking, “Wow, that’s a lot of fabric!” And then I started thinking about how I added four extra inches to the length of the cardigan because I thought it’d look better. And then I thought about the year or so that Starsky sat hibernating, and how I used some of its alloted yarn for other random projects.

And the logical conclusion of this train of thought: “Oh crap. What if I dont’ have enough yarn to finish?”

I checked Webs for some Berkshire Bulky in my color, and while they had 50+ skeins in stock, I thought it unlikely they’d have the same dye lot from over two years ago. Five years ago I would have been screwed and would either have to frog the project or hope for a close enough hue from a different dye lot.

Luckily, we live in the digital era. More specifically, we live in the age of Ravelry. I immediately went to Ravelry and found all the people who had stashed Berkshire Bulky in my colorway. I then sent them all emails asking if they had skeins in my dye lot, and if they’d be willing to part with them for a fee.

After three “sorry, my dye lot is different!” messages and nearly losing hope, I received a message from bluepupae, a.k.a. my new hero! She had two skeins in my dye lot—more than enough to finish the project! And they arrived today!

Thanks to Dao, the internet, and Ravelry for keeping my project alive!