the kindness of strangers
About a month ago I started knitting a little cardigan for my future niece or nephew. DJ’s brother and his wife are expecting their first baby ten days after our due date. (Which means it’s anyone’s guess which baby comes first.) They’ve decided to wait for the delivery room surprise, so I made the impractical choice to knit in white with leaf-green trim. But machine washable, bleachable, and dry-able. And it will be apologetically wrapped with a gift card for their registry, since I know a tiny white baby sweater is both impractical and self-indulgent.
I was happily knitting along until I realized that I was definitely going to run out of yarn. By a lot. That’s what I get for using a free pattern, I suppose. I didn’t start worrying until I found out the yarn is backordered until the end of December, a week before the baby shower. Not good.
Slightly desperate, I went to Ravelry and searched for the same yarn, same dye lot. Ravelry has a feature where you can browse other knitters’ “stashes,” and I found two matches. I sent messages asking to buy whatever remnants they had left, and both replied. One wasn’t sure she actually had any yarn left, but said she would look as soon as she finished moving. The other said she had most of a ball, and I was welcome to it. She didn’t reply to my offer to pay for the yarn and shipping, but a few days later an envelope showed up in my mailbox. It was a people are nice moment.
Wow, what a great idea for dealing with leftover project yarn. And for the record, someone gave us the teeniest, tiniest white sweater and we used it constantly. It wasn’t hard to wash and it went with everything. Looking forward to seeing you soon!
Actually white is my favorite for newborns. They aren’t often nursing and wearing sweaters at the same time, so the sweaters stay pretty clean….
the sweater looks beautiful. i agree with everyone above…i LOVE white for new babes! i have my mind set on taking our little guy home from the hospital in an all white outfit and have been hunting around for the perfect one.