You may remember my #Baaad24in24 goal of FINISHING 24 projects in 2024 and although I have been remiss at sharing my projects, I did meet my target last year and here is one of the more amusing adventures in its completion!

Today’s topic: How I Crowdsourced a Sweater

Those that have chatted with me about knitting for others may know that I am a strong proponent of knit-worthiness: Only engaging in knitting for others that really have an understanding and appreciation for what it takes to create knitted gift. I am happy to knit smaller items like hats and socks to gift away more randomly, but sweaters are another story. I prefer to knit sweaters for myself, but once in a while I engage in the creation of a gift sweater knit. This is the story of one for my buddy John who is completely knit-worthy, and how I almost didn’t complete Finished Object #20 in my #baaad24in24 …

John did the legwork. He scoured Ravelry, understood the parametres (DK or Worsted weight), and indulged me in talk about fibre content and managing expectations. And a few months later, I started knitting.

We agreed on a yarn I had in my personal stash, one which I had about half the yardage from a Baaad Anna’s Anniversary Sale in 2020, and an additional quarter of the total yardage from some matching yarn acquired at one of Baaad Rabbit‘s Bi-Annual Yarn Swaps. If you do the math it may be clear I was probably a couple skeins short, but I am a risk-taker and felt that between the plethora of this yarn in the community (that Baaad Anna’s helped distribute before the yarn was discontinued!) and the fact most patterns overestimate yardage that I could start knitting. (Can you guess where this is going?).

The Three Swords Sweater from an amazing book called Viking Knits by Norwegian designer Lasse L. Matberg, is a bottom up sweater on a decently large gauge so the body worked up quickly. As it became clear that indeed I would not have enough in my current stash, I started knitting the arms to see if my string would at least last until the joining at the armholes. It didn’t.

So first up, I started by checking in on my community. Every knitter should have some buddies one can call for an SOS; I just happen to also happen to hawk yarns so I wondered in any of my inner circle had the same yarn.

At the same time, I am confident that the world is made a smaller place thanks to the internet, and although this yarn is discontinued there are two not too complicated additional options: buying online and scouring stashes in Ravelry that communicated online that they own that line of yarn in that particular colour. So I wasn’t too worried… yet.

Turns out I had a couple close buddies who I could ask that were familiar with this yarn. One checked their stash and had unfortunately downsized it, but one did indeed had some leftover from a previous project! Ha-zaah! She also let me know she isn’t doing much knitting these days and would gift it to me. In between the lines I read that maybe, just maybe, she could be convinced to put something new on her needles so long as it was a chunky and quick, so in exchange I gifted her a box of five skeins from my stash that I hoped might entice to knit up a quick colourful hat… win-win, and some added stash-busting to boot!

Onwards and upwards, I attached the sleeves and started the colourwork yoke. I had been gifted about 2.5 skeins which could be pretty close to enough. But unfortunately pretty close didn’t cut it as it ran out just under the collar! Whoopsies. Got another half ball remnant from another friend, and after a quick gift exchange it still had me at partway through the yoke!

A sampling of the thank-you gifts that were traded in exchange for pieces of this sweater!

My colleague reminded me that we made a sample in that yarn, so perhaps there is some leftover from that. Turns out this lovely Project of the Month was knit up by my mom, so I called up my mommy. No dice. 2020 is just too far back for remnants to remain in her house. Something for me to aim towards I guess, but I digress.

In the meantime, Canada Post went on strike, so suddenly online buying or Ravelry trading evaporated as options. Next I checked if any nearby stores still stocked this yarn but a discontinued line really doesn’t tend to stick around. Alas I found some stock still available in a store in Lynden, WA! What’s an hour drive cross-border for a knit-worthy recipient? But before I hopped in the car I did just one. more. check. And good I did because I misread the colourway number as 1034 instead of 1043. Surely Moss Green and Cactus Green with such a similar colourway number is just an error? Well, I wasn’t sure, so I made a phone call to this LYS the likes normally makes me cringe when working at my own LYS. First: could you double check the colourway number, then ‘how green is your green’, and lastly ‘would you be so kind as to send me a photo in daylight’??? The lovely lady at Wear On Earth was a saint, and saved me a doomed multi-hour drive.

So now what? What to do next when in dire need of finding something that doesn’t want to be found? How about a WANTED poster??

And out of the abyss, one of our lovely customers returned my desperate call: she did have a skein of this yarn… knit into a cowl. A cowl she doesn’t wear and would be happy for me to repurpose. But. But. I don’t believe in frogging. Frogging, the ripping back of knitting to repurpose or reknit the yarn just goes against every fibre of my being. Repurpose! Repurposing to me means finding a recipient for a knit, not ripping back yarn to reknit! But what is the excitement in life than to be pushed to the outer limits of our comfort and try something new?

So here it is: A Christmas miracle knit for a knit-worthy John. With a generous THANK YOU to all who came along for the ride!