Stash Puzzle

I love knitting sweaters, and when I buy for a sweater, I always buy lots of yarn. Explains the huge stash. What puzzles me is I've run out of wool before I run out of pattern on two occassions. And of course, there was no getting any more. One batch I bought in a Northern Ontario Trading Store on a family holiday; in fact, I bought all the store had of that white buffalo wool in black and two shades of blue. Turns out the mill that produced it closed seven years before I set eyes on it. I had the back and one-and-a-half fronts done before I realized the wool wasn’t going to make it. The second sweater was made from a ribbon silk. When I ran out of that (two years after I bought it) not even the manufacturer could scare up a few balls of it.

A more recent buy also fell short. My husband admired some thick German wool at River City Yarns and I jumped at the chance to knit him some socks. He's been adamantly against me knitting him socks; he felt they wouldn't stay up well, and would never measure up to store-bought socks (The arrogance!). I purchased an extra ball of the wool, and a larger ball of Phildar Preface for extra durability, and dove in. I ran out of the Preface about 2/3s of the way through the second sock. I had gone back to the store once already to buy more of the wool (there may be a problem with my math skills here), but I wasn't confident they would have any more of the nylon blend. My concerns were well-founded when no store in the entire city had any of it, and I couldn't find it online either. So his socks are unique in that one toe is a few shades lighter than the other. But, he loves 'em anyway. Every day after work he peels out of his shirt and noose, jumps into his old comfy sweats and slides on the socks. He says they're home to him. Does it get any sweeter than that?