First, here are the flowers I received for Mother’s Day. I don’t normally photograph the flowers my family brings me, but this simple bouquet was stunning.

As for knitting, I’m absolutely over the moon. As I have been reknitting the Surplice Lace Top, my concern has grown as I realized that I will run out of yarn before I even get to the sleeves. The pattern says I should have enough, but I substituted a different lace pattern, and apparently the lace I substituted eats up more yarn.
So I began calling yarn sources and shops all over the US to try to find more yarn in the same dye lot. I bought the original Rowan Calmer at Commuknity in San Jose, California, back in August of 2007, so I was pretty sure it would be difficult to find more.
I also went on Ravelry and called stores which had sold that dye lot in the past, but they had sold out long ago and had different dye lots now. I called the big online yarn sellers and some of the small ones. Struck out every time.
(Before I began the project, I had found one kind person on Ravelry who was willing to sell me her ball of yarn, and I thought then that I would have enough yarn for this project.)
Anyhow, I finally gave up and began calling my local yarn shops here in the Denver area. I figured that even though they wouldn’t have my dye lot, I could see how close a match I could get by holding my yarn side by side with the store yarn and visually matching the color.
Alas, I couldn’t even find a store that carried Rowan Calmer. I’m sure there must be a Denver store that carries it, but it wasn’t one of the shops I called. I began to despair of finding a reasonable match.
Finally I called String, a nearby yarn shop. I had never seen Rowan Calmer there, but I was pretty much out of options and hoped they might at least have a suggestion or two for me (besides “buy more yarn next time,” which I’d already figured out).
The staffer checked inventory and said they had three balls listed in my color number in their storage and she would try to find them for me.
I drove over, and sitting on the counter were the three balls. I held them to my knitting. The lighting was odd—did they match well enough or didn’t they? I looked more closely. Lo and behold, they were the same dye lot number as my yarn! And yes, it was a perfect match.
I never bought yarn so fast and so joyfully. I went home and immediately ripped out part of my knitting again and added two more repeats of the lace pattern to lengthen the top.
Here is the progress of my reknitting of the back so far, along with the wonderful balls of yarn I now have to complete the top:
Rowan Calmer, color 476 coral
How many times can you see this photo of the same stretch of knitting and not think I’m just recycling pictures? Rest assured that I have reknitted this section each time. Aargh.
Actually, I’m about 4″ further than the photo shows; I’m now decreasing for the armholes and knitting in relaxed mode again—in fact, I’m noticeably Calmer. (sorry, couldn’t resist)