Sunday, March 6, 2016

The Importance of Matching Dyelots or Why My Sweater Has Short Sleeves

About a year and a half ago I bought yarn to make a sweater for myself.

Fast forward 1 year . . . .

Working away on the top down yoked sweater, finished the yoke and body.  Spent one night working on sleeve #1, working well into the night as I was on a roll.  Finished one ball of yarn, joined the next and kept working away.  I finally went off to bed.

And the next morning . . .

So excited about the progress I had made I practically skipped down to my knitting room hardly able to wait for the coffee to brew and grab a cup so that I could settle in.  I believe I may have let out an audible gasp of air when I saw my sweater in full daylight. 

There it was . . . the line of divide between the dark black and the slightly grey black.  I could not believe my eyes, I dug through the knitting bag and grabbed out the labels and yes there is was, two numbers that did not match for the dyelot.  Oh how could I have made such an error, and even worse a year after the purchase I realized that there would never be a chance of finding a match.

I sat there in disbelief staring at the odd arm, trying to decide what to do.  There was such a difference in the shades of black that I knew alternating rows of colour as I moved from one yarn to the other would not work.

Adding additional colourwork at this point also was not an option, the sweater would have become much too busy.

So after the second cup of coffee I decided that my only line of action was to pull out my work on the sleeve and divide yarn of matching dyelot into two equal balls and that would then define the length of my sleeves.

I am actually quite happy with the finished product (really, what choice do I have).  But I have learned the valuable lesson of double or triple checking those dye-lot numbers!!!


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