I am waiting for the mail. I am waiting for yarn. I am waiting for yarn for my Dale of Norway 10903. I am feeling really stupid right about now.
Back Story
I suffer from Dye Lot Anxiety. It harkens back to my earliest knitting experiences. My first sweater is a tale of dye lot woe.
In the old days, before great yarn stores and gorgeous patterns (Rowan, Bliss, Starmore), and Ravelry, Twist Collective, etc. there were only two ways to buy patterns (there were probably knitting magazines out there, but I was not aware of them). You went to the yarn store (which carried about three kinds of yarn) and looked through their sad, meager pattern collection OR you saw the design of your dreams in a women’s magazine, like Redbook or Good Housekeeping. If it was the latter, you sent in $3 and a SASE and placed your order. 4-8 weeks later, your pattern would arrive. No color photos (maybe one or two B&W’s), no diagrams, no charts. Lots and lots of tiny little writing. That is how I purchased the pattern for my first sweater. Then off I went to buy the yarn.
I wanted something practical, so I bought white acrylic. I know. However, I did not buy enough white acrylic. I had no idea about dye lots and most cheap acrylic yarns now don’t even HAVE dye lots! So back I went to buy more yarn. The new white was more like gray and very noticeably different. So, I decided to add some red to give my new sweater style and pizzaz. There were lines of garter ridges that did not go all the way across the front until they reached the bustline, so I actually figured out intarsia so I could create a notched area (it is in the gray-white yarn):
I keep this sweater as an example of what NOT to do on so many levels — it is full of oddities. And a bad dye lot.
A few years later I was again inspired and ready for a cabled Aran-inspired classic. Again, off I went to buy yarn (wool this time!!)…carefully checking the dye lot numbers. You can’t fool me twice!!
This sweater was a huge challenge for me. I did not know how to cable without a cable needle and there was cabling on every row. It was a slow go. I had used my first skein of yarn and had maybe 8-9 inches of the back done. I started my second skein and it was a completely different shade!! Very noticeable! But how could that be when I was so careful?
I had matched the color numbers, not the dye lots! The first skein I used was the ONLY skein that was different!! Aaaarrrggghhh!!!
Those two experiences have made me obsessed with dye lots AND with buying enough yarn. Add my tight knitting gauge and the fact that I am the size of Big Foot, and I need to buy a lot of yarn! There are times when I need 30-50% more yarn than called for in the pattern. This is a source of ongoing ‘tension’ with Sally and me since she is the size of a teacup.
The Present
When I bought the yarn for my Dale of Norway, I planned on making the size medium (as I said back then, their sizes are crazy big). BUT, I bought more yarn than called for for the largest size. The largest size said you needed 8 skeins (400 gms) of the off white. I bought 9. Hey, no problem!!
Except that I was looking at the chart for the Child Sizes! The adult large takes 600 gms (12 skeins). Yep. Way short. I contacted Kidsknits (Mary Ann Stephens — super nice and great to work with) and she of course did not have any left of a two-year old dye lot. The irony is that she had plenty of the yarn when I bought it two years ago.
Most stranded pieces are not problems for differing dye lots, but on this sweater, the white areas are so large and unbroken that a different dye lot could be very noticeable. I will just have to wait and see how far off the new dye lot is and if the knitting I have done so far can be salvaged. Starting this a third time is not an appealing option for me. 🙁
So, I wait for the mail. Tick. Tock.
I feel your pain. (But if it’s any consolation, I rather like your red-and-white sweater. Colorblocking – a great save for mismatched dyelots!) With the Dale sweater, you might try alternating the dyelots every few rows for that semi-solid, hand-dyed look, although that might not work for white as it would for darker colors.
Once I was three-quarters of the way through a sweater when the next ball I started was a noticeably different shade of purple – blue-purple instead of red-purple. Guess what? All the balls had the same dyelot number, but two were distinctly different from the majority. My yarn shop sent a color photo of two mismatching balls with their matching labels to the manufacturer, who ended up replacing ALL the yarn I’d bought because they couldn’t find a match in the warehouse to the yarn I’d started with. I had to start the sweater all over again – good thing it was mostly stockinette in a heavy worsted.
Nowadays, I check the yarn labels as I always have – AND the skeins or balls themselves for any gross discrepancies!
Comment by stashdragon — January 6, 2012 @ 2:15 pm
I have 4 balls of off white Heilo,color# 0017,dye lot# 8843,436 yards. They’re yours if you need them. 🙂
Comment by Bets — January 6, 2012 @ 5:28 pm
I experienced this last year. You would think that when you order yarn they would send it all in the same dyelot but apparently not. I’m stearing clear of online stores that do not specialize in knitting.
Comment by Beverly — January 6, 2012 @ 7:42 pm
Bummer! That is a serious problem. I will keep my fingers crossed that the whites match well.
Comment by Astrid — January 6, 2012 @ 7:59 pm
Some of us are old enough to remember when the only knitting magazines were McCall’s Needlework and Crafts, and the original Vogue Knitting (when they were published by Conde Nast). Patterns came from yarn manufacturers like Spinnerin, Columbia Minerva, Bernat, etc. There were no indie designers. I did not step into a yarn store until my early 20’s. Before that we bought all of our yarn in department stores. We also bought sewing patterns, fabric and such at the same stores. Last time I bought yarn or patterns from a department store was on the top floor of Woodward and Lothrop on F Street in DC (the “flagship” store).
Hope your whites do match well enough when they arrive.
Comment by Sue T. — January 7, 2012 @ 1:14 pm
Oh geezzzz. By this time, all knitting needles and yarns would be in a box for a yard sale in the Spring!! But, I guess we’ve all run into this at one time or another. I think that’s what really got me started spinning and dyeing my own yarn. Anywho, wishing you good luck with the new yarn order. And your white and red sweater looks great. Kudos on the Aran sweater! All that cabling – yikes! I don’t think I’d have a brain cell left if I had accomplished that!
Comment by Linda — January 7, 2012 @ 2:14 pm
I guess I was lucky. I grew up in Plymouth, WI during the 70’s and there was a great yarn shop in a town near by. A women had the shop in her home and stocked yarn and patterns from England, Italy and France. Needless to say, I never shopped Ben Franklin again!
I look forward to seeing you completed sweater.
Comment by Julie — January 7, 2012 @ 5:37 pm
Need pattern info for that lovely pink classic Aran pullover, PLEASE!
Comment by Linda C. — January 8, 2012 @ 9:12 am
There is something very deja vu about this first pattern – I swear I ordered it generations ago myself – don’t have the sweater still to prove it though. Woodword & Lothrop, what a great store!!! And that’s why I love to shop in European department stores – they still have great needlework notions and supplies on that top floor – Le Bon Marche in Paris, a needleworkers paradise. Sigh, gone are the days…
Comment by Mary Fern — January 11, 2012 @ 12:42 pm