Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Smart and Smart-ass aren't QUITE the same thing...

I love hand painted yarns. Like snowflakes, they're unique and precious. But let me be honest--they're a pain in the butt at times. Like now.

I really do love the Araucanía I'm using for my new shawl pattern, but it wasn't my first choice. I ignored that little voice in my head that told me this yarn might be a problem and instead listened to the one that said, "to heck with it. You're here, there's enough of the same color way so just buy it already!" And for a couple of days I thought I'd gotten away with it. But I'm changing my mind.

It's just not quite right for the pattern and each skein is just different enough from the other that alternating them every eight inches even in this pattern is not getting the job done.  Here's an outdoor photo of two of the skeins:


Yeah, I know. Smack me with the Stupid Stick. I deserve it. What the hell was I thinking? But wait--it gets worse. Take a look at this:


This is a Lucy Neatby yarn. Again, loved it when I bought the four skeins but believe it or not, these were even worse than the Araucanía when it comes to being mismatched, and these were supposedly from the same dye-lot.

Maybe I am learning. It took me almost an entire sweater to figure out the Lucy Neatby wasn't working. With the Araucanía, I wised up about 10 inches into the shawl. I'm going to have to call that progress, sad as it is.

The last couple of days haven't been completely wasted. I've really nailed down the pattern and have good numbers to go by. It's just going to take a few days longer than I'd hoped to get the pattern on this blog and Ravelry. Live and learn. I just wish I'd catch on to the "learn" part a little quicker.

Just to leave you with SOMETHING positive, here's a photo of the irises DD gave me for Mother's Day. I love the gift and the giver:


3 comments:

  1. you Go, girl. Learning and living - always good stuff!

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  2. I've stopped buying from some indie dyers because of this, especially the ones that have 50g skeins vs. 100g skeins because those have such a high rate of mismatchy-ness. :(

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  3. Melanie--I feel your pain and understand where you're coming from. It's frustrating, but in my case I brought it on myself, especially with the Lucy Neatby. The blender was on and I stuck my hand in anyway. But for small projects? 50g skeins pretty much pull themselves from the market for anything but fingerless mitts--tiny fingerless mitts--unless your pattern can support carrying the yarn up the sides. Doesn't work with all patterns, obviously.

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