Dye Lots

I haven't been swapping this year so for knitting community I've been joining KALs (knit a longs) instead. This one was sponsored by the Doubleknit podcast and the goal was knit a project that we has queued up long ago but never got around to knitting. Mine was a pattern I discovered back in 2009 the Simple Summer Tweed Top Down V-Neck by Heidi Kirrmaier.

The yarn was even older than that. It was my first real yarn (real=real expensive) and I saved up to buy a skein or two of it at a time back in 2006. My life was going to hell those few months and I would walk to the yarn shop on my lunch break and buy a ball as a treat. I then added to my pile until I had a sweater worth. I can't remember if I didn't notice the dye lot or if the first order ran out and a new one came in before I had enough. 

 The two dye lots are completely different. One is a smooshy and plump and the other is more string like. The colors are just related to each other and not at all a match. The thing is, this is not at all noticeable in the skein and doesn't show up until a few rounds are knit. I didn't even know I had two dye lots until I was part way through the sweater. Once I realized I planned the rest out in a trendy color block stripe design that is so popular now. 

Yarn is seven skeins of Rowan Summer tweed knit on size 5 needles. I didn't like the cast on number in the pattern so I changed that and then every single thing after that too. By the end of the second paragraph of instructions I set it aside and just designed my own sweater as I knit, looking at the pattern photo once and a while for inspiration. I'm quite pleased how it turned out and with the J Crew rolled edges. It's a sweater that I had wanting to knit for forever and it took the KAL to get it acomplished.