On The Importance Of The Safety Skein

Confession time: I had to order an extra skein of Canopy Worsted in Macaw to finish my Rocky Coast Cardigan (luckily there were still a few skeins of Malabrigo Worsted on sale to make my order worthwhile). At this point in my knitting life, I should have known to purchase an extra skein of yarn from the beginning; I cannot tell you how many calls we'd get at Lorna's Laces from people who needed just one more skein of a particular dye lot to finish their sweater - let's just say I'd be retiring quite early if I had a dollar for each call, and that was just in the four years I worked there.

So close to being done: sweater mess-in-progress

I would have been fine with the recommended 900 yards of worsted-weight yarn, except I decided I wanted roomier sleeves. I figured I'd be cutting it close, but on Friday night, there was no denying that I was going to run out of yarn. I even wound off my final skein of yarn and began to knit the collar, but it was still clear that I'd be short. In one last desperate attempt, I frogged the gauge swatch and began to knit with that. No dice. Time to order one more skein.

I can say with 99% certainty that this final skein will not be the same dye lot as what I've been knitting with, but I've got a plan: for both the sleeves and collar, I have left a few yards of un-knit yarn to alternate skeins for a few rows as I integrate the new with the old. That's usually enough to trick the eye and minimize any visible dye lot differences. Some may say this is an annoying extra step to take, but I think it's worth it. I've come so far to make the perfect cardigan for myself, it would be a shame to start half-assing it when I'm so close to reaching my goal.

File under: I should know better by now!

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