What a difference a Dye Lot Makes!

You might remember that I was making this silk Annis out of the Fiesta La Luz Multi in the Wild Oak colorway when I ran out of yarn.  The pattern calls for more yarn than I had, but there were a bunch of projects on Ravelry where the knitters said the pattern requirements overstated the yarn yardage needed.  I love this yarn and this pattern and decided to give it a shot.  Well, it didn't work.

So, Dena called White House Yarns in Oregon, where I bought the silk, and they had no more.  So we looked at the Fiesta website and called any yarn shops that carried the yarn.  One of the yarn shops said to call Fiesta because they have a yarn search where they send out a call to the stores that buy their yarn and ask who has whatever it is that is needed.  Dena did that and Brad, the nice guy from Fiesta, found us a hank in Phoenix at Purl In The Pines.  The nice lady that owned the shop mailed the yarn to me.

I said I wasn't worried about dye lot because I figured that where I am in the shawl it wouldn't matter if it changed just slightly . . . I've done the lacey edge part and the center part is just stockinette.  I figured if I couldn't get the right variegated I could use one of the la luz solids (like the turquoise) and be ok.  Boy was I wrong not to worry!

Um, it's the same colorway, Wild Oak, but it's a totally different color.  The original yarn is turquoise, navy and golden brown.  In the new one, the blue (which is navy in mine) almost matches the turquoise from mine. It's a pretty yarn with lovely colors, but it's not even close to what I had before.  I was shocked at just how different the two yarns were - these pictures don't do it justice.

So, I went on Ravelry and found someone who had a ball that looked like mine.  I read the notes on her yarn and discovered it came from the same shop mine came from a couple of months earlier than I bought mine.  That was in 2008, so the chances of getting the same yarn were slim.  I contacted the lady on Ravelry and she still had the yarn, hadn't used it, but had taken the label off and wound it into a cake.  She was willing to trade, so this yarn started in Oregon, traveled to Austria and ended up in Atlanta.  It matches perfectly - that's it in the center and you can just see my little ball above it!  

Now I have to knit it!  Now I get to knit it!

I finished the Family Jewels socks for Girl Far From Home. . . now to send them far from home so she can wear them!

And remember this sweater?  This is the Blue Greenjeans that I made last spring.  It doesn't fit me.  It doesn't fit Girl Far From Home.  I don't think it would fit anyone.  The top fits me very nicely but the cabled ribbing makes the bottom pull in too much and even stretched it is too small for me.  The bottom goes around Girl Far From Home, but the top is hugely and unattractively too big for her. So . . .

Late last night, after everyone else was in bed, I started ripping.  First I took off the button bands - just unraveled those buggers.  This yarn is very difficult to unravel because it's a one ply and wants to fuzz up and stick to itself.  Then I raveled the 10 inches of cabled ribbing and took it back to just before the stitches were adjusted for the ribbing to begin.  I put it back on a needle and then knit a bit to make sure the needle size was right - couldn't remember whether I knit it on a 7 or 8.  I have it ready to start knitting again now.

I have two more projects on the needles, one that's been on hold for a while and one that just got put on hold so I could do the socks.  Better get Knitting!