Dyleot madness

Here I am, just knitting away on my first project.  I began winding the 2nd ball of the Mini Mochi and noticed that things just did not look the same.  I mean the colors were very different.  I grabbed the labels to verify that they were the same colors. And yup all three were color #105.   But the dye lot on one was different.

I didn't verify the dye lots when I purchased them or before I started this project...duh!

What are dye lots, you ask?  Dye lots are used to indicate the batch that the yarn was dyed in.  Why does this matter if you are using the same colors for dyeing. To insure that colors are uniform across the skeins of yarn, they are dyed on batches.   There are many factors that can affect the dying process, such as temperature, dying time, the phases of the moon, the groundhog seeing his shadow...yada, yada, yada.  (When I started dying yarn, I learned this the hard way.) It won't matter if you're making a project that only uses one skein.  But if you are using more skeins, dye lots will be very important to you.

How different are the colors of the skeins I'm using for this project? Have a little peek the picture below, the little fellow on the left is the odd ball dye lot.  That's a huge difference in color from the one on the right.

So what do you do when you have different dye lots?

1. You could try to find additional skeins/balls in the same dye lot.  In my case this would not be worth it. I purchased these over a year ago and the store no longer carries this yarn.  I could start a search on-line.  Ravelry would be a good source. If you are going to find it, the ISO and Destash group would be the best bet.  But this project is just not that serious.

2. You could frog the project.  If I were to consider frogging, I'd rip it out but start over and cast on with fewer stitches, to make the scarf longer. Not in a ripping mode right now.

3. Throw it in that UFO (unfinished object) corner we all tend to have and dread. The corner is not as crowded as it was last year, so I'm not trying to add to it.

4.  Keep going as is and make it work with what you have.

I'm going with #4. I really like this scarf, but not enough to rip it out and start over.  I think the two balls will be enough for a short scarf that wraps nicely around the neck.  Once finished, I'll figure out how to wear it to make it look it's best, despite the fact that it is shorter than originally planned.

Oh well, things happen, life goes on and so do my knitting needles.

Toodles!