by Carrie Schutrick

Created on: October 22, 2009   Last Updated: January 31, 2012

It's happened to a lot of knitters, and perhaps it's happened to you: you didn't notice till after your project was done that different sections were just slightly different in color, even though the skeins of yarn you bought all had the same color name. Your problem was dye lot. Even today, with computer controls and careful manufacturing, it can happen that there are slight variations between batches, because of differences in the fiber, tiny fluctuations in the amount of dye used, or other problems.

But if you have no choice but to knit with two different dye lots, don't despair; there are ways to handle the problem so that no one- including you-will ever notice. These solutions fall into two broad categories: mixing the variations together, or keeping them well apart.

For the former, you'll want to work at all times with two balls or skeins of yarn, one from each of your dye lots. (Dye lot is usually indicated with a number on the label, and should be just called "dye lot", or its equivalent in another language.) If you're knitting in the round, it's simple: simply alternate using the two dye lots on each round. When working in rows, things are a wee bit more complex. If you're using straight needles, the best thing to do is probably to work two rows in one lot, then two rows in the next, and so forth. If you have access to a circular needle you can do one row at a time; when you get to the end of the row in the first dye lot, slide the stitches back to the other end of the needle and work in the same direction again with the second lot. In any case, you don't have to bother cutting the yarn and reattaching it for each row or round; just carry the unused skein up the side, as if you were working stripes in two different colors.

Blending the two dye lots in this fashion can actually lead to a richer, more complex color, as the slight variations between the dye lots will be close enough to "read" as one shade.

If you only have one or two skeins in an odd lot, however, it might be easier to just keep things separate. For example, in a sweater, the arms could be in one lot while the main body is in another. If you're doing intarsia, just be sure to work any given area of a color in only one dye lot, and the variation will be difficult if not impossible to detect. You might also consider using the variant lot for button bands, cuffs, hat brims, purse straps or the like-anything where the slightly different color will act as an accent rather than a mistake.

Whatever you do, make sure it looks like you've done it on purpose. If the bottoms of both sleeves are in a variant dye lot, and switch to the lot used in the body at the same height on both sides, it looks fine; if one sleeve is obviously lighter than both the body and the other sleeve, that's not so attractive.

Fortunately, most yarn sellers will be more than happy to make accommodations for dye lot, so the problem shouldn't arise too often. If it does, however, now you have a few strategies for dealing with it.

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