September Sweater

I am notorious for starting sweaters and not finishing them. I have so many lingering in bags in the back of cupboards and closets. I was inspired by two other lovely women to get one finished. First, there is Lisa over at Polka Dot Cottage. Every September for the last couple of years she makes herself a sweater. She started planning this year’s in August. That got me thinking abut doing a September sweater.

Then my friend Lori was over visiting the other night and she always has some knitting with her. This time it was the Honeycomb Collar Pullover from last fall’s issue of Knit.Wear. I had started that same sweater last year myself. I bought some beautiful silk wool yarn, knit the body edging and then put it away as other projects took the forefront. With the weather finally getting cooler it was time to pull it back out.

With the edging done I started in the on the miles of knitting in the round. This sweater is pretty boxy and as a pear shaped girl I decided to change the shape slightly. I did the medium size for the cast on and first 4 inches and then did decreases until it was the the next size smaller. It’ll still be loose fitting, but not hanging off me. I was knitting away and starting my third ball of yarn when I realized that even though I had purchased all the same dyelot, you could really see a big difference in the balls. Some were much darker than the others. Oh, this was going to bug the heck out of me! So, I ripped back to the initial garter stitch hem and rethought my options.

What I decided to do was knit with two balls of yarn switching every other row. I separated the balls into light and dark and then started knitting that way. The look is heathered and I can tell the rows are different, but I’m sure no one else will. Here is what is looks like and the area on the inside where I twist between rows.

This is a little bit of a pain, but I know I’ll be much happier with the results. Now I am ready to divide for the armholes!

If you are wondering the yarn I’m using is SMC Select Silk Wool in what they call charcoal. I think it is more of a denim blue in person.

So, does impending fall have you itching to cast on a sweater?
Have you every had issues with yarn of the same dyelot being way off in color? What did you do about it?