The Good News
The crazy cotton sweater is beginning to look like it will make it.
The Bad News
After knitting the button band, I realized the remaining blue yarn wasn't going to make it up the button hole band and around a 22 row seed stitch collar. The yarn is 10 years old, which means that I'll never find its like again; the sweater is doomed to either a crippling compromise or oblivion.
The Good News
DK Handknit Cotton is a workhorse yarn for Rowan, it's still in production (news to me!), and they still make number 277, Turkish Plum, after all these years.
Even More Good News
Wild & Wooly had three skeins in stock, and Dena put them on hold for me. My husband dropped in there this afternoon, mere hours after I had flown into the plate glass window of knitting, for an almost instant turn around on my bleak morning. No bruises sustained.
The Bad News
The dye lot of the original is 7B5. The dye lot of the new yarn is 1240524.
The Good News
I find this amusing. I imagine the Rowan dye pots of yore, steaming away in that shaggy stone mill in York, with little masking tape labels on them to assign their dye lots, versus the huge industrialized success that the company has become, pumping out tides of Turkish Plum, with so many dye batches by now that they number in the millions. Sweet old 7B5. How I love thee.
Back to the Bad News
The dye lots are so different that on a Jamieson & Smith colour card, there would be three shades between them. Old Turkish Plum 7B5 actually had a plummy quality to it, a juicy navy with hints of tipping into aubergine. The number million dye lot looks more like a flat navy.
The Good News
I have a plan. I will rip the button band in 7B5, re-knit it in the number million dye lot, and use the old yarn to knit the button hole band which will sit on top, covering the new yarn and no one will know but you and me.
The Bad News
The collar will have to be in the new yarn, and there's not much I can do about that, except accept it.
The Good News
These will be the buttons.
Are those Zecca buttons? They look fun and yummy! I am glad you found some yarn to replace the old. I went on a hunt last year for some Classic Elite Sand for a Classic Elite pattern. I searched and searched then called and called to make sure the not so LYS had all that I needed. It is surprising what you can find lying in a sale bin. I ended up paying only 5.00$ per skein. Hope everyone had a happy thanksgiving and got lots of knitting time!
Posted by: Knitteriam | November 25, 2005 at 08:14 PM
what a wild sweater with a wild story behind it. hope everything works out in the end.
this makes me realize i have a dangerous habit, buying enough skeins to get started on a project, figuring I'll go back for more once i "get into it". very bad, very dangerous!
Posted by: molly | November 25, 2005 at 10:02 PM
too bad. Looks good!
Posted by: di | November 26, 2005 at 07:14 AM
I have faith - you'll make it work and it will be stunning. Love the buttons!
Posted by: Chris | November 26, 2005 at 08:21 AM
The plate glass window of knitting: ha! I love this.
Love the buttons, and I was on pins and (knitting) needles reading about the dye lots and wondering if they would match. If worse came to worse, could you try and overdye something to match better?
Posted by: Colleen | November 26, 2005 at 08:30 AM
I tried to keep track but I lost count. Do we have more good news than bad news? I think so because the buttons are amazing and they count as a whole bunch of good news!
Posted by: Carole | November 26, 2005 at 08:52 AM
Good News - Bad News...it's going to be beautiful!
Posted by: Teresa | November 26, 2005 at 09:04 AM
What an odessey this sweater has been, but it is going to turn out Great! Can't wait to see you in it!
Posted by: Kim | November 26, 2005 at 09:05 AM
You made all the news good with your decisions. It will be a magnificent sweater when finished. Fab buttons, too!
Posted by: margene | November 26, 2005 at 09:15 AM
Such beautiful buttons ... they more than make up for the dyelot problems.
I have some Turkish Plum in the stash ... want me to check dyelots for you?
Posted by: Ruth | November 26, 2005 at 09:55 AM
Bit of a rollercoaster, this post.
Posted by: claudia | November 26, 2005 at 10:03 AM
Send an SOS to Kay [Mason -Dixon]. I sent her some [as in 1 small ball] of antique [early eighties] Turkish Plum. It may be in a gorgeous blanket somewhere. Or not.
It's a stunning cardigan. A real achievement.
Posted by: Emma. | November 26, 2005 at 02:30 PM
I've got whiplash after that post.
I probably missed Walter by about an hour.
Posted by: Laurie | November 26, 2005 at 05:02 PM
Glad it's going to work out, and oh wow, those buttons are PERFECT! Love them.
Posted by: --Deb | November 26, 2005 at 06:41 PM
i love knitting because it's so exciting!!! - as this post amply demonstrates!
also love the sweater, it is going to be awesome, and i like your solution to the dye lot problem. that's exactly what i would do, so it must be right!
Posted by: karen | November 27, 2005 at 03:56 AM
What a knitting odessy all in one amazingly challenging sweater! I'm sure it's all going to work out great. And those buttons are smashing!
Posted by: Julia | November 27, 2005 at 10:12 PM
Genius solution! I really, truly, honestly think no one will notice the different dye lot on the collar.
And that is one heck of a sweater. Quite an accomplishment. And in cotton, too! I can't even imagine.
Posted by: Martha | November 29, 2005 at 01:08 PM