The Rules Are There For A Reason, But Sometimes Breaking Them Works Too

The other day I was wandering through Ravelry's Cardigan listings (I do love me a good cardi!), and I came across the Summer Solstice cardigan. I love how simple the lines of it are, but like all of the best things that seem simple on the surface, there are a LOT of details on this design. Some stash diving found a rather embarrassingly large pile of Cascade 220 in a heather grey, but it also turned up quite a bit of Elann's Peruvian Highland Wool in red (Ruby - 2055), leftover from this project:

According to the scale, I have enough yarn to do the Summer Solstice, but then I remembered - it's in two different dye lots!* I double checked and sure enough, 6 skeins are a different dyelot from the the others. Then I ran around the house looking at yarn balls from the two dyelots in different light. I can't tell the difference. I can't tell the difference in Western light, I can't tell the difference in Northern Light. I can't tell the difference up close, I can't tell the difference at a distance. I do not like it with a goat, I do not like it in a boat. I do not like green eggs and ham - oops, wrong story.

Anyway, there seems to be no visible difference in the two dyelots. On the other hand, in the back of my mind were the tragic stories of knitters who believed two different dye lots were identical, went ahead and knit with them and ended up with garments that showed the entire world that they used two different dyelots. Even the proverbial drunk cowboy riding by at 100 yards could see that they'd used two different dyelots. I do not want this to be me. Then I thought, "Hey, this pattern has sections where the knitting goes different directions. Different directions make light hit the stitches differently. If I use only one dyelot in each section, any differences in color will look like it's a trick of the light and the way the stitches are facing." I decided to go for it.

Now I've got to get gauge (I don't even remember the last gauge swatch I worked) and then I'm off! (I'm showing my gauge swatch in progress in B & W because I'm using a different color of the same yarn for the swatch - no point in confusing everyone.) I've decided to do my Summer Solstice with 3/4 length sleeves since I already have a red cardi with long sleeves, but that's the only change I'm planning on.

*Just so you know, the reason I have two batches of two different dyelots of the same color yarn is because I ordered some of the yarn at one point, thinking I was going to do one thing, then changed my mind and needed more red, so I ordered a second batch. Elann didn't mess up the order and send me two different dyelots in a single order.

Have a great weekend!