I have a problem. I've always wanted to knit an Imogen for as along as I knew it existed. And I wanted to knit it in the Fleece Artist Aran Alpaca that was the recommended yarn. But FA Aran Alpaca was discontinued recently, and stores put it on clearance. So I jumped at the chance to buy some, and bought three skeins, the suggested amount for a small or medium Imogen. And the skeins came and they were beautiful (I chose the Merlin colorway, which doesn't seem as popular as some of the other colorways, I don't know why, but I digress). But one seemed a little different from the other two. And after I dunked them in their hot baths* and rolled them into center-pull balls, it was glaringly obvious that one was not like the others (not that the other two were identical matches, but they were certainly at least in the same ballpark). One ball is much redder than the others. I was already planning on alternating skeins to avoid pooling, but with one skein so dramatically different from the other two, am I sentenced to alternate with THREE skeins? Will I go nuts doing this?
The yarn is beautiful. The yarn feels beautiful. But one is not like the other two. And I don't want say, the sleeves or the back of my Imogen to be a completely different color than the rest of it. That would just not look right. Eventually I will probably post on the Hand Maidens board, but for now, just this.
*In the back of Barbara G. Walker's Knitting from the Top, she recommends throwing non-superwash yarns into a hot bath for 10 minutes and then throwing the wet hanks somewhere to air dry. I do this.
I wish I had a brilliant idea for you... if Imogen wasn't constructed one piece side-to-side I think I'd propose starting with the odd ball at the bottom of each sleeve / front / back, moving to striping it with one of the other balls, and then striping the two other balls to make a kind of ombre effect. But that won't work with the side-to-side-ness will it? *ponder*
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