Sunshine and clouds mixed. High 92F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph..

Mainly clear skies. Low 66F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph.

My previous column was about the shrinkflation of prepackaged/canned foods you purchase at the local grocery store. But, shrinkflation also affects crafting supplies. I’ve noticed that skeins of yarn now come in slightly smaller amounts per skein. The nice thing about most knit/crochet yarn patterns is the materials list will include a specific brand of yarn, the number of skeins along with the amount of yardage/meters needed for that particular project. It helps to know the yardage needed for a particular project, especially when using a different yarn than the one recommended in the pattern.

You would think that “no dye lot” really means you don’t have to worry about matching skeins of the same color, right? Wrong. There’s always going to be a certain percentage of yarn that will not match another skein, even if the color name/number is the same. For example, I needed one more skein of yarn to complete a small baby afghan. I knitted with the original skein from my stash, then joined the newly purchased skein (same color name and number as the first skein). I knitted a few rows using the new skein, held up the afghan to take a look and you could see a very definite line of demarcation showing exactly where I had joined the new skein.

Then, I remembered reading about the late Elizabeth Zimmerman’s technique of combining when two skeins of yarn that don’t exactly match. I had to re-cast on stitches for the baby afghan and knit two rows using skein A. Then, I worked two more rows of stitches, using the yarn from skein B. I continued working the rest of the baby afghan alternating every two rows with the slightly different colored skeins. The afghan turned out like I had planned on the striped pattern.

Speaking of no-dye-lot skeins, I recently purchased five skeins of yarn for a baby afghan. There were several skeins of the same color setting on the shelf. All were labeled as the color “bone.” Yet, you could see a slight color difference between some of the skeins. Looking at the small print on the label, I noticed the information “Lot E 2021-04-H.” This information tells me that all the yarn with this particular information on the label would have been processed with the same vat of dye. Sure enough, the other skeins with the slight color difference had the code “Lot E 2021-12-G.” It pays to read the labels.

Most of the time, I am knitting items for family, friends and/or charity. Usually, I might make one item per year just for myself, but this past couple months, I’ve been inspired to make and finish three sweaters, a shawl and am just about to start knitting a pair of gloves. The other day my husband told me that, according to a press release from The Farmer’s Almanac, Nebraska is due to be in the “hibernation zone” for the upcoming winter season. Maybe that’s why I’m motivated to make items for myself. I might need to keep them handy to stay warm this coming winter.

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