23 May 2010

Will I have enough yarn to finish my sweater? A question commonly asked at the shop. The answer is a simple one.

The back of a standard long-sleeve sweater takes one-third of the total amount of the yarn. If you have used more than one-third, for the back, you will be short. You need to see if you can buy more of the same dyelot pronto!

If there is no more of that dyelot, don't despair. You will just need to knit at least one whole sleeve out of another dyelot. The differing dyelot for the sleeve will not be apparent in most cases - especially if it is a commercially dyed yarn. With hand dyed yarn this can be a bit tricker.

The differing dyelots show very well when the change is from one row to the next. When another piece of a sweater is knit out of a differing dyelot, the difference is not as apparent.