Wednesday, July 17, 2013

madtosh dilemmas

As I mentioned a couple of posts back, I bought 5 skeins of Madelinetosh DK in "Terrarium". 3 skeins were well matched, 1 was a little darker and 1 was a lot lighter.  As in, it almost looks like a different colourway.

I know everyone is raving over Madtosh.  And I get it.  This is the DK, and it's like butter.  The colours are delicious.  

Except when you are trying to get a jumper's worth of matched skeins. 



Nevertheless, it's special yarn - and it doesn't come cheap, so I have been holding onto it for some time now, not only trying to find the right project (I don't believe in *perfect* anymore, just right), but also trying to find something to match the yardage I have and to work with the variegated nature of the hand-dyed yarn.  

Grace, a free pattern from Rowan, caught my eye from a user's project page of Ravelry.  I would have clicked right passed it had I just seen the pattern on the Rowan site - it's in cream, and looks a bit 80's (and not in a good way), but there was something about the user's project that made it more sophisticated and stylish.  I can see it being a great layering piece for work.

Yardage-wise, I think I have enough.  According to the pattern, I don't.  But according to everyone's project pages, I do.  So I'll either have leftovers, or be tearing my hair out shortly

After much deliberation, I decided to use the lighter skein on the band mainly because I didn't want to alternate it with one of the darker skeins and have it stripe.  I really don't like that look.  It's one of the things that actually puts me off a lot of projects I've seen using this yarn, even.

This is where I'm up to so far.  


From this photo in daylight, the mismatched skeins don't look too bad.   Depending on which light I'm looking at it though, I feel like it's really obvious and I'm going to regret it once the top is finished.  The band is quite brown/khaki and there is only very subtle turquoise flashes.  The body is almost more forest green, and the turquoise is far more vibrant.

Every time I resign myself to ripping it out, I catch sight of it in another light and think it's not too bad.  Or I ask someone's opinion and they say "it's not noticeable, leave it/it stands out, rip it".

And back and forth I go...dilemmas of the first-world kind.

So I think I'm just going to push on through.  I plan to wear this with a low-slung belt anyway, so I'm hoping that will add enough distraction too?

But you know what will really rip me?  If I get to the finish and I have about a skein left over of yarn!


8 comments:

Anna said...

The yarn does look very lovely though. And if it does work out using the lighter colour on the ribbing only then that could look very cool. If you have loads left over from that one ball could you just intersperse the odd couple of rows of it here and there rather than doing actual stripes?

rebecca said...

How irritating! What about if you striped this with a contrasting yarn: 2 or 3 rows of each, maybe mixing it up with some texture as well. The contrasting stripe would marry the different dyelots together. That is a completely different project of course! Still needing to comment outside of Bloglovin but I have discovered it is not just your blog!

kgirlknits said...

that's very true, Anna. I'm kicking myself that I didn't alternate the band color for the first pattern repeat on the body - I may do that for the front, just to blend the transition a bit better

kgirlknits said...

a contrast yarn would work really well for this issue, you're so right!
and glad it's not just me and Bloglovin!

Bells said...

it's really hard isn't it? I knitted a whole cardigan in one lot I bought in a destash and felt certain they were well matched. It's only now in photos I see the slight mismatch but really, I don't stand staring at photos of myself in the cardigan so I just accept it.

Leonie said...

Using the obviously different one in the band is a great idea because the different textures between that and the body make you think it's the patterning not the yarn. Fingers crossed for you that there is enough for all of the bands required and you don't end up short.

DrK said...

ah yes the madtosh dilemma. it may appear similar but it is probably not. im sure you've sorted this out by now, but if knit another cardigan in the lighter colours i would continually alternate. i didnt have that issue at all in a very dark blue though. its frustrating, but worth getting it right because it really is the most beautiful stuff to wear! look forward to seeing how you go.

Rose Red said...

I have to say, I'm kind of with you on the MadTosh - too much variation in the "same" colours, when you want enough for a jumper. And so hard to get! Give me Wollmeise any day!! (Of course, if someone gave me a jumpers worth of Tosh in Tart, I wouldn't say no, heh!)

I think it's a great pattern and I think your solution works really well. (Since I'm commenting so late, you've probably frogged it by now, heh!).