Knitting Olympics

Since completing the Purple Socks last weekend, I have not yet cast on another pair---which is unusual. I'm not sure why I haven't been motivated to do so, since the next pair, which are for my younger sister, are my entry in the "Sock Hockey" event for the Ravelympics.

For those of you who have not, perhaps, heard of Ravelry, it is like Facebook for knitters and crocheters. The Ravelympics is a knitting Olympics, in which you are supposed to challenge yourself, the same way the athletes do when they compete.

In addition to my "Sock Hockey" entry, I have three entries in the "WIPs Dancing" event. (A WIP is a work-in-progress.) My first entry is a sweater-tunic for my oldest grandniece, which I started in November. The front and back of the sweater are finished. I knit the shoulders together early in January, but have not been motivated to knit the sleeves and neckband. (I also haven't had much time to knit the past month, but that's another story.)

Instead of starting the next pair of socks, or finishing my grandniece's sweater-tunic, I have been knitting one of Elizabeth Zimmerman's Adult Surprise Jackets.  (I'm actually knitting two of them at the same time---both entries in the "WIPs Dancing" event---but can't do any more on the other one until I get to my LYS (local yarn store) to pick up the buttons I ordered a month ago.) The Adult Surprise Jacket I have been knitting is coming along slowly but surely. It is knit with Dreamy in Color Classy in the Dusky Aurora colorway.

I love Dream in Color yarn, both the Classy, which is worsted weight, and the Smooshy, which is fingering weight (and, thus, great for socks). But Dream in Color yarn, which is hand-dyed, does not have dye lots, so if you order it online (as I did), you don't know what you're going to get until you get it. As you can see from the photo, what I got was three skeins that were quite dark in color, and several that were lighter. And being the kind of person who likes everything to be just so, I don't like the obvious change in color. It isn't quite as drastic as in photo, but it is very noticeable. Since since I do most of my knitting at night, in artificial light, I didn't notice how much lighter that fourth skein was until about a week later, when I was nearly finished knitting that skein. The remaining skeins of yarn range in color, too, and while none are quite as light as the problem skein, there are a couple of lighter ones. I started skein five and have kept on knitting, but...


Should I put all the light skeins together so that it looks like I planned the color change? Should I try to spread them throughout the jacket? What do you think?


Susannah