I finished my first scarf from the book: Backyard Leaves. I love the pattern but I'm very disappointed in my scarf. Please listen to my saga... I guess I'm looking for consolation.
Since the scarf pattern looked to be a fair amount of concentration and time I decided to splurge and purchase a more expensive yarn for it. I bought 250 yards of cashmere on Ebay for $40 plus shipping. Although this was one Ebay item, the yarn came wound in two 125 yard balls. The Ebay seller was someone who hand dyes/hand paints yarn. The yarn looked fine to me so I started the first scarf-half. I finished my first ball with about 4 more inches to knit on the scarf-half so I started using the second ball and noticed a slight color difference - like a different dye lot. I thought to myself I really didn't like a different dye lot sold to me in one Ebay purchase but the colors are very close and only a knitter who is scrutinizing this scarf closely will ever notice the change so I kept on knitting and finished the half.
Now the yarn was shipped to me without any gauge or washing instructions so I e-mailed the Ebay seller and asked about washing. The seller responded that I could hand wash with mild shampoo, rinse with hair conditioner or dry clean.
I noticed that as I was knitting this scarf-half that some of the dye was coming off the yarn and on to my hands so I started to suspect this yarn wasn't very color fast. I didn't want to block the scarf-half , spray it with water and have green dye run all over my ironing board so I decided to hand wash the scarf half with cold water and Woolite, rinse it out, dry it flat until barely damp and then block it. This is where my problem with the yarn really showed up. The last part of the scarf- half that was knitted with the second ball changed color from the washing much more than the rest of the scarf-half. Now I have a scarf-half that looks like I knit it from two different shades of yarn. The color change between the parts of the scarf is impossible not to notice. The second scarf-half has the same problem.
So has this ever happened to you before? Does hand painted yarn always handle hand washing differently from skein to skein? Should I have never hand washed a hand-dyed/painted yarn?
Next time I ever purchase yarn from EBay I will scrutinize each ball . If there are any differences in color (like a dye lot change) I will seriously consider sending it back. But meanwhile I have a scarf that represents time and money but looks terrible.
I am using Bloggerbot to post this which doesn't seem to have a way to post a picture so I'm going to post this text and then try to use Hello to post a photo of my poor scarf.
Since the scarf pattern looked to be a fair amount of concentration and time I decided to splurge and purchase a more expensive yarn for it. I bought 250 yards of cashmere on Ebay for $40 plus shipping. Although this was one Ebay item, the yarn came wound in two 125 yard balls. The Ebay seller was someone who hand dyes/hand paints yarn. The yarn looked fine to me so I started the first scarf-half. I finished my first ball with about 4 more inches to knit on the scarf-half so I started using the second ball and noticed a slight color difference - like a different dye lot. I thought to myself I really didn't like a different dye lot sold to me in one Ebay purchase but the colors are very close and only a knitter who is scrutinizing this scarf closely will ever notice the change so I kept on knitting and finished the half.
Now the yarn was shipped to me without any gauge or washing instructions so I e-mailed the Ebay seller and asked about washing. The seller responded that I could hand wash with mild shampoo, rinse with hair conditioner or dry clean.
I noticed that as I was knitting this scarf-half that some of the dye was coming off the yarn and on to my hands so I started to suspect this yarn wasn't very color fast. I didn't want to block the scarf-half , spray it with water and have green dye run all over my ironing board so I decided to hand wash the scarf half with cold water and Woolite, rinse it out, dry it flat until barely damp and then block it. This is where my problem with the yarn really showed up. The last part of the scarf- half that was knitted with the second ball changed color from the washing much more than the rest of the scarf-half. Now I have a scarf-half that looks like I knit it from two different shades of yarn. The color change between the parts of the scarf is impossible not to notice. The second scarf-half has the same problem.
So has this ever happened to you before? Does hand painted yarn always handle hand washing differently from skein to skein? Should I have never hand washed a hand-dyed/painted yarn?
Next time I ever purchase yarn from EBay I will scrutinize each ball . If there are any differences in color (like a dye lot change) I will seriously consider sending it back. But meanwhile I have a scarf that represents time and money but looks terrible.
I am using Bloggerbot to post this which doesn't seem to have a way to post a picture so I'm going to post this text and then try to use Hello to post a photo of my poor scarf.
Labels: Backyard Leaves
3 Comments:
At 4:11 PM,
superstahr said…
Hello,
I'm not a member of this knit along but I was wandering by and noticed your post. I also hand dye my own yarn and roving for spinning and it is really unacceptable for someone to sell you yarn that has dye falling out of it as you knit and that rinses to another color after blocking/washing. The seller obviously did not rinse her yarn well after dyeing and may not have used enough acid (or too much) in her dye solution to set the colors. I would email her and ask for a discount or some other form of compensation. You can sometimes expect that hand dyed yarn will not be as color fast as yarn that is produced by large companies, but the fact that you were seeing the dye come off the yarn before you even wet it is very bad. Sorry that you had a bad experience with hand dyed yarn but this is not something that is common to this process, nor is it something you should expect in the future :(
-Stacey
www.staceysstash.blogspot.com
At 1:02 AM,
CynCyn said…
oh. wow. that's so disappointing!! makes you want to say "@)#($*(W#%&*(W$%&(*W$&%(*W$Q)(#!!!" As a fellow backyard leaves knitter, I fully sympathize with the frustration you must be feeling. Is there any way to contact the Ebay seller? And if she refused to compensate you, you should see if you can retract your feedback or whatnot...
At 2:15 AM,
Chrissie said…
Oh dear,
I really feel for you (and am now slightly scared too). I just finished a scarf for my husband's birthday present for tomorrow, which had to take precedence over the Scarf Style knitalong, and I used handpainted cashmere from ebay that came as two skeins. I have not washed or blocked it yet, and am now afraid too ... may I know the ebay seller you bought it from in case it's the same seller?
Post a Comment
<< Home