Sweater Progress!

I’m making progress on the Central Park (Non) Hoodie! I’ve completed the back, both fronts, and one sleeve. The second sleeve is on the needles, just past the cuff and at the start of the main cable section.

Here are all of the pieces, displayed on our dining room table. While they may look a bit narrow, but that’s because the stockinette is curling under on the sides. Once it is seamed together, this won’t be an issue.

Yes, those are my toes. This photo served double duty as one of my 365 SP shots.

Here’s where the crazy talk starts.:

Please look carefully at the two front pieces in the lower right portion of the photo. These were knit with two different balls of the hand-dyed Dream in Color yarn. I think that the fact that the one ball of yarn that I knit the far right portion of the sweater is just a bit different in color than all of the other pieces is driving me a little crazy. The colors just aren’t as rich, and it doesn’t have the darker bit that I love, love, love in the other pieces.

I’m thinking of seeing how much yarn I have left when I finish the second sleeve, and – again, CRAZY TALK – reknitting the one piece that is just a little off, color-wise. I’m only considering not doing that because I really, really want to make my October 17th deadline and wear this at the Fiber festival. But since I’m going to be wearing this sweater for years after that (hopefully) I think that it would just drive me bonkers if I don’t. I would just keep noticing it, and then I would never wear the sweater, and that’s a shame because this sweater? Is going to be AWESOME.

For what it’s worth, I used the same yarn at the top of the back of the sweater. And that bit isn’t bothering me so much. I think because I will never have to look at it. I guess I’m only bothered by this if I can see it, and don’t really care if the rest of the world notices that the shoulders on my sweater are knit in a slightly different color than the rest of it.

What can I say, I’m nothing if not inconsistent.

And to the more experienced knitters who are no doubt going to mention this – yes. Yes, I know. I understand that hand-dyed yarns do have variations from hank to hank, skein to skein, and the best way to avoid these types of issues is to knit with two skeins of yarn at a time, alternating every other row between the two to avoid pooling and major color differentiations. Next time, I might do that.  But most likely, I won’t. Beause as crazy-making as these different colors are making me, I think trying to juggle two skeins of yarn at the same time while knitting would be even crazier-making for me.

But then again, I’m contemplating reknitting an entire portion of this sweater, so maybe crazier-making is just what the doctor ordered.