What do you do when . . .

You get something all knitted up, finished, and start blocking it and then discover that the black yarn you used, all the same yarn from the same company was apparently from different dye lots? Last week, I finished the Diamond Fantasy Shawl by Sivia Harding. It's gorgeous! Of course, being black and having been knit mostly at night after the kids were asleep, I wasn't even thinking about there being the possibility of the last 2 inches being a more bluish black than the more brownish black that the rest of the shawl is. You can almost notice it in the photo, but you can definitely see it in person in full sunlight or under fluorescent lighting.

Disheartening, to say the least. I had planned this as a gift, but now, unless someone can tell me an easy way to overdye this so the black color evens out, I may have to just keep it for myself and go to Plan B for the gift. Draped in the right way, and particularly in less than full sunlight, the color difference isn't apparent, but still, I don't feel I can gift someone with less than perfection. Are any of you that way?

I finished some other projects since my last blog entry, and started some others. I got more bags done for Crystal Palace, but haven't got hardware, etc. installed yet. So I need to do that, photo them, and then get the patterns written up and the whole shebang mailed out. I have one more bag to knit and felt for them, which is an alternate colorway of one of the just completed ones.

I designed some Golf Club Covers for my father-in-law. They turned out well. I used 2 strands of some leftover Lion Brand Wool. And then as I was looking them over, discovered on the 5-wood cover, a purl in the ribbing where there should have been a knit. He won't care, probably won't even notice, and if he did wouldn't think anything about it, but I know. Dang, dang, dang! The most maddening part about these recent knitting boo-boos is that I don't usually do stuff like that. This must be a sign of having too much going on all at once, which is certainly the case around here these days.

Another project I got underway is the Moonlight Sonata Shawl by Shui Kuen Kozinski which I downloaded from Elann. This is going well in Briar Rose Sea Pearl. What a treat this yarn is -- merino and tencel. Gorgeous hand, lovely color, and great to knit up. Here's a photo of the work in progress. I've worked through three more pattern repeats since that photo, and have 5 more to go, for a total of 10 in all, unless I decide to make it longer.

I'm getting that itchy urge to cast on a pair of socks. I'm thinking about doing one of Gigi Silva's designs, either the Carolina, Last Queen of Naples or the Kaylee. Anyone made either of these? What do you think? And I'm also wanting to cast on for Amy Singer's Montego Bay Scarf from the Summer 2007 Interweave Knits.

Decisions, decisions, decisions! And much procrastination about finishing up those handbags!