why did my yarn do this? pics

[jessanddanny]

I just finished these for Seth and the yarn did some FUNKY patterning...anything I can do next time to make it more even? It turned out in 4 distinct DIFFERENT patterns. The ribbing was a diagonal striping, the body was in "blocks" and one leg was a diagonal chunky design and the other (as you can see) is a blocky skunk thing. I'm calling them my patchwork pants since they turned out so bizarre...any ideas?
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v97/jessanddanny/patchworkpants.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v97/jessanddanny/patchworkpants2.jpg

[bluehalo]

wow, I have no idea of the how or why ... but I really like the left leg w/ the diagonal stripes ;) Cool!

[pmcgary]

There are a couple of things that affect the patterning....first the gauge for the waist/ribbing and the body will be different thus affecting how the yarn is used.

The legs will be different from the body b/c you are going a shorter distance around--- so the repeats of the colors are different.

As to why the legs turned out differently- well there are a couple of possibilities....
One may have been started at a different point in the color sequencing...
Or quite possibly the legs were knit with the color sequencing in the opposite direction.....say if you had a skein and knit one leg from the beginning to the middle and one from the end to the middle. (This can happen if you wind balls and forget which end is which.) If this is confusing....say your pattern is W - R- B and you do the second leg from the skein "backwards" it would be B - R- W ---- I would think that if this were what happened you would get a noticable difference fast! (The stuff I screwed up this way has always been pretty obvious that something wasn't quite right.)

Sometimes I think the yarn just does funny patterning.....I know sometimes my "runs" of color are not exactly the same length throughout an entire skein..... And that will affect the patterning too.

I would bet there are some other possibilities out there too. And honestly I think sometimes no matter what you do "weird" stuff happens.

[CraftyMommaOf2]

If you do shorter sections when you dye that can help to cut down on pooling. IME, of course. ;)

[JustLookin]

I think they are beautiful :pink But I might be one of those weird people who look at the way yarn knits up as ART... My very first pair I made had the strangest pooling of stripes and so did this last pair I made...

Id definitely say that to keep the legs in about the same patterning before you start the second one find the place in your yarn thats just like the place you started with for the other leg and it should help cut down... I really like them though!

[jessanddanny]

Thanks, everyone! I DO think they turned out pretty cool, but, I was just really curious as to why they turned out this way. It makes sense about the needle-size and stuff. I tried to start the legs in the same spot in the yarn, but, I must have been "off" just a smidge. It sure was fun, though! I have some yarn from cass at HSY that I ordered and can't wait to get and use! Thanks for your happy words, everyone!

[meco]

I think they lookg ood!!

I usually do 3 big blocks, and it stripes on the body and stripes a lot more narrow on the legs.

When I do 6 even blocks of color, they tend to be more diagonal stripes. I never usually use for than 3 colors a one :D

But I like em!! :pink