At 29.25 hours of work on the Prairie Rug, a major problem came to light with this project. You can clearly see the two different colors of green/grey in this photo. I didn’t notice this until photographing the rug tonight since the colors look relatively close in person, but the camera really picked up the difference.
I am using a different brand of floss – Sullivans – for this rug because the store I went to did not carry DMC. I’ve always used DMC and have never had a problem. Of course, I’ve never done large swaths of color in DMC to make a fair comparison, but Sullivans clearly has shifts in dye lots. There’s no indicator of dye lot on the Sullivans tags as there is on DMC tags. I photographed the three skeins I have left on the rug, and they match the grey. I’m just glad this wasn’t a huge investment of time. It’s still frustrating and disappointing. :\
I contacted Sullivans, and they were very apologetic about the dye lot problem. They said they’ve never had this happen before. They sent a photo of their stock 45118, and I told them that looked like the color I bought. I requested four skeins, but they generously sent me a full boxed dozen. Unfortunately, these match the latest grey. I must have bought some old stock along with the newer stock that is now produced. Just to be clear, to the naked eye, they all look like sage green; it’s the camera that picks up the difference in color.
I have to say I was pleased with the quick reply from Sullivans and their willingness to help resolve the issue. No matter what brand I buy in the future, if I am going to have large expanses of one color in a project, I will shop with my camera to make sure they all match one another.
