When you start knitting, you’ll hear a lot of people tell you to “check your dye lot”, but what is a dye lot?
A dye lot is the batch that the wool has been dyed in. So, you may have 2 balls of the same shade number, but if they’re dyed at different times they could be slightly different.
It’s important when you need more than one ball of wool to knit a garment, that you check the ‘Lot’ or ‘Dye’ number on the ball band to ensure that all of your balls have been dyed at the same time. A bit like when you buy wallpaper, you have to make sure that you buy all of the same batch so that the colour doesn’t change partway through your work.
You can find the dye lot on your ball band, usually next to where it says the shade number. See the picture below for an example:
For example, on this ball of wool, the shade number is 977. Whenever the manufacturer makes shade 977, it will always be made to the specification of Signal Red. The ‘Lot’ number is the batch number so this can vary how the shade looks exactly.
