It's happened to us all ... we get part (or most) of the way into a project and realize we don't have enough floss to finish the darn thing.  So we get some more... but time has passed and the manufacturer has changed the color slightly, or it's just a different dye lot, and not quite the same shade as what we started with ... YIKES, what do we do now??

Now let me just say that DMC is pretty good about being consistent - except when they totally change a line of shades (like they did some time ago with one of their grey lines and a couple of blue greens), but that was apparently for reasons of "environmental regulation, that impacted the dying process" .  But so many things can affect dyeing - temperature, or slight differences in dyeing times can all cause changes, as can exposure to sun or humidity, and even the age of the floss.

So, if you HAVE to get more floss, and the colors just aren't quite the same, don't panic there are actually several things you can do ... but try to decide how you're going to proceed BEFORE you get down to that last strand, as some of the options include various ways of blending the old and new...

First of all, look at the pattern... if the separate dye lots can be stitched in areas where they don't meet, then you probably don't have to worry about it too much, you can finish the current area with the floss you have, and use the new floss for the other areas.

However, if you are going to run out of floss, and need to continue with the new skein right next to the previous one, as I mentioned above, you have some blending options.  Since most color differences are a matter of degrees, you can blend the new and the old in a way that is subtle, rather than glaring.

1.  If you're working with two strands (2X) work with one strand (1X) from EACH skein or a few rows, before moving to the new skein completely... this blends the change into the new coloring and makes it barely noticeable... this is actually a good tip for ANY change from one skein to the next, to ensure a smooth color change and avoid any possible dye lot issues.

2.  If you're working on an X's & Oh's design, and using three strands (3X), which I do quite a bit, start with 2X of the old, 1X of the new, next length 1X of the old, 2X of the new, until you get down to 3X of the new all by itself.

3.  Another option is to scatter the colors together - start out with a row of stitches, where every 4th or 5th stitch is the new color. In the next row, make it every 3rd or 4th stitch, the next row every other stitch, and so on, until you are working completely with the new color. Only try this method if the color changes are very slight, or you could end up with a checkerboard look!

If anyone has any other tips for blending dye lots, let us know! Happy stitching...