In which I remember I do achieve stuff...

It's been a funny old day. One of those days where I have been on my feet non stop, rushing from one child to another in order to try to reach their demands needs, in doing so I felt I was merely going round in frantic circles achieving nothing. I even did that annoying thing where I went to the corner shop specifically for eggs, I had the three Cuckoos with me, and I was finally feeling like I was back on track, and I forgot the bloody eggs. I'd decided to make the trip worth my while you see, so I added to my shopping list on the journey and in doing so I forgot those flipping eggs. BOTTOMS!!!!!

So lets rewind to last Thursday where I managed to bake, decorate and box up 12 cupcakes to fulfil the "Promise" I entered for the Christmas auction at Big Cuckoo's school. I did all of this after school pick up and before bedtime. Yay! Go me! Amazing what can be accomplished when the feral beasts are playing nicely and the baby naps.

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I had a question from Nicki that I thought I'd ask you lovely lot. The question was in one of the comments that blogger lost when it did it's maintenance thing last week but it's still in my email so I've pasted it in:

I wanted to ask you something about crochet... When I buy a ball of yarn am I meant to unravel it and then wind it back up again. If so, why? It sounds like bonkersness but I have a vague recollection of having read about this somewhere. Also, if I'm planning on making a super-expensive granny blanket in a few different colours do I really have to buy 32 balls of £5 yarn in one go? Lady in shop was going on about 'lot' numbers - do the colours really vary that much? I think I've seen on a previous post (your stripy blanket?) that half way through you've had to go buy more yarn... what do you do?

I really don't know the rules so I'll just say what my experience is and see what others say in agreement/disagreement. I think lot numbers are important when it's an item in one colour or when it's a hand dyed yarn. I think most bulk dyed stuff is usually ok. At least that's what I found when I did the Bobble Blanket, the Patons Gold yarn I used had totally different lot numbers but the new balls matched the old ones perfectly. I wouldn't risk it with a yarn like Noro.

I did the "Buy as I Go" thing with my Granny blanket and halfway through I couldn't get the exact purple Rowan DK so I bought a similar purple 4 ply by Rowan. Even though they were slightly different colours and slightly different thicknesses it didn't matter. I'd never mix different types of wool though. No acrylic in with wool in with cotton...as they all wash up differently and could cause the item to go all wonky.

As for re rolling a ball I have done this in the past for two reasons. Firstly because a round ball will sit nicely in a dish and unroll smoothly and not skitter about when I pull the yarn and they don't tangle up when you near the end of the ball. Secondly, and most importantly they look pretty as balls ;oD!!!! But I think that rolling the bitchy splitty Rico Creative Cotton into a ball made it bitchy splitty, it was just splitty when I left it as it was (which I found out on the edge of The Nemisis blanket. Silly me).

Anyone out there know the proper answers for Nicki?