A reader of the By Hand column e-mailed recently that she has had a problem with Red Heart yarn.

“I began to notice that some skeins of the ‘no dye lot’ variety of the yarn were not the same color. I wrote to the company, and this is what they said: ‘We started receiving predyed fiber from a new fiber supplier. In a few cases, the color has been slightly altered. Unfortunately, it does take time for inventory to work through the distribution system and store shelves. You may need to take precautions by matching the production dates stamped on the skein bands in order to avoid problems with matching color.'”

This reader said that she started making an afghan in four shades of green and when it was one-third done, she noticed that her newly purchased yarn didn’t match.

She wrote that readers should be warned not to start a project with old yarn from their bins without first checking to see if newly purchased yarn matches the old.

And, of course, when beginning any project, it is always advisable to buy all the yarn needed to ensure that the dye lots are consistent.