I told you last week about my disappointment with the terrible colour run in Ben’s Brooklyn jumper, made with Rowan Denim in black & cream. After several hot washes and an eggcup of bleach (eeek!!) I said I’d be writing to Rowan..

Read the previous post here… Where to start with knittie stuff

I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised with Rowan’s response to me, even if their excuse was pretty shakey.

Rowan apologised for the outcome and offered to send me the yarn to complete a project of my choosing from a Rowan publication. I thought this was pretty generous, especially as they hadn’t even seen my jumper! (**thinks** maybe they look at this blog??) A couple of people thought I should have asked for cash but I thought “what will I do with a bundle of cash?” – buy yarn of course!
I resisted the temptation to find the biggest, most expensive thing in my extensive collection of Rowan books…how much Kidsilk Haze does that ball gown take?…So I plumped for something I have always wanted to make but been put off by the huge amount of yarn …Patrick from the original Denim book by Kim Hargreaves.

It was more yarn than I’d used in Ben’s original Brooklyn but I thought that made up for my knitting time. Rowan even sent the yarn to me special delivery so I had it the next day – Thanks Rowan!

Rowan said that the pattern book I’d used was published after Black Denim was discontinued so they had been “unaware of the effects of washing black and cream together”. However, they were aware of black enough to mention it in the info page of Denim People, along with the darkest blue (Nashville), for colour transference during knitting.

I also found another knitter (much more angry than me!) who’d had the same issue using Nashville and cream, and knitters who’d had issues with a multi-coloured throw (which had turned out OK after a few washes…) – so it’s not just the black!

I strongly think that there should have been a warning in the info pages that mixed colour designs will experience colour run if substituted with darker colours. My common sense had said there might be a problem but I double checked with my local Rowan rep who said she’d never heard of a problem and I’d trusted the pictures in the book – all bright clean cream on blue….

I’ve since noticed that all the pictures in the books of multi denim patterns are with the lightest blue denim…significant huh?

I would have expected a problem if I’d used a different yarn but a different colour within the same yarn – we all do that don’t we?

Lessons to learn from this

1. Listen to your common sense – even if the picture say it’ll work.
2. Listen to your knitting pals when they say “ohhh, but aren’t you worried the colour will run? Janey – you have more sense than me!
3. If you do have a problem – contact Rowan and be nice – they’ll try and do the right thing.