Purchase sufficient yarn...

...as dyelots may vary.
You said it, sister!

A couple of years ago I bought three balls of the SWTC Oasis 100% Soysilk in HK Handknit Edinburgh as I fell in love with the colour.
I thought at the time it would make a nice Clapotis. Actually I still do, but don't laugh, at the time I thought Clapotis was too hard and I couldn't get my head round the pattern. (Thanks to Ravelry I now think Clapotis is a cake walk.)

Fast forward one year and Get Knitted are having a big sale on SWTC Oasis 100% Soysilk.
I say to myself, it's not going to become a Clapotis so I'll buy some more and then I'll have enough for a summer top. Now obviously I know that there will be subtle variations in the shade due to different dyelots of the same colour NAPA VALLEY.
So I receive my 8 balls of it in cheapy looking ball bands and feel a kind of disappointment with a vague feeling that the 3 balls I have in my stash (right down at the bottom, inaccessible) are much nicer. I think my memory is playing tricks with me, and try to shake off the feeling that if I had seen this batch in a shop I'd have walked on by.

So now we're up to the present time and I'm ready to make myself a summer top. I haul out the original lot and it is a DOZEN TIMES NICER than the second batch! My lingering sense of disappointment was right. The second batch (left)goes like this PURPLE>OLIVE>PURPLE>GOLD.
The first batch goes like this PURPLE>LILAC>GOLD>WHEAT>PEPPERMINT>OLIVE. The colour transition is much more subtle in my original balls and overall lighter and fresher.
Can you see the difference in the photos?
And in the first batch the yarn is about 1/2mm thinner, which may seem nothing, but in my massive 12 stitch swatches for your delectation, version one on the right is 1 1/2 stitches narrower.
Needless to say I'll work with more than one ball at once. Boo hoo, I wish they were all like batch one on the right. I thought I was safe enough because I'd seen the yarn IRL.
Take heed of my salutory tale!
x K