orange in my blue

I received an explanation for the bad yarn I got - the navy with the orange bits. Thought I'd share.

Thank you for your recent inquiry about the reason you may sometimes find a different color fiber in a yarn.  Occasionally, two different colors may be processed in the same spinning room at the same time.  Fiber from one machine can be accidentally blown into another (for example, if a door is opened at the wrong time).  Because the manufacture of yarn is so highly automated, the wrong color can be spun into the yarn and transferred on to the finishing process without being seen.  Unless the color migration can be seen on the outside of the skein, there is no way to know that the situation has occurred.  And, even at that, occasionally a skein will be missed due to the high volume of product processed and finished in a single day. 

So now you know. Basically it is caused by the fact that everything is automated and they are putting out more yarn cause we eager beavers are using it up so fast. So I'm going to extrapolate and say it's our fault, folks. Heheheh

One would think at least this particular problem might be solved by working on only one color at a time. I guess that is not practical. I've never been to a factory where they wind these. Would be interesting to see how it's done. The address on the Coats and Clark web site is in South Carolina. If you live there, maybe they'd give you a tour? If anyone does that, do holler out and post pics. :-)

[Edit: I wanted to add here that they DID send a snail mail follow up on this problem and indicated they would be sending replacement yarn. So kudos to Coats and Clark for taking care of this in such a speedy manner. Also thanks to CrochetBlogger for sending the link to Vickie Howell's tour of the Caron plant. I would think the Coats and Clark would be similar. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kz-H4yFZd2E ]

Happy crocheting!
Sandie