Today I thought we could talk about the different types of variegated yarn, how to identify them, and what types of stitches work best for each one.

Let’s start by defining our terms. Technically, variegated yarn just means any yarn with multiple colors. This is where things get tricky though because different dye methods produce very different types of variegated yarn. The types of variegated yarn we’ll talk about include…

• Block Variegated
• Splashed and Speckled
• Assigned Pooling
• Ikat

I’d like to show you some examples of each type and then talk about the types of stitches that work best for each one. I also want to help you recognize the different types when you see them so you can choose the best kind of yarn for your project or the best project for the yarn you already have.

Of note, the names above are the ones I use. As far as I know there’s no universal terminology for this, so you’ll find that different indie dyers use different names for these. We’ll talk about that some too.

Block Variegated Colorways

Block Variegated colorways are dyed in blocks of color. Block Variegated colorways need a little extra planning to make sure you get a finished object that you love.

The term Block Variegated Colorways is one I came up with, but these are probably the most common type of indie-dyed yarn, and they are easy to spot so long as the dyer has not re-skeined the yarn.

Let’s look at an example. This is Purple Iris dyed on Dream Fingering:

You can see the four distinct sections of color in the skein. If we open it up, you can see it even better:

When you knit in plain stockinette with a block variegated colorway like this, you get lines of color like this:

The photo above is a closeup from a hat I made using Purple Iris on Squoosh DK. If I were to knit something wider like a shawl as opposed to a hat, I’d get single lines instead of double lines like you see some of the time here. If I were to make socks with this colorway, I’d probably get 3 or 4 lines of each color at at time. That color stacking or pooling can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on your goals. That is what makes it so useful to know what you’re looking and plan your project accordingly.

Block Variegated colorways are great for planned pooling projects like this one:

This is the DaVinci Cowl by Mary-Ann Lammers that I made a few months back with Purple Iris on Buttery Soft DK.

You don’t always have to plan, though. Sometimes you can have unplanned pooling, and it turns out great. If you are making a small project like socks, a hat, cowl, or scarf, it can be a lot of fun to just let the yarn do its thing and see what happens. On the other hand, if you are making a larger project, it’s a good idea to plan a little more because the color pooling can make the project look blotchy. We’ll talk about how to avoid color pooling in a minute here. First, though, let’s talk about how to recognize Block Variegated colorways.

Most indie-dyers avoid re-skeining their yarn so you can see what you’ve got. In that case, it’s easy to identify a Block Variegated colorway because each color block is in one section of the hank.

Most commercial dyers, however, do re-skein their yarn, which makes it harder to tell what type of variegated yarn you’re looking at. That means you’ll have to look a little deeper to see if the yarn you have is a Block Variegated colorway.

If you aren’t sure, you can take a couple yards of the skein and lay them out like this:

In the sample above, you can see how the colors repeat in the same order over and over again. That’s a good indicator that you’re looking at a Block Variegated colorway even if it has been re-skeined.

How the Number of Colors Effects Pooling

One of the things that makes a big difference in whether a Block Variegated colorway is likely to pool is how many blocks of color there are. The more different blocks of color you have, the shorter each color section will be, and the less likely the colors are to pool or stack. The opposite is true as well. The fewer colors there are and the longer each color section is, the more likely the colors are to pool or stack.

Let me show you what I mean. Here are a few knit samples made with block variegated colorways. All of the photos come from small samples that I knit. Let’s go from a colorway with many different color blocks down to a colorway with just a few so you can see the difference that makes.

The first colorway is Bouquet, which has 8 blocks of color, so each section of color is just 2 to 3 inches long when it’s dyed. Here it is dyed on Squoosh DK:

As you can see from the knit sample below, each color creates between 3 and 5 stitches before moving onto the next color section. That means the color changes happen often enough and there are so many different colors that you’re not very likely to have one color right on top of the same color for multiple rows.

This next colorway is Penelope from my Odyssey collection. I dyed it using 6 color blocks of 4-5 inches each, so there are fewer colors, and each color block is a little longer than in Bouquet above. Here is Penelope in the skein:

In the sample below, you can see that there are between 5 and 12 stitches in a given color before it changes, which means there is a greater chance of pooling with Penelope than there was with Bouquet.

Since the color changes are more subtle (copper to gold, gold to pink, blue to teal), and it has more analogous colors overall, the effect will be somewhat subtle if it does pool.

This last one is Planet Earth, shown on Buttery Soft DK. It has just 3 long blocks of color with 2 very short block in between. Here it is as a skein:

I dyed this colorway with deep blue on both ends. After that comes a short bit of beige followed by several shades of green in the center. Each color block has some color variation within it, but the three long blocks of blue, green, and blue predominate.

Here’s a sample I knit on Squoosh DK:

If you look closely at the sample above, you can see squares of blue stacked on top of each other for several rows, so even from this small sample, you can see that it is likely to pool in stockinette.

I also made a crochet sample of Planet Earth yesterday, and here you can see the pooling even more:

Look especially at the blocks of green and blue at the bottom. In my opinion, it looks pretty cool. I think the reason Planet Earth looks great in spite of the color pooling is because green and blue are analogous colors. That means they are next to each other on a color wheel.

Tips to Avoid Pooling for Knitting with Block Variegated Yarn

If you have a Block Variegated colorway and you want to avoid pooling, here are a some suggestions for knitters:

1. Avoid using just stockinette or garter stitch. Instead, look for (or create) a pattern that uses a variety of different stitches. This will help the colors shift around and avoid pooling.
2. Use a stitch like linen stitch or moss stitch. Again, their complexity will make the colors move around more.
3. Make a wider project. Wider projects are less likely to have stacked color sections.
4. Knit on the bias. If you make a project that works up at an angle like a corner-to-corner blanket, the pooling won’t be as noticeable.
5. Hold a skein of Suri Lace Cloud or mohair yarn double with your block variegated colorway. This won’t prevent pooling, but it will soften the effect.
6. Choose colorways with lots of shorter blocks of color rather than just a few long blocks of color. This will significantly decrease the chances of pooling.

Tips to Avoid Pooling for Crochet with Block Variegated Yarn

I have only been crocheting for a short time, so I’m no expert. However, I think the same basic principles hold true. The more you vary your stitches or the more complex stitches you use, the better for avoiding pooling. Avoid doing single crochets all the time. You might have some success by simply alternating between rows with single crochet, half-double crochet, and double crochet, but more complex stitches will help.

Splashed and Speckled Colorways

The next type of variegated colorway I’d like to talk about is what I call Splashed and Speckled colorways. Other indie dyers have different names for this, but the word “splash” is pretty common in the different names. Splashed and Speckled colorways can be identified as much by what they don’t have as what they do. Splashed and Speckled colorways…

• Don’t have blocks of color or a repeating pattern of colors
• Don’t make horizontal stripes when you knit or crochet with them the way Block Variegated colorways do
• Don’t have the distinctive look of assigned pooling colorways (more below)
• Don’t have the distinctive look of Ikat colorways (more below)
• Do have multiple colors in random orders

The great things about Splashed and Speckled colorways is that they are not likely to pool. Compared with Block Variegated colorways, the colors shift more dynamically without creating any sort of horizontal striping. They can be dyed with a few colors or with many. I usually prefer to use Splashed and Speckled colorways for larger projects like shawls, ponchos, and sweaters.

Also, Splashed and Speckled colorways without a lot of contrast work well for lacy patterns just like semi-solid and tonal colorways do.

I’ll show you a few examples so you can see what I mean.

The first one is Kristin Lavransdatter, which has a background of lilac with splashes and speckles of magenta, peach, purple, and berry. Here it is on So Silky Fingering:

Here is a sample I knit, also on So Silky Fingering:

You can see one or two stitches of the darker colors on the lilac background. Since this is a fairly low-contrast yarn, Kristin Lavransdatter would show off a lacy pattern very nicely.

This next one is Beautiful Galaxy, which has nine different dye colors, but the colors change depending on what they are next to, so really there are many more than nine colors. Here’s a skein of it on Sock Perfection:

Here’s a sample I made on Squoosh DK:

Here again, even though there are so many different colors, there’s no pooling going on. The splashes of color are too narrow to have a lot of the same color in any one area row after row. With high-contrast colorways like these, I recommend using simpler stitches or stitch combinations and allow the colors to take center stage. Otherwise the colors and the pattern will compete for attention.

This next colorway is Visit to Lyme. I dyed this using five different colors, including the white background. Here it is on Squoosh DK:

Here is a knit sample of Visit to Lyme:

In terms of color contrast, Visit to Lyme is somewhere in between the more homogeneous Kristin Lavransdatter and the very colorful Beautiful Galaxy. A little more of a complex pattern will work here without completing with the colors.

In all three cases, you can see that there’s no pattern or striping or pooling going on with the Splashed and Speckled colorways. Instead, the colors shift and move around. This gives you the freedom as a knitter or crocheter to use any stitch you like without having to worry about unwanted color pooling or stacking.

Assigned Pooling Colorways

Another type of variegated yarn is yarn dyed for assigned pooling. These are colorways where about three quarters of the yarn is dyed in one color or combination of colors and the remaining quarter of the skein is dyed in a contrasting color or color combination.

I’ve talked a lot about the joys of assigned pooling and using these colorways with patterns made for them, but what if you have an assigned pooling colorway and want to use it to knit or crochet “normally”? You absolutely can! Just treat it like a Block Variegated colorway. Van Gogh’s Starry Night makes a good example. Here it is as a skein on Squoosh DK:

In this case, there’s the one big block of yellow, and the rest of the skein could be considered a Splashed and Speckled colorway with variations of blues and greens and a little bit of brown. If you knit it in stockinette, you’ll get something like this:

Will it pool? There’s a good chance you’ll get pools of yellow over a larger area.

Another example of an assigned pooling colorway is Peacock Feathers. Here it is on Twinkle Fingering:

…and here is a hat I knit in plain stockinette on Squoosh DK:

Though it’s not really apparent with this hat, I think it’s safe to say that with Peacock Feathers, the big blocks of blues and greens have a good chance of pooling, but in this case, it could look really great. In fact, here’s a project my lovely customer Anne made using Peacock Feathers, and you can see how awesome the pooling looks:

Ikat Colorways

The last type of variegated colorway is what I call Ikat colorways. These were originally made in the Orient to create amazing effects in weaving. They are made by using a resist to keep dye from penetrating in a particular area. Sometimes that area remains undyed, while other times the resist is removed and then that area is dyed separately.

I don’t see this colorway type all that often, but I really love how they turn out! I currently have two Ikat colorways available. They are Black Butterfly and Texas Bluebonnet.

Here’s Black Butterfly on Twinkle Fingering:

As you can see, there are very short sections of color on a black background. Here’s a pair of darling socks that Holly made with Black Butterfly:

Here’s the other Ikat colorway, Texas Bluebonnet, on Squoosh DK:

Here’s how it looks knit up:

For both of these colorways, there’s just one or two stitches of a given color at a time, so you don’t have to worry about it pooling.

On the other hand, you can get some pretty cool effects. One of my lovely customers, Cindy, shared these socks that she knit using Texas Bluebonnet, and they have this diagonal stripe:

I also crocheted a baby hat using this colorway, and in this one the Ikat colors serendipitously bunched together, creating a neat effect:

To summarize…

• You can use Splashed and Speckled colorways and Ikat colorways without worrying about accidental pooling.
• Splashed and Speckled colorways without a lot of contrast will work well for showing off lovely lace and complex stitch combination–almost as well as semi-solid and tonal colorways.
• Splashed and Speckled colorways with a lot of contrast are better suited to simpler stitch combinations because complex stitches will get lost in the colorway. I suggest making the colorway itself the focus.
• You can figure out if the colorway you have is a Block Variegated colorway by pulling out a yard or two and looking for a repeating pattern.
• When knitting, you can tell if you are working with a Block Variegated colorway if it has horizontal striping.
• Block Variegated colorways can be fantastic for planned pooling, especially those with 3 to 5 color blocks.
• Block Variegated colorways with fewer and longer color blocks are likely to pool while Block Variegated colorways with more and shorter color blocks are less likely to pool.
• You can avoid or reduce pooling with Block Variegated colorways by using more complex stitch combinations and/or varying your stitches.
• Assigned Pooling colorways can be used for regular knitting and crocheting, but it’s best to treat them like Block Variegated colorways.

I know that’s a lot of information, but I hope it helps you look at variegated yarn in a new way. I hope it will help you the next time you are buying yarn for a project or planning a project around yarn you already have.

I’d love to hear from you. What type or types of variegated yarn do you enjoy using? What positive or negative experiences have you had and how did you deal with them or learn from them?

If you are a knitter and want to go deeper into this topic, I highly recommend Lorna Miser’s book, The Knitter’s Guide to Hand-Dyed and Variegated Yarn. She has lots of tips and tricks, helpful photos, and patterns for making the most of Block Variegated yarn.

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Fresh from the Dye Pots

This week I dyed up lots of Starry Night. I have it on Sock Perfection, Twinkle Fingering, Squoosh DK, and Squoosh Worsted.

You can see them all in my shop right here.

As I showed you above, it looks great knit or crocheted “normally,” but it really shines when you take advantage of an assigned pooling pattern like Dawn Barker’s Float Shawl:

If you crochet, you can follow Kimberly’s example. She made her own triangular shawl pattern using the bobble stitch for the assigned pooling section of the yarn:

She shared this with me in a Show and Tell newsletter a couple years ago. You can see how she made it on her wonderful YouTube channel, Knit for Brains, right here.

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August Club Colorway

Last month we stepped out of the chronological order of art history to celebrate America’s 250th birthday with Moran’s Washington at Home. Now we’re back to the “regularly scheduled program” for those of you who are old enough to remember hearing that on TV.

For this month’s club colorway we’re heading to Spain for Goya’s Summer. This Romantic-era painting is also known as The Harvest. One really interesting thing about Goya is how varied his subjects are. Some of his paintings feature the nobility while others, like this one, feature the agrarian life of peasants:

He painted this around 1786.

I think that’s everything for this week. Stay cool! See you next Friday.