Six Tips for Knitting with Variegated Yarn

[@NerdyKnitting]

Variegated yarn - love it or hate it? Share your opinion!

[@annt8327]

Pooling done correctly is GORGEOUS

[@Asptuber]

Exactly! I once found a calculator on line for calculating pooling, you fed it the lengths of colour in your yarn and could then play around with how many stitches in a round/row creates what pattern.

[@susangreene3152]

Thank you for this. I always love the color combinations of variegated yarn, but then my projects never look as good as I thought they might. This is super helpful.

[@NerdyKnitting]

I agree! Those pretty hand-dyed variegated yarns are so pretty in the skein (but sometimes they just don't look as lovely when they are knit up). I'm so glad you found the video helpful! 🙂

[@carblarson8868]

I bought this expensive variegated silk yarn. Made a stockinette shawl and was so disappointed.

[@susiedisney2527]

Thank you, I learned something!

[@AleSusaSVS]

Very informative video, thank you! I find variegated yarns lovely in the skein, but less so knitted up. I really like tonal and speckled yarn.

[@NerdyKnitting]

I agree - I always love looking at variegated yarns but don't always love the way they look when they are knit.

[@harbourcolour]

Thank you for these tips, Tonia! I have been trying to find a variegated yarn to knit the Shifty sweater, and I plan to alternate it with a solid to break up the variations with the slipped stitch pattern. I might even try to alternate balls of my variegated to break up the colours more. I looked up the book you recommended and was able to put it on hold at my local library. Looking forward to reading it. Cheers!

[@NerdyKnitting]

Glad it was helpful!

[@Asptuber]

I love gradient yarns, tolerate some variegations, and abhor clownbarf. One of my first favourite yarns when I took up knitting again (maybe 10-15 year ago) was designed with socks in mind and had long runs of 3-4 different colours and then sections with very short contrasting colour switches, that made a fair isle type pattern when knitted up with a smallish circumference. In general I feel variegated yarns are best suited to pretty simple regular things, not cables or intricate designs or more complicated lace. Those pretty things so easily gets overwhelmed by the clownbarf.

[@debgesing3623]

I have been trying to understand how variegated yarn works in a pattern. I found your method of measuring the actual length of the variegation and the samples you showed VERY HELPFUL. You explain things so well. Thank you thank you.

[@NerdyKnitting]

Glad it was helpful!

[@Susan-yb3hh]

Brilliant You are so good at educating us

[@noelleparris9451]

I am definitely going to try that last tip. Thanks for the book recommendation: it looks like it will be useful as I learn to do colorwork!

[@francesdiannehorton1021]

your videos are outstanding, full of information and very well presented; your beautiful smile is so positive and lovely to see; it has take me years (and years) to learn what you have presented succinctly and at my fingertips; thank you so much for your efforts; best regards for a very successful new year /:)

[@NerdyKnitting]

What a sweet comment. Thank you so much! 🥰

[@leavesongrass]

Loved using Noro Kureyon on the Lizard Ridge throw! Really long repeats.

[@martibanegas4793]

Great, great video!! Thank you!

[@NerdyKnitting]

Glad you liked it!

[@louisecela6457]

Thankyou so much for your tips i have been searching for advice on using variegated yarns.Great video love the different patterns .

[@NerdyKnitting]

Thank you! I'm so glad you found it helpful.

[@attheranch4876]

This is the sort of information that I need, thank you!

[@NerdyKnitting]

Glad it was helpful!

[@attheranch873]

Thanks for the tip, I just ordered this book from my library.

[@NerdyKnitting]

Hope you enjoy it!

[@RoxanneRichardson]

These are great tips! I also appreciate the book recommendation. :-)

[@NerdyKnitting]

Thank you!

[@rebeccastevens8110]

I LIKE TO DO FAIR ISLE PATTERNS WITH A SOLID FOR BACKGROUND AND THE VARIEGATED FOR THED DESIGN.

[@NerdyKnitting]

Great tip!

[@francaperotti5934]

I love veregated. Great advice and i love the patterns you showed in your examples.

[@NerdyKnitting]

Thanks so much!

[@sy2.083]

Great info! Great tips! Ty

[@agnesadyana7344]

Thank you for the info...it’s help me

[@kittenkorleone2918]

Some drop stitch patterns look great with variegated yarn.

[@NerdyKnitting]

Yes! Great tip!

[@pamhuckle3029]

Instead of using 2 different colours work with two balls of the same yarn, changing skeins every other row. I.E. 2 rows of first skein then 2 rows of sevond skein. Just the way you used the two colours. Owner of a knitting show gavevme this tip years ago.

[@NerdyKnitting]

Great tip!

[@rossalyngreen595]

Thank you very helpful 👍

[@NerdyKnitting]

Glad it was helpful!

[@1ecojunkie]

I also like printed yarns which give a fairisle effect, but these can be harder to work with. Best way I have found is either a sideways pattern wrist to wrist, or a top down seamless pattern. Still get some uneven areas, but looks ok.

[@jean-jn3nq]

Thank you!!super helpful and informative 😊

[@Pitoonya]

@Nerdy Knitting Hello to you! I only know how to crochet but was gifted some variegated yarn. I wanted to know what stitch would work best for this..(it has longer color sections) and your video came up. Even tho I don't knit, I decided to watch for the tips. I am so impressed with the way you speak and the great information. In fact, as of late I have been thinking of learning to knit so I subscribed to your channel bc if I'm going to knit, this is the place I want to be! Thank you for the great info. I was thinking of using a contrasting color and your video solidified my decision as it looks better that way (to me). Thanks again 🙂

[@NerdyKnitting]

I'm so glad you found the video helpful! Thank you so much for your comment 😊.

[@LushMontana]

THANK YOU😻😻😻🎈🎈🎈🧸🧸🧸👍👍👍

[@jamietesh7719]

All of those look great honestly, how do I fix this

[@traceyleeherbert2326]

Love your channel! Great information. The Ugly Duckling sock pattern is not available. I love it!!! Is there another pattern like this one???

[@carblarson8868]

I think garter looks better than stockinette with some variegated yarn. I also will add a strand of mohair and that mutes the jarring color changes. Striping with a contrasting color is another fav of mine. It will often take an average yarn to a step above in beauty. I’m still looking for that perfect medium gray fingering yarn to stripe with some variegated yarn. I wanted the yarn on the darker side of medium, but not black, maybe like a charcoal with the white underneath yarn peaking through. Not sure what that dying technique is, but I know Madelinetosh does dye yarn like that. Maybe it is just with single ply??? Also, so many will just have blue or green undertones, which I don’t want. So hard to determine when u purchase on-line.

[@NerdyKnitting]

Great tips for variegated yarn - thank you for sharing them!

[@BeautifulOaks]

Hi, do you have any tips on how to use a striped two ply yarn that changes stripe color for every yard of background color, like oatmeal?

[@NerdyKnitting]

You could look the specific yarn up on Ravelry and see what projects people have knit. That will give you a good idea of how the syriping pattern looks in different projects.

[@shahilagh]

I see your nice videos on this topic. I found a yarn called Viking Garn Naturagarn 627. I saw the company has a sock to look into how the pattern looks like but as you said it would be different when I make a scarf 32 stitches). Do you have any suggestion for me? I like variation in color but not too much. I like to keep the scarf classy than too much changes in color. Thank you

[@NerdyKnitting]

I did a quick search on Ravelry for the yarn (www.ravelry.com/yarns/library/viking-of-norway-naturgarn) - if you click on the 'Projects' tab you'll get a good idea of how the yarn knits up. Depending on the color, it looks like you might get stripes instead of something more variegated.

[@shahilagh]

Thanks. What I found is this shade seems different than the purple shade .... Idont like how the purple has turned out but this one looks beautiful but who knows... anyway I ordered because I love blue that has this shade. Thanks for novel videos you share xxx

[@shahilagh]

Hi there again :) I bought the yarn and is in transit! I ll see how it goes :) I m very new to knitting and found it wonderful! I get stressed when wanting to change yarn color and I am always afraid if it will create a clean and safe effect ... by the way I looked into slow changing yarns like Whirl but I see they aren’t usually made by wool :(

[@shahilagh]

hi dear! I got the yarn. u were totally right .. can u kindly tell me if there is a pattern for a small jumper where single color + variegated yarns r mixed in a way that prevent getting strips ?

[@NerdyKnitting]

@@shahilagh I'm sorry, I can't think of one.

[@Kitty-JuneOhSixJanTwentyFour]

I have a knightmare verigated yarn. Its colors together were so beautiful, I did not notice the color change is extreeeeeeeeemely quick and extremely irregularly. It changes color like each width of a pinky finger first, then next sequence suddenly one or 2 of the colors are twice length of the others, then next sequence some of them are less then 1 cm while 1 color is cm. The most frequent length for a single color is around 1 cm, and I cannot even make a single same color stitch with 1 cm, because the yarn itself is a little bit thicker than size 4. I tried every crochet stitch I know, and some simple ptterns. No matter what I tried, it looks like a vomit of chaotic and irregular sized color change. So ugly. I will try to learn simplest knitting and check if it looks at least a little bit beautiful by knitting. Saddest part, is, each color themselves are really beautiful, and the sequence which color comes after which, also is ery beautiful. Yet, un-crochetable. Sigh. I literally wanna send an email full of swears to the manifacturer, what on effing earth were they thinking to waste such a beautiful yarn with beautiiful colors by making it so ridiculously un-crochetable.

[@NerdyKnitting]

It's so frustrating when something that looks so beautiful in the skein just isn't working up the way we thought it would! Hopefully, you'll find something that works - maybe pairing it with a solid color to break up colors a bit more?

[@annt8327]

Pooling done correctly is GORGEOUS not “ weird “

[@NerdyKnitting]

It certainly can be beautiful sometimes!