We get a lot of questions about variegated yarns; how they’ll look once knitted up, how to pair them with other colours, and which stitches make them shine best. It can definitely feel tricky at first, so here are a few simple tips to help you get the most out of your variegated skeins.
1. The higher the contrast within a variegated skein, the simpler the stitch pattern should be.
This helps the colours stand out without the texture getting lost.
Not sure if your skein has high or low contrast? Try this: take a quick photo of it and turn it black and white. You’ll instantly see how much the tones differ! Most of the variegated skeins in our A/W25 collection sit in the mid-low contrast range, meaning they’re great for showing off stitch definition without things looking too busy.
It’s also worth looking at how many colours are in one skein and whether any of them are opposites on the colour wheel. For example, Oracle, Myth, and Mayhem each have pops of contrasting hues, which makes them perfect for fades or subtle colour details.
2. Variegated yarns are amazing for adding visual interest and depth.
They bring movement to your knitting without needing complicated stitches. If you’re planning something with lace, cables, or colourwork, look for mid-to-low contrast skeins that are almost tonal. That balance keeps your textures crisp and your stitches beautifully visible.
Using Merino DK - Ritual, we tried out the Valve Stitch from the Vouge Knitting Dictionary. This mid-to-low contrast variegated yarn holds the textured stitches definition beautifully. It is an added bonus that in this colourway, the little raised stitches look like tiny glowing fires.
3. Variegated Yarns are great for fades.
The trick is finding shades that have low contrast together, sharing a similar tone with the one that follows. Here, Divination has a soft pink undertone with gentle purple speckles; Myth picks up that same pink and deepens into richer purples, creating a seamless transition as the rows alternate. Finally, Moon Goddess amplifies those purples and greens and ties the whole fade together beautifully.
In the swatch above, we were testing out the Wooly Waffle Stitch from Stephen West's Wooly Waffle Shawl to see how Divination, Myth, and Moon Goddess blend together as a fade in Merino DK, and honestly, it turned out better than we imagined.
4. Let the colour guide your crochet stitches.
Crocheting is extra fun with variegated yarns, as you can let the colour guide your stitch pattern choices on the go. In this swatch of Merino DK - Wishing Well you can see how each stitch dictates how the colours look: when using single crochets, the colour forms in longer stripes, but when using double crochet, the colour creates longer blocks.
There are tons of fun colour pooling techniques that crocheters can use to make the most of the beautiful and sometimes unpredictable colour stories of hand-dyed variegated yarns.
5. Variegated yarns make your colourwork pop.
The Porcelain Sweater by Le Knit has been one of our favourite knits this season. This sample uses our Super Floof DK in white as the base, with the colour Myth as the contrasting colour. The stitches jump off the sweater and make this already gorgeous design even more playful and fun.
To test this even further, we created two other swatches: using Divination on the base of Raven, and Oracle on the base of Soot. In both versions, you can see how the neutral colour of the background supports the variegated yarn perfectly.
Want to try for yourself? Have a look at our variegated yarn collection here! Also, if you've made it this far, comment a colour palette emoji down below, and you will receive a surprise! 🎨