I remember first reading about alternating skeins on a knitting blog, and thinking: “why on EARTH would someone go through all the trouble of alternating skeins when it’s so much easier to just work through one skein at a time?” At the time I hadn’t been knitting for a very long time, and I mostly used cheap acrylic or cotton yarns. I’d never seen a significant color difference between balls of the same dyelot, so I didn’t think alternating skeins was really necessary.
It wasn’t until I started working with hand-dyed yarn that I realized alternating skeins wasn’t such a bad idea at all – especially when working on larger projects! When I started knitting with hand-dyed yarn more frequently, I began to notice slight color differences between skeins (even from the same dyelot!). I also noticed my knit fabric was sometimes color pooling or color blocking in unexpected and unwanted places. This was quite disappointing, especially after having invested so much time and money in a project. That’s when I decided to give alternating skeins a go.
What causes color pooling or color blocking?
Now you may have been wondering what causes color pooling or color blocking in knit fabric when working with hand-dyed yarns. The colors of hand-dyed yarns aren’t as consistent as the color of machine-dyed yarns. They’re a little more random and irregular. This is obviously true for speckled and variegated yarns, but also for solids and semi-solids. Hand-dyed yarn usually contains various color “irregularities”. When these stack on top of each other, they create an unexpected (and usually unwanted) pattern that is also known as color pooling. Besides that, the color of hand-dyed yarn depends on a lot of different things. Because of this, it might happen that there’s a slight color variation between skeins of the same dyelot. When working on a multi-skein project, this will cause some parts of your work to look lighter or darker than the rest. This is also known as color blocking.
The best way to prevent these two problems from happening, is alternating skeins. If you’re working on a project that requires more than one skein of hand-dyed yarn, it’s best to alternate skeins. Alternating skeins is also a great solution when working with (machine-dyed) yarn from different dyelots!
How to alternate skeins
Before you cast on, wind two skeins of yarn which you will be working with at the same time. Continue with the instructions below. Make sure you don’t pull your yarn too tight when switching between skeins to maintain the correct tension.
Knitting flat:
Work two rows using the first skein. Switch to the other skein and knit the next two rows. Repeat this while carrying the yarn of the unused skein at the side of your work.
You can simply drop the yarn you were working with and pick up the yarn from the other skein to switch between skeins.
Knitting in the round:
When knitting in the round, you can either switch skeins every row or every other row. Work one (or two) round(s) using the first skein. Switch to the other skein and knit the next (one or two) row(s). Carry the yarn of the unused skein on the inside of your work.
To switch between skeins:
- Take the yarn of the skein you’re working with and cross it over the yarn of the skein you are going to work with next.
- Pick up the yarn of the new skein and begin knitting, trapping the yarn of the previous skein against the fabric.
I hope this guide will prevent you from running into the disappointments of color pooling and color blocking when working with hand-dyed yarn!
