Examples of Pieces Without Alternating Skeins
You can really see it here in our Kir Royale sample from the Truck in Peacock from Mrs, Crosby. See the line several rows above where the pattern ribbon pattern detail starts at the bottom? This is where the knitter switches to a new skein. This “color-blocking” can be eliminated if you alternate skeins.
Here’s another example and it’s even more pronounced in this piece knit from two skeins of Moor Sky from Forbidden Fiber Co. What yop’re seeing at about the midpoint of this piece is that the color pooling has changed as the knitter changed skeins. Variegated yarns can and definitely do pool differently from skein to skein. If the knitter had alternated skeins, the piece would have had a more cohesive look to it. and you wouldn’t see such a pronounced difference.
Alternating Skeins - Compare and Contrast
We pulled several colors from our stock and did a side by side comparison of straight knitting and alternating skeins. This is not exactly how it might look in your finished piece because we used yarns from the same skein but you can see how this practice can impact the over look and feel of the piece.
Here is a good example of what alternating skeins can achieve. The top swatch of Kaua’i from Destination Yarn was knit from one ball and the bottom from alternating skeins. The top swatch has spots of pooling that get eliminated in the bottom swatch. Please keep in mind that these swatches are small in size so the “stripes” that appear in the bottom swatch would not be as prominent in a larger piece or garment, You would just have a more cohesive color variation across you whole project.
Sometimes the difference when you alternate skeins can be very slight as with this pair of swatches knit using Lucky from Yarn Love. The swatch on the bottom was done by alternating skeins. There isn’t much difference between the two but you won’t know be able to see how much variation is in the skein until you’ve work with it and as shown above, that can be too late.
So how do you alternate skeins and when should you do it? We recommend alternating skeins when you are using more than one skein of hand-dyed yarn for both knit and crochet projects. Sometimes the color variations can be less pronounced between the crafts but again, to help keep things cohesive across the project alternating skeins is the way to go. This will help avoid any unwanted color pooling any unexpected surprises at the end of your project.
How To Do It - Alternating Skeins
For working flat, wind your two skeins into balls and then knit or crochet 2 rows, back and forth, from one ball. Now switch to the other ball and knit or crochet the next two rows using yarn from the 2nd ball. Repeat this carrying your yarn up the side of your work. It’s that easy!
When you switch skeins, take the yarn you were just working with and cross it over the yarn you are picking up. When you begin stitching, the cross helps to trap the previous yarn against the fabric as you continue working. The only difference for working in the round is that you carry the yarn inside your project.
Sometimes working from two balls can get a bit tangled so to help keeps thing tidy as you work, we recommending placing your center pull balls into yarn socks. Plus stopping every few rows to straighten things out is also a good habit to have.
Here are a couple of videos showing how to alternating skeins to help you visualize how it’s done:
What about solid hand dyed yarn? I mean, should I ALWAYS alternate hand dyed yarn regardless of shade? I have some non varigated hand dyed yarn for a project (using 3 hanks) and not sure if there is a reason to alternate.
Honestly, there really is no such thing as solid hand-dyed yarn and that’s why we love it. Tonal & Semi-Solid yarns are the closest to solid-colored yarn that hand dyers create but very few of these skeins are solid. There are almost always color variations within the skein, which is the nature of putting colors on yarn by yarn. Some kettle-dyed yarns can have the color more evenly distributed but again, almost always there are variations. We’ve had issues with a kettle-dyed tonal yarn where the different skeins had slightly different shades of the color and the shawl we used had a distinct line where we went from one skein to the next. Alternating skeins will eliminate that from happening! Hope this helps!!