Color Patterning With Hand-Dyed Yarns

Class Preview

Unlock the patterning power of hand-dyed yarns. Use an easy-to-find Magic Number to create projects with flashes, stripes, argyle and ikat patterns — no stranding necessary!

Intro & Getting Started

Meet your instructor, dyer and designer Laura Bryant, and learn how different dyeing techniques can create different patterns in your knitting. For a first project, you’ll be using dyed-around yarn to create color pooling in a cowl that is knit in the round. Laura walks you through finding the Magic Number that will dictate how many stitches to cast on to achieve a stacked color effect.

Color-Stacked Circular Cowl

Get started with your cowl using a provisional cast-on and dyed-across yarn. You’ll use your Magic Number and adjust it for the stitch pattern, then join to work in the round. Laura shows you how to manage your tension and make adjustments if your color pooling gets off track.

Circular Cowl Finishing Touches

Once you’ve knitted the body of the cowl, Laura shows you two ways to bind off that will leave a nice, stretchy edge. Then learn how to retrieve the cast-on stitches from your waste yarn and bind them off in the same way so your edges match. Laura has a great trick for burying ends you might not have seen before, and she shares some design variations that are sure to inspire!

Half Linen Stitch Infinity Cowl

Turn your color pooling into amazing color patterning — argyles, stripes and diamonds — simply by shifting your stitch pattern. Unlike intarsia, your color patterns will be organic and painterly, and you’ll have a lot fewer threads to bury! Laura shares a pattern for an infinity cowl that uses the half linen stitch that makes it look woven. You’ll also learn the direct method of determining your Magic Number.

Finishing the Infinity Cowl

As you work on your infinity cowl, you’ll probably need to join a new ball of yarn. See how to match up the yarns to keep your color pattern consistent, then join them with a fisherman’s knot that will be virtually invisible. Finish your cowl with a gorgeous i-cord bind-off that you’ll want to use on all kinds of projects!

Ikat Checked Wrap

The ancient art of ikat weaving — using dyed fibers to create a pattern on the loom –becomes the modern art of ikat knitting, thanks to ikat-dyed yarns. See some gorgeous examples, then dive into creating an ikat wrap that alternates colorful rectangles with lace panels. Laura shows you how!

Finishing & Design Options

Finish your ikat wrap with Laura’s tips for burying the ends or turning them into fringe, then take a tour of knitting designs that incorporate color patterning in ingenious ways. You’ll be excited to dream up more of your own!