Why Alternate Skeins When Knitting with Hand-Dyed Yarn?

Hand-dyed yarn is so beautiful and unique, so much so that every skein is a little bit different.

That doesn’t mean we have to confine ourselves to single-skein projects. It does mean we need to do a little extra work to ensure our work looks good when we’re done with it.

The danger of just knitting on, one skein to the next, like we normally would, is that the colors can be a little different from skein to skein. They can end up looking a lot different, almost like unfortunate stripes, in a garment.

The easy solution — explained in much more details as to the hows and whys over at Skein Yarn — is to alternate skeins every round if you are working in the round or every other row if you’re working flat. It’s not too fiddly to do and makes a big difference.

Have you ever worked a big project with hand-dyed yarn and noticed the color difference? I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo: Skein Yarn.]

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Why should the fireplace get all the fun? Instead of knitting stockings this year, why not whip up a pair of Christmas themed socks? These Christmas sock knitting patterns are lots of fun to make and you can wear them to holiday gatherings for years to come.

For our friends in the southern part of the world, there are the Christmas in July socks from the Kiwi Lodge – Kylie (Ravelry link). These shorty socks are covered in Christmas trees and have bright pink heels and toes for a tropical feel. There’s also an option to make a longer sock if you celebrate somewhere it’s colder.

Twin Stitches Designs (Ravelry) has a fun pattern with mix and match colorwork motifs you can use to build your own cozy Christmas socks. From the sample socks I see Christmas puddings, trucks hauling trees, Santa belts, ornaments and a couple of different borders. There may be more patterns included but the listing doesn’t say. Make a pair that matches or use different motifs on each foot for extra holiday cheer.

If you want to stick to Christmas puddings on your holiday socks, check out this cute pattern from Stone Knits. These lovely socks feature a band of puddings around the leg and a bit of holly by the toes.

These vintage holiday light socks from Grey Owl Knits by Sarah are classic looking and lots of fun at the same time. I love this color combination but of course you can make your lights and stripes whatever colors you like or have on hand. They’re worked using stranded knitting.

And if you’d like even more of a mix of patterns for your socks, try Barbara Ceglédi’s Christmas Chaos socks, a free pattern on Ravelry. The pattern includes 25 little motifs you can choose from, ranging from snowflakes and Christmas trees to elf hats, reindeer and hearts.

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