Crocheting with hand dyed yarn can be intimidating. If you are like I was, you have been eyeing beautiful, unique hand dyed yarn and you want to crochet with it but you are scared of messing it up or picking the wrong pattern. It can be hard to visualize what the yarn will look like once it is worked up. I am going to share with you some of my best tips for finding crochet patterns that complement your hand dyed yarn.

When it comes to crocheters and hand dyed yarns, I feel like we do one of two things- We buy the yarn and let it sit on our shelves until it tells us what it wants to be; or we keep stalking our favorite dyers shops but we don’t purchase because we just don’t know what to crochet with it.

The most important part of crocheting with hand dyed yarn is for you to enjoy the process from start to finish and to love your finished piece.

Before I dive into sharing my tips, I want to talk about why crocheting with hand dyed yarn looks differently than knitting with hand dyed yarn.

The key differences between crocheting and knitting that cause the yarn to look different when worked up are:

Crocheting hooks loops together on to a single piece and the stitches are more like knots; whereas knitting forms a series of loops that move from one needle to another and the needle holds them in place.
Crocheting causes more twists in the yarn and causes the yarn to move through the stitch differently.
Crocheting uses more yarn and has stitches with different heights. The height of the stitch determines how much yarn is used per stitch. Both of these factors result in the yarn looking different from a knitted piece and a crochet piece and even from one crochet pattern to another.

I want to start out by saying that I really don’t feel like there is a wrong pattern for hand dyed yarn but there are things to look for in a crochet pattern that will really complement hand dyed yarn and allow the gorgeous colors to shine.

Tip #1: Crochet Stitches to Look For

Knowing what crochet stitches to look for when choosing a crochet pattern for your hand dyed yarn will allow you to showcase the yarn colors in the best way. This is especially important when it comes to speckled and variegated yarns because they can have a variety of colors in a short length. I like to look for patterns that have stitches that create an untwisted section in the pattern.

One of my favorite techniques for this is back loop only stitches. By working in the back look of a stitch you are leaving the front loop uncovered resulting in a straight section of yarn and this allows the colors will stand out.

Puff stitches, bobble stitches, popcorn stitches and cluster stitches are some of the stitches I like to look for in crochet patterns for hand dyed yarn. These stitches create wonderful texture plus leave longer areas of the yarn exposed. These stitches can really allow your yarn colors to be shown off in the best way.

The half double crochet stitch is hands down my favorite stitch. It creates a horizontal bar on the wrong side of your work that allows a straight section of yarn and we already know that can result in the yarn colors really shining.

Tall crochet stitches like double and treble crochet spread the color out even with there extras twists the colors can really pop. These taller stitches can result in color changes happening quicker in variegated yarns

Linked crochet stitches also work well with hand dyed yarns. Link stitches are basic crochet stitches that are linked together and result in less gaps between the stitches.

Lastly, you can’t go wrong with Tunisian crochet stitches. Tunisian crochet mixes crochet and knitting techniques so you have a series of loops and less twists in the yarn. It’s like the best of both worlds!

Choosing the right stitches when crocheting with hand dyed yarn will help you get the results you expect from your coveted yarn. When the hand dyed yarn and crochet patterns complement each other, the results are absolutely stunning and such a joy to watch it all come together.

Tip #2: Crochet Stitch Combinations to Look For

Combining different crochet stitches is another great way to ensure that your yarn and your stitches stand out.

Crochet stitch combinations that work really will with hand dyed yarn are alternating stitches that have different heights. The different heights can break up color and row heights which will reduce blocks of color or pooling. This is really important for semi solid or tonal hand dyed yarns where there are variations of the same color. Alternating stitches with different heights also allows the all colors in heavily variegated hand dyed yarns with lots of short color changes a chance to show off.

Combining taller stitches with a raised stitch can give you really stunning results as well.

These are just a few examples of stitch combinations that I look for when searching for crochet patterns to use with my hand dyed yarn.

Don’t let hand dyed yarn intimidate you. Yarn dyers want you to enjoy their mini yarn masterpieces so you can create your own masterpiece with it. You will not ruin the yarn. It is made to be bring you joy!

My very last piece of advice is to crochet a swatch before diving into a pattern so you can get an idea of how the yarn works up. By crocheting a swatch you won’t have so much time invested in your project so you won’t mind frogging and changing plans. Have fun with it! Try different stitches and techniques.

I would love to hear from you. Have you tried crocheting with hand dyed yarn? If so, what are some of your favorite crochet patterns or stitch combinations to use? If you haven’t tried it, let me know what questions you have.

Additional Info

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Check out the hand dyed yarn that is available in my Yarn Shop.

If you are interested in joining a community of crocheters and yarn lovers plus having unique hand dyed yarn delivered to your door monthly. The ALC Yarn Club is a monthly hand dyed yarn subscription for crocheters and it includes an amazing community. Grab a spot on the waitlist to be the first to know when we are open to new members.

Watch my Yarn Everywhere Podcast on YouTube, where I share what’s going on behind the scenes and talk about all things yarn, crochet and knitting.

Until next time,