Any time I share photos of my crochet work, a lotta, lotta, lotta of people ask me what yarns and colours I use.
To be honest I just pick up yarn from the op-shop, discount shops and craft shops, willy nilly. It’s all very mismatched and free-wheeling. I choose my yarn (mostly acrylic) by thickness, colour and softness and then work them together in both random and carefully selected ways.
Colour is the most important thing to me, though!
With this in mind I thought that I would share a bunch of yarns and colours that I would choose for a blanket. That way you can snap those up, if you fancy, and get the sort of colour scheme and look that I use in my work.
Please note, this is NOT a sponsored post. I just thought I would offer some help to the (literal) heap of people who message me every day asking for colour assistance.
see how the green ‘grounds’ these brights?
I am going to focus on Stylecraft Yarn today, because it’s pretty easy to get online and they have a great range of colours. Maybe I can make this a series and drop in ideas about other colours I love, too?!
To begin with, let’s just deal with DK/8ply yarn. That’s what I use for nearly all of my woolly things. Perhaps later down the track I could share some cotton colour ideas, too! And some 100 percent wool!
So let’s get started …
You can buy Stylecraft Yarn online at a bunch of outlets. Google away! I’m going to choose from their Special DK range because I have bought, used and loved it.
these colours don’t exactly SING when seen like this, but scroll down to
see how they can work brilliantly in a blanket
For a granny square or granny stripe blanket I’d grab a 5 mm hook and I would choose the following …
Neons
A couple of balls of Fiesta pink and a couple of bright green. If I really wanted to go to town on the neons I would buy this Citron, too.
Neutrals
I’d add some neutrals to help those really pop. I’d grab a good amount of white. Or if I wanted to go a bit quieter and more cosy-looking, I would choose this grey which looks gorgeous with Neons and Pastels. These neutrals are really important and I use lots of them to help the colours really sing.
Soft Pastels
Now let’s add some soft pastels, to the mix. I’d go for this pale yellow and this pale pink.
Brights
For the brights I would choose this blue, this pink and this turquoise-y colour.
Jewels
And finally, just to mix things up, I would add some more jewel-toned colours to anchor the palette and add some depth and sophistication. I would choose the jewel-y teal and magenta to spark some more surprising colour combos.
The colours don’t look much on the swatches, but when you put them alongside each other, they really sing! Below are the exact colours shown in the swatch graphic above. Don’t they look so much nicer like this?!
The placement of these colours can be random – close eyes and choose next colour – or they can be more carefully curated. I tend to do both, depending on my mood. And I use a lot of neutral colours to help the colour breathe. And I tend to use the jewel colours to avoid things being TOO poppy, if that makes any sense. They add more of a vintage feel, I think. That said, here it is without the jewel tones, in case you prefer that …
And here is a look at how the grey works. I tend to add a bit of white as a second neutral, when I use grey, but you can go all grey too, of course!
This one uses only the grey as a neutral, as you can see. Still LOVELY and very cosy-looking.
Here are some patterns that I have found I fall into when I am choosing colours to place next to each other.
Jewel tone + neon = lovely!
Pastel + neutral = lovely!
Neon + pastel = lovely!
Neon + neon = lovely
Neon + neutral = lovely!
But you should play around and see what you like. And if in doubt … close your eyes and go random with your chosen colours.
So there you go! Let me know what you think about Colour Concierge. Would you like more of this kinda thing?
x Pip
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6 Comments
Fantastic idea! I love the cheerful colours of your blankets.
May I suggest looking at Cascade Ultra Pima for when you are doing 8ply cotton? It is made in Peru and comes in a huge range of colours. I crocheted a blanket with it and it is divine to work with (though not cheap!) Little Woollie on Mornington stocks it, though LoveCrafts in UK has it cheaper.
Love more!
Oh I love this. I just bought a huge box of this yarn, in a rough rainbow colour suite. It was going to be interspersed with green but I’m very drawn to soft grey having seen your examples. Hmmm
Thank you Pip!! And YES would love more please!
Wonderful post, Pip and very helpful.. Your rugs always look so cheery.
This is great. I always admire your colourful work, but have zero skills in selecting, visualising the colours in blanket form or courage to give it a go. So yes more of this is only good.
Cheers Kate.
PS I’ve used a lot of stylecraft yarn too, it’s great.