Playing with Colour Pooling

I bought a big ball of Bernat Handicrafter cotton yarn in Holidays Ombres to make cork hot pad covers for Christmas. I wrote about those here if you missed it. 

There was quite a bit of yarn leftover after making only four hot pad covers. I had read about "colour pooling" using variegated yarn and the linen stitch or moss stitch as it is also called. I was intrigued by the idea of letting yarn create a colour pattern. I thought it might be fun to make a few dishcloths and try my hand at colour pooling using this yarn. 

Successful colour pooling patterns vary depending on the yarn, hook size and tension. It requires experimentation to find a starting chain that magically works.

I tried a starting chain of 34 ... no pooling just small patches.

I tried a starting chain of 30 ... still no pooling just bigger patches.

Then I tried a starting chain of 32 ... finally a pooling pattern XX

It really is very cool to create little dishcloths with a cross pattern. For me the magical number was 32, but for you it might be different. Experiment ... it's all part of the fun. 

I made four dishcloths with clear XX patterns, two with random colour patches and one more smaller cloth to use up the rest of my yarn. I made another dishcloth in red (also from my stash) to make four gift bundles. These have been put away for next Christmas - handy hostess gifts.

Starting chain 30 = colour patches, 32 = XX, 34 = smaller colour patches
Hook size 5.0 mm
Red cotton yarn starting chain = 34
Border = linen stitch

32 was my magical number ... experiment as results may vary.

I thoroughly enjoyed playing with Colour Pooling. Get some variegated yarn and give it a go. You won't be disappointed if you do. 

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