Speckles (a primer and a giveaway)
If you’ve been here for a while, you know I tend to gravitate toward rather…um…let’s say mellow yarns. Solids or semi solids, often in grays or purples or the occasional pond-scummy greeny yellow. They’re what I like to knit with, they’re what I like to wear, and they’re almost universally well behaved.
But a few years ago, I started seeing speckled yarns everywhere. And I would have expected to just sort of admire them on the shelf and move on. But, much to my surprise, they started following me home. But then…then I had to figure out what the heck to do with them. Because speckled yarn is not necessarily quite as accommodating as its more mellow cousins. If you pair it with the wrong pattern, it will totally fight you. But I sorted a few things out along the way.
I started by keeping the speckles firmly in line with a more sedate counterpart. That worked out rather nicely. The gray is Chickadee by Quince & Co, the speckled is Meridian by Seven Sisters Arts. I think of it as somewhere between a highly variegated, short color run yarn and a true speckle…and you’ll note it has both purple and greeny yellow. What can I say, I was easing myself in. The pattern is Pleagic.
I had enough fun with that one that I did it again. The enthusiasm of the colorful yarn is kept in check by a much much calmer background. The brown yarn is Cressida and the colorful yarn Capella, both by Space Cadet. This is again something between a speckle and a highly variegated, short color run yarn, but the color blips are really short…look how much color change you can find in just one stitch. We’re inching ever closer to full on speckles. The pattern is Permutation.
Then I got a little braver and worked out some stitch patterns that will actually stand up to speckled yarn and so used it by itself. The yarn is Squish DK by Spun Right Round. I totally think it’s a full on speckle, though again the definitions on this are rather subjective, and I’m not going to fight anyone about yarn styles. The pattern is Circumvolute.
Then I started getting a little cocky, and I felt comfortable enough to make something where the yarn would really steal the show. (The yarn is DK by The Lemonade Shop. It’s maybe more of a consistent, repeating, short-color-run yarn than a true speckle, but all the drama still comes from the yarn, so it has a lot of the same constraints. The pattern is Keepsies.)
And I’ve learned a few things about what makes a pattern a good fit for a speckled (or otherwise dramatic) yarns. The first and most important thing is to keep it simple. Stockinette is good. Reverse stockinette is good. Strong, straight lines are good (think wide ribbing or strong diagonals). Complex lace is…not. You need to have some sizable stretches of plain fabric where the yarn has room to do its thing and show off its magic. Don’t go cluttering things up with too much pattern or texture.
The second thing is to consider using a companion yarn to anchor the wild yarn. I did that with Pelagic and Permutation above, but anything where you have a background yarn and an accent yarn could look great with the speckles for the accent. This is one of my favorite approaches just in general, so I have lots of patterns that do this. Think Collusion or Entrapment or Vestige or Varagires. Anything where the speckled yarn can come in and play special guest star will work great. It gets to shine, and you don’t run the risk of things getting out of hand.
And finally, and you probably knew this was coming, I’m going to encourage you to swatch. A lot. You never truly know what a yarn will do until you knit it up, and that’s especially true for speckles. The only way you’ll get to know them is by experimenting. And, it just so happens I have some lovely speckled skeins to give away to get someone started on those experiments!
Black Trillium Fibres has recently introduced some seriously speckled yarn. Big dots, little dots, oodles of colors, this is the full on speckle. It’s lovely (this is their Lilt Sock base which has silk instead of nylon and is a particular favorite of mine), and it will be great fun to work with. It would look fabulous on its own, or as a guest star paired with a solid yarn in whichever of the speckle colors makes your heart skip a beat (I love that sort of periwinkle color up at the top).
The yarn has been a hit, and it is all sold out at the moment. But the good folks at Black Trillium just happened to send me some to give away. If you’d like to see what magic you can do with it, just leave a comment here telling me what pattern you’d like to make with speckled yarn (it doesn’t have to be one of mine or anything, I just like seeing what you guys like to do with speckles). I’m giving one skein away here, and the other one on Instagram. You can totally enter over there too if you want to double your chances of winning.
Comments left between now and the end of the day (eastern time) Monday, April 30, 2018 will be entered to win. I’ll pick a winner, contact them to get their info, and arrange to send the yarn their way. Be sure to use a real email address so I can contact you if you’ve won (I won’t do anything with those email addresses besides notify the winner). If I do email you, I need to hear back from you within 72 hours or I will pick a new winner and contact them. I can only ship yarn to US addresses.
I love pelagic and I think it would be great with this lovely yarn!
Permutation is a lovely hat! Since this is fingering weight, though, I’d make a pair of ribbed gloves – I like the Marywarmers pattern especially.
Thanks for the yarn giveaway! What would I knit with this yarn? A curl, of course … Mendacity, in particular. Yep, I am indeed a US resident. (When will Curls 3 be out? 😎)
my go to for speckles (especially wild speckles) is always socks. i am rather a sedate dresser, black, gray, solids, no prints. but i love crazy colorful socks! its like a secret on my feet!
I love this post so much! I learned a lot from this and I truly appreciate that. I think this yarn would make a beautiful slouchy beanie, shawl or fingerless mitts 🙂
I love simple hats and mittens in speckled yarn but I think I’d cast on a Curl with this skein! I enjoy speckles in shawls and cowls and am excited to sink into my next Curl!
I’d make a Scarfy Thing!
I too have been hesitant with speckled yarn but Permutate has been calling my name for a while, so let’s do this thing!
The pattern I would like to knit is called Speckle Tonic. You get a choice of a triangular or crescent shaped shawl, and the specked yarn is paired with a solid color. I love it!
I just got a skein of The Blue Brick’s amazing gradient/tonal mashup, which is literally a gradient dyed over a speckly tonal yarn. It’s GORGEOUS, but what pattern to do? Maybe Joji’s Paris in Berlin (https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/paris-in-berlin), or maybe your Caesious (https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/caesious) or Cozenage (https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/cozenage). If I can find a partner skein that works well with it, I might do something in two-colour brioche… Decisions, decisions!
I’ve been thinking a lot about baby things and speckled yarns, so something like a Baby Surprise Jacket, or a Tiny Tea Leaves.
This is the first time I am seeing your pattern Keepsies & I think I would give that a try with this yarn.
So many gorgeous things!!!!
That’s some gorgeous yarn! I just ventured into speckled yarn after seeing all the beautiful fades, so that’s what I would make. I love your combinations. Great way to use the amazing colors without them looking crazy.
I love your Circumvolute. I also want to knit a Pure Joy shawl in a speckled yarn paired with a semi-solid. The Changing Staircase shawl would also look great in a speckled yarn. Thanks for the giveaway!
Wow, thanks for all the tips! I haven’t tried speckles yet but these colors are gorgeous. I would love to try it with Circumvolute — I’m doing more camping lately and hats are a necessity. I’m almost done with my Constellate and it is a beauty.
Hitchhiker is a great pattern for speckled yarns. The simple pattern is great for featuring the colors as you pointed out above. I want to knit a pattern like your pleagic that uses the speckled yarn against a solid to make the color pop.
I am digging Pelagic – I made a pair of socks using a variegated yarn with a similar drop stitch, and couldn’t believe how much the colors stood out – but to use a solid? Wow!
I think I would like to knit socks with speckled yarn.
I might try a Hitchhiker or simple garter boomerang with a speckled yarn. Or a hat. Or cowl. Or a Curl.
I voted fingerless gloves or the Toph hat on Instagram, but now that I see your hats, I would love to try the Constellate hat. I know it’s a complex stitch, but it might create fun colour pops like Permutation. If that doesn’t work, I’ve been looking at Permutation for awhile, and if I don’t like that, the Spindrift shawl. It works for a ything. Gorgeous colours.
I would make socks with contrasting heals and toes or single color with 4 p 1brioche st . pattern.
I would make the Easel sweater, using the speckled yarn for the body and a solid for the sleeves…or maybe the reverse?
I think this would be reality petty in a vanilla sock with a solid contrast toe and cuff. Or paired with a solid in the “Scottish Highlands Shawl” by Kay Hopkins. 💙
Fingerless mitts (I work in a chilly office), and maybe a hat. Speckles are so much fun!