I recently shared a post about
my dye style, and why I dye yarn with short repeats of color evenly distributed throughout the skein, and my goal to achieve more balanced fabric for my knitting projects. Even though it's not a perfect system, and there are times when yarn still pools, it is possible to avoid intentional pooling using specific techniques.
Here's a perfect example of yarn I dyed to pool on purpose.
I don't use this dye style unless I specifically state my intention for planned pooling. During the total lunar eclipse a few years back I dyed a special colorway that I wanted to emulate the event. I wanted the neon pops of color to come through, and if you look at the socks I knit you can see how the longer section of neon yellow in the skein created a longer line of color in my knitting. Changing the stitch to something like K2, P2 (or another ribbing stitch) would have changed the result further, but a blended non-stripey result never could have happened even with alternating skeins for this yarn.
When you see skeins of yarn with blocks of color like this, you can expect some pooling. Many people love that! And there are patterns written for yarns with intentional pooling that are really cool. It's just not what I'm looking for on a regular basis with my yarns, and by using short repeats of color throughout the skeins I can lessen the chances that it will happen.
