Crochet guide
Color combinations for crochet
Colors that go together can be found on a color wheel. Neighbors on the wheel blend, opposites stand out against each other, and three evenly spaced colors look lively. Then check light against dark, add a neutral, and let one color lead.
On this page 7 parts
The color wheel in plain words
A color wheel sets the colors in a circle. The artists' wheel starts from three primary colors: red, yellow and blue. Between them sit the three colors made by mixing two primaries: orange, green and purple. Reds, oranges and yellows are called warm. Blues, greens and purples are called cool.
The wheel gives four simple ways to pick colors that go together.
| Scheme | Where the colors sit on the wheel | The effect | An example |
|---|---|---|---|
| One color | One color, in lighter and darker versions | Quiet: the only contrast is light against dark | Pale blue, mid blue and navy |
| Neighbors | Side by side | Calm and blended | Purple, blue and green |
| Opposites | Across from each other | Strong contrast: each makes the other stand out | Blue and orange |
| Three evenly spaced | At the points of a triangle | Bright and lively | Red, yellow and blue |
Color books call these monochromatic, analogous, complementary and triadic schemes.
Light against dark
Every color is also light or dark. This is called its value. White has the highest value and black the lowest, and a color with white mixed in, such as a pastel, is lighter than the color it came from.
Value is separate from the color itself. Two yarns can be quite different colors and still be equally light. Check both when you choose. A light yarn beside a dark one is a contrast of value, whatever the two colors are.
This counts most where the colors must read as a pattern. A picture worked from a graph, or any design in two colors, needs contrasting colors. See the graph patterns and how to read a crochet graph.
Add a neutral
Black, white, gray and tan are neutral colors. A neutral can be the main color of a piece or the background of a picture. The graph patterns on this site set their pictures on a neutral ground, most often tan or cream.
Let one color lead
A set of colors looks settled when one of them leads and the others support it. Choose the main color first. Use the second color in a smaller amount, and keep the strongest contrast for a small accent, such as a border or a narrow stripe.
Stripes and changing colors show how to bring each new color in.
Colors for a blanket and for joined squares
A blanket of several colors can take one more as its background, and black or white will go with almost any set. The background changes how the other colors look, so try the colors side by side before you begin.
For a blanket of joined squares, the yarn that joins them is a color choice too. Join with the color of the squares' last round and the seam blends in. Join with a contrasting color and the seam shows as a line of its own. Joining squares shows the joins.
Variegated yarn
Variegated yarn is one yarn dyed in several colors. As you work, its colors can collect into patches or lines of their own, which is called pooling.
Keep the stitch simple with a yarn like this. A textured stitch and a busy yarn compete, and the texture of the stitch gets lost among the colors.
Where to go next
- For fiber and weight, the other two things to choose in a yarn, see crochet yarn types and yarn weights.
- To keep an unused color tidy between stripes, see carrying yarn.
- For something to make, see things to crochet.