Blending Yarn Colors to Make Colorful Potholders

Colorful Cotton Yarns - Photo © Amy Solovay.

Think back to your childhood for a moment. Did you ever play with paints, or finger paints? You probably remember that mixing red with yellow makes orange, and mixing blue and yellow equals green. You might think that information doesn't help you much when it comes to crochet, though - you can't mix yarns in the same way that you can mix paints.

Potholder - Photo © Amy Solovay.

What you can do instead is use yarns together in a way that fools the eye into seeing color blends. For example, in these colorful potholders, there are rows in which you use two different colors, and it gives the illusion that the colors have been mixed together.

There are all kinds of amazing effects you can achieve using this simple idea. We'll be exploring that idea more in depth in future projects, but these potholders are fantastic introduction to the concept if it is new to you.

• See more close-up photos of this potholder
• Find a whole bunch more free crocheted potholder patterns