In the world of knitting, there are few things that I dislike much more than pooling yarn. And, as a wise knitter once said, all “striping” yarn will pool with the right needle, pattern, gauge combination.

So, the question is how do you avoid pooling?

I have two examples for you… and as you can see, in each item, while there is still some “color puddling” it is not drastically obvious, nor does it distract from the design of the object.

First off, we will begin with some lovely yarn I purchased from Yarn Hollow last year at the Michigan Fiber Festival. I purchased this mass of yarn with the intention of knitting another Hey Teach, and shortly after I returned home, I cast on. Within a few rows, my love or the yarn was waning, as it was just not working at all in the pattern with my gauge. I was having large areas of pooling.

Large areas.

I felt it was unattractive and it distracted from the elegance and simplicity of the design.

I frogged it and put the yarn away.

Enter Shawl That Jazz, and after knitting a gauge swatch, I was once again in love with the yarn. As you can see, while there are small areas of pooling, it does not mar the fabric nor distract from the design.

Shawl That Jazz knit with yarn from Yarn Hollow, Mojito color way.

So, learning curve here people, stockinette with its clearer stitch definition shows more clearly the uniformity of your stitches. Whereas, garter stitch, is much more forgiving of pools of color. I am enjoying this knit a tremendous amount and will love throwing this on all fall and winter!

Up next, some yarn of my own dyeing!

I took a dyeing class some time ago at Threadbear Fiber Arts from the incomparable Rob – and came home with some lovely twist yarn… dyed with colors I love; orange, purple, and green.

My plan for this yarn was to knit some nice hefty socks to warm my feet.

Enter the dreaded Pooling Genie.

When the swatch created a fabric would stand up to sock wear, I had horrendous pooling.

In short, I hated it. Once again, I frogged the swatch and put the yarn to simmer in my knitting stash and forgot about it.

Then I saw Mara on a friend’s blog and the wheels started turning in my head. I pulled the yarn out and began swatching. I found that if I knit on the size needle called for in the pattern, the pooling was still awful, despite the garter stitch, so I went down a needle size. It still was not perfect. I went down another needle size and, lo and behold, the moment each knitter hopes and dreams for, the perfection of harmony between yarn, pattern, and gauge.

As you can see, I have a nice start to Mara and, once again, while there is some color puddling, it works with the fabric and design. (And, sorry for the poor photo’s today – the monsoon season has arrived, and natural light is at a premium right now!)

I hope this has enlightened you a bit, and perhaps made you a believer in the Power of the Swatch!