Preview Yarn Colors in a Knitting Colorwork Chart

Choose textures that resemble your yarns

Open the knitting chart maker, then choose Open the chart maker to enter the editor. In Library, use the Colour and Style filters to narrow the choices. Solid, Heather, Tweed, Marl and Fluffy let you explore different surface effects. Choose a close shade and texture for each yarn you are considering.

These are Purlgrid’s knitted textures, rather than a catalog of specific branded yarns. Use them to shortlist a pairing. Under View, leave Lifelike view on to inspect stitch shading and stray fibers. Look closely at narrow outlines and isolated stitches: can you still follow the design through the texture?

Keep the drawing fixed as you change yarns

Choose My designs → New blank design, set the grid under Size, and add your chosen yarns from Library. In Yarns, select your background yarn, then use the bucket tool, Fill area, on the blank grid. Select the second yarn and use Paint to draw your motif. The knitted preview updates as you work.

Adding another yarn selects it for painting; it does not recolor existing stitches. To test a new motif yarn, select it and use Fill area inside the motif. Fill area changes only a connected region of one color, so click every separate patch. Removing a yarn remaps its stitches to the nearest remaining palette color; use deliberate filling when you need a particular replacement.

Check contrast without the distraction of hue

Open View → Colour test and select Greyscale (contrast). Check whether the motif’s edges remain distinct from the background. Two different hues can have similar lightness, so a combination that looks colorful may become difficult to read in black and white. Brooklyn Tweed recommends grayscale testing to narrow your choices before swatching.

The editor also warns about neighboring library yarns with similar lightness. Treat that warning as a prompt to inspect the design. If you want a crisp motif and its outline disappears, try a lighter background or darker motif yarn. Return to Normal colours to decide whether you like the combination in color, too.

Try a counted comparison on a small diamond

For a reproducible test, start a New blank design. Set Stitches to 12 and Rows to 8, with both repeat counts at 1. Fill the background with Pale Cream. Starting at the top of the grid, paint a centered Navy Blue diamond with 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 6, 4 and 2 motif stitches in successive rows. Keep equal background space on either side of each row.

Counting those cells gives 96 stitches: 32 in the diamond and 64 in the background. Download the first image, then add Mid Blue from Library and use Fill area inside the diamond. That single connected shape now uses a heather texture instead of a solid, while its 32 cells and the 64 background cells stay unchanged. Compare both versions in color and grayscale. These counts describe the drawing, not yarn consumption.

Compare alternatives and keep a useful record

Colour options shows the current design beside suggested palettes. Select a suggestion to apply its yarns to the same chart, or choose New options for more suggestions. Use this for ideas; to test particular library yarns, add and fill them yourself. Compare at the same Zoom setting and with the same repeat counts.

For each candidate, choose Front and Normal colours, then Download image to keep a PNG. Record which actual yarns each preview represents. Keep a Share link if you want to reopen that version: the design is encoded in the link. My designs saves in this browser, and later edits update the saved design automatically, so it is not a history of your palette tests.

Make the final choice with your actual yarns

Knit a small sample of the intended motif with the pair you prefer. Include its narrow details and background areas, rather than testing only broad stripes. Tin Can Knits recommends trying yarn combinations on the needles because the finished pairing is hard to judge beforehand.

Check the real sample beside the preview. If the motif becomes hard to follow, try another pairing on the same chart before committing to the project. Keep the preview and your yarn notes together once you decide; they give you a clear record of which yarn belongs in each part of the design.

Before you continue

1. Match both library choices to the shade and texture you want.
2. Keep the motif, repeats and zoom consistent between comparisons.
3. Inspect narrow details in color and grayscale.
4. Keep an image and a design link for each candidate.
5. Knit the intended motif with the actual yarns before deciding.