How to Color Block with Self-Striping Cake Yarn

I absolutely love self-striping Yarn! You get beautiful color variations without the work of planning different colors. You know, trying to match colors up in the store to see if they’ll look good together? Not always fun or easy to do.

Self-striping yarn is made by many different popular yarn brands. Lion Brand has Mandala, which is a light #3 weight yarn. It has many, many different beautiful colors and comes with A LOT of yardage. 597 yards to be exact. Then there is Caron Cakes by Yarnspirations. Caron has cotton cakes, big cakes, tea cakes, latte cakes, chunky cakes, baby cakes, and I’m sure more. They all can be found at your local Michael’s Stores. Then Bernat has Bernat POP! yarn and Blanket Stripes. There are many other brands out there that I didn’t mention.

The point is that all of these yarns have paired colors that look good together for you! And the color possibilities are endless. Some of the cakes have nice transitions between colors, some have abrupt color changes. They are often called cakes because they are wound into a round cake form. Photo below of the Triangle Scarf crochet pattern in Lion Brand Mandala Yarn.

With self-striping yarn you can crochet and just let the color transitions happen. I often do that when crocheting blankets. Like my Baby Bliss Blanket Crochet Pattern which used 1 skein of Lion Brand Mandala Yarn, or my Triangle Scarf Crochet Pattern photoed above which uses 2 skeins. Or you can plan it out, which I like to do when crocheting garments. Photo below of my newest crochet pattern the Cooper Cardigan which comes in 6 adult sizes.

To color block with self-striping yarn, you are planning the colors instead of just letting them flow. When the colors flow, they may change colors in the middle of a row. With color blocking, you will need to stop the yarn at the end of a row when you don’t have enough of that color to complete a whole row.

One suggestion to do that is to pull the cake apart to get each color out. This allows you to have total control of the colors. But do remember which color order they were in for nice transitions.

This is also helping with you’re making 2 of something, like sleeves, and want the colors to match up. Crochet x amount of rows in each color on each side out of the same cake. Like photo below, where I crocheted each side of the front panels of this cardigan to get them to match.

Either way you choose, whether to plan your colors or just let them flow, the results of these self-striping yards are gorgeous! It is my favorite way to mix colors when crocheting. See my newest pattern, the Cooper Cardigan which comes in adult sizes Small-3XL. It is perfect for Lion Brand Mandala since it uses Light Yarn.

See other patterns I have made with self-striping yarn….

The Carry-All Drawstring Tote uses Caron Cotton Cakes Yarn by Yarnspirations

And the Cinch Sack Crochet Pattern using Caron Cotton Cakes

Baby Bliss Blanket Crochet Pattern using Lion Brand Mandala Yarn

The Waterfall Cardigan Crochet Pattern in Adult sizes using Lion Brand Mandala Yarn

The Summer Nights Blanket Wrap using Yarnspirations Caron Big Cakes Yarn

Tied Cover Up Crochet Pattern using Yarnspirations Caron Cotton Cakes

You may be seeing a trend here with some of my most favorite brands. Regardless they are all beautiful. I hope you enjoy some of these patterns.

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