The BIG Mistake Most Crocheters Make When Choosing Colors!
When it comes to planning a crochet project, choosing colors might seem simple—but there’s a lot more to it than just grabbing your favorite skeins. The BIG Mistake Most Crocheters Make When Choosing Colors can sneak up on you, even if you’ve been crocheting for years.
In this post, I’ll walk you through how to avoid it with some easy color theory tips, mood-based palette ideas, and practical tricks to help your projects look polished, cohesive, and completely you.
The BIG Mistake Most Crocheters Make When Choosing Colors!
Choosing a color palette is one of the most important steps when planning your next crochet project.
It sets the mood, the vibe, the entire feel of what you’re making.
The right colors can turn even the simplest stitches into something that looks intentional and beautiful, while the wrong combo can make a project feel off, even if your stitches are perfect.
And here’s the thing… it’s so easy to get it wrong. I’ve done it more times than I care to admit—picking colors I love, only to realize later they don’t actually work together in the same piece. So today, we’re going to fix that. We’re talking about the biggest color mistake most crocheters (myself included!) make—and how you can start choosing color palettes that truly work.
This post is dedicated to the crocheters who know they aren’t the best at choosing colors and you need all the help you can get. I’m that person and these are the tips that I’m learning and applying to my crochet projects!
But if you’ve already nailed this skill or you’re naturally gifted at choosing color palettes, PLEASE share your secrets with the rest of us!
This post contains affiliates links and at no cost to you I may earn a teeny tiny commission if you choose to purchase them. Please know that I only recommend products I use and love! Thank you for supporting Elise Rose Crochet! You can read my full (and slightly boring) full disclosure here.
Choosing Colors for Crochet Projects (My Personal Struggle)
I find choosing colors for a crochet project particularly challenging.
When I start a new crochet project, I always get excited about choosing the colors. It feels like the fun part, the creative part. I grab the yarns that catch my eye, the ones that make me smile.
And sometimes? It all comes together beautifully.
But other times… not so much. Something just feels off. The colors don’t seem to belong together, even though I liked them all on their own.
Today we’re talking about the BIG mistake I think most crocheters (myself very much included) make when choosing color palettes, plus some simple ways to avoid it.
The BIG Mistake Most Crocheters Make When Choosing Colors!
So what is THE biggest mistake?
Choosing colors you love individually… without thinking about how they’ll look together.
It’s so easy to do, especially when you’re standing in a yarn aisle or scrolling through gorgeous skeins online. But even if you love teal, mustard, and lavender, that doesn’t mean they’re going to play nicely in your next crochet project.
Color Theory Mini Lesson for Crocheters
So what does work? Let’s talk a little bit about color theory and then I’ll share some of the best tools I’ve found to help me as a color challenged person.
Color Wheel
This might give you high school art class flashbacks, but it’s actually super helpful. The color wheel can help you build color palettes that actually work. A few easy options:
- Analogous colors: 3 colors side by side on the wheel (like teal, blue, and green)—these are calm and harmonious.
- Complementary colors: colors opposite each other on the wheel (like purple and yellow)—high contrast and super bold.
- Triadic colors: 3 colors evenly spaced (like red, blue, and yellow)—vibrant and energetic.
But even if you’re using a “technically good” color scheme, there are other mistakes that can still trip you up.
Ignoring Value Contrast
The first and mistake I make all the time is ignoring value contrast.
If all your yarns are mid or medium tones, your project can look flat.
When we say medium, we’re not talking about the type of color, like red or green, we’re talking about value, which is just a fancy word for how light or dark the color is.
You can have a very light pink, a medium pink, or a deep, dark magenta.
And if you use all colors that are in that “medium” zone—no lights, no darks—your project might end up looking kind of blah. Like everything is blending together
That’s why mixing in some contrast (lights and darks) is so important. It gives your crochet dimension and lets your stitches really shine.
Solution: Mixing in those lights, mediums, and darks will add so much to your project. Try squinting at your palette—or take a photo and turn it black and white to check contrast.
Using Too Many Colors (Without a Plan)
It’s tempting to use up all your scraps, but without a unifying theme, it can look chaotic.
I crocheted a scrap granny square blanket last year and I’m so glad I found this tip from Jayda in Stitches. She recommended adding either a white or dark strand to each color to give it depth. It kept the scraps from feeling crazy and it unified them. It made it feel more purposeful. I also added the white background for each square to make it look less like I was trying to use up my scraps and more like it was on purpose.
So even though this was a genuine scrap blanket it still feels cohesive.
It can also be interesting to plan the colors in a particular order, but sometimes it’s more fun to add what feels best next, which is what I did with this blanket.
Solution: Choose a grounding color (like cream, white, charcoal or even black) can help a project feel like it was planned and not thrown together.
Not Swatching First
Some yarns look amazing in the skein… and totally clash when crocheted together.
I don’t do this often enough but it’s something that can really help you nail those colors. Make a small swatch with your chosen colors. You can even just make one small granny square.
Solution: Swatch! Even just one little granny square can reveal what’s working—and what’s not.
Choosing Yarn in Bad Lighting
Another mistake is choosing yarns in bad lighting. If you’re at home try taking the yarns outside during the day to see what the colors truly look like together.
If you’re in a store, try to bring them to a window to look at them in natural light if you can.
Unnatural lighting lies to you. It can be warm and yellow, and it can change how the colors look.
If you’re buying yarn online many sites have the ability to compare colors side by side. For example on the Premier Yarns website you can click on the compare color button for each yarn in your palette. This is super helpful to be able to see them side by side!
Solution: Always check your yarn in natural light if you can!
Not Considering the Project’s Purpose
I think another big mistake is not considering the project’s purpose.
For example I talked about my first crochet project I ever made recently. It was a granny square blanket for my first little nephew. I chose the absolute wrong colors for a baby blanket (that wasn’t the only problem, but it was a big one). This blanket felt dark and heavy and if I were to do it over I would have used pastel colors like blues, creams and maybe even a little bit of yellow or green.
Now I try to think about who the project is for and where it’ll live.
Not Considering the Mood
That leads me to one of the biggest mistakes that I have made in the past and that’s not thinking about the mood.
One of the easiest ways to choose a beautiful color palette is to think about the mood you want your project to create.
Do you want something calm and peaceful? Warm and cozy? Bright and playful?
Different colors naturally evoke different feelings, and when you start with a mood in mind, it becomes so much easier to build a palette that feels intentional and cohesive. Here are a few examples to help get you inspired.
Color Palette Ideas for Crocheters
Calm, Peaceful: Colors that soothe the eye and slow the mind.
- Soft blues
- Sage or olive green
- Cream
- Light gray
- Dusty lavender
Find Calm & Peaceful Color Palettes Here
Happy, Cheerful: Bright, sunny colors that lift your mood.
- Golden yellow
- Coral
- Turquoise
- Soft peach
- White or off-white for balance
Find Happy & Cheerful Color Palettes on Pinterest
Cozy, Warm: Perfect for fall blankets or anything hygge-inspired.
- Burnt orange
- Mustard yellow
- Deep red
- Chocolate brown
- Cream or oatmeal
Find Cozy & Warm Color Palettes Here
Sophisticated, Elegant: Polished and grown-up but still creative.
- Charcoal gray
- Deep plum
- Dusty rose
- Ivory
- Navy
Find Sophisticated & Elegant Color Palettes Here
Playful, Creative: Fun for amigurumi or quirky granny squares.
- Bright pink
- Lime green
- Aqua
- Lavender
- Bright white or black for contrast
Find Playful & Creative Color Palettes Here
Vintage, Nostalgic: Inspired by old photographs, 1930s wallpaper, or heirloom quilts.
- Faded rose
- Olive green
- Soft mustard
- Warm beige
- Dusty blue
Find Vintage & Nostalgic Color Palettes Here
Color Inspiration Resources
So what do you do when you’re stuck? Here are some of my favorite places to find color inspiration:
Pinterest is one of my favorite places to find color inspiration.
Search “color palette” or “boho color scheme” or even “fall yarn palette.” You’ll get thousands of ideas. Just like we did for the moods, you can search for so many different types of color palettes! You can also type in color palette with hot pink and you’ll find all the colors that look great together.
Check Out My Pinterest Page Here
The Color Cube
I recently purchased the Color Cube because sometimes I like to have physical items (and I was totally influenced to buy it).
This is a collection of hundreds of different color palettes on cards. What I really like about this is that first of all it has an image on top of the card so that you get the vibe of the color scheme.
Then on the back you have the color name with the hex codes, which we probably won’t use as crocheters, but it’s great if you’re doing something digital. But on the opposite side are the tints and shades of each color.
Each card has 20% tint and 20% shade of the original color, that just means the lighter and darker version of each one. What I really like about this resource is that these help me get outside of my color combination box and helps me to see that you can put all kinds of amazing colors together!
Quilters Inspire Crocheters
One of my favorite places for color inspiration is the quilting community.
Oh my goodness, the quilters know how to put colors together better than anyone, in my humble opinion.
Quilt color combos are amazing because they understand contrast, texture, and balance. I like going onto Instagram and just browsing through the quilt projects there to get inspiration.
Knitters Inspire Crocheters
A tip that I learned when taking a class about knitting color work is to wrap two strands of colors you want to use and seeing if there’s enough contrast.
With knitted color work you really want there to be contrast so that you can see the design. This helps with crochet projects as well. Twisting those strands together helps you to avoid two colors that will just blend together and look muddy. Contrast is a very good thing.
Find the Doodle Knit Directory Here
The BIG Mistake Most Crocheters Make When Choosing Colors!
Listen, there’s no wrong way to crochet. And if you love a color combo—even if it breaks every rule—then go for it.
But if you’ve ever looked at a finished project and thought, “Why doesn’t this look quite right?”—I hope today’s tips give you a fresh way to think about choosing colors.
And now I want to hear from YOU!
What’s your favorite way to pick colors? Do you have a secret trick, or do you wing it like I do?
Pin for Later!
