8 Tips to Handling Black Yarn
Always avoided using dark colours in your yarn? Or worse still, just avoided black yarn altogether? We have all been there. I do use a lot of black yarn nonetheless, like the time I made Kylo Ren or Black Panther (c’mon how not to use black). So these are my top 8 tips to embracing black yarn into your crochet project!
Environmental factors
1) Use plenty of bright light
If you are like me a night crocheter (when work is over and kids are finally sleeping!), then using day sunlight is probably not a common option. Then consider getting a reading light, best to be diffused white light so you can see the individual stitches more clearly. There are headlamps and neck lamps too but personally am not too big a fan of them. The last time I used a headlamp was to remove a foreign insect from a man’s ear lol, ok off topic.
2) Crochet against a white background
Crocheting against a white background on a table or a pillow helps with the contrast of the individual stitches. On top of that, it helps if you try to loosen the tension in the crochet stitches as well. As you can see, sometimes you need to squint to see where the previous stitch ends and where next stitch begins.
Equipment factors
3) Stitch markers
Stitch markers are very useful for me, especially when you are crocheting black rows continuously at a time and you can’t seem to remember the last time you started a row. You can always use safety pins or paper clips as reasonable substitutes be beware sometimes they may fray the yarn.
4) Stitch counter
For a stitch counter, I find it more useful for counting the rounds, rather than the individual stitches in a round (see previous point, stitch marker more relevant). For example, if you are going to be doing 10 rounds of continuous all black stitches, you are not only going to forget which stitch in the round but which round as well! So the counter helps with the latter, or you could download a free stitch counting app like ’My Row Counter, Knit & Crochet’.
5) Chunkier yarn
So this was back then when I actually used T-shirt yarn (no kidding, I cut up my husband’s old black T-shirts) to make a big foot stool for my living room. When you use chunkier yarn with a bigger crochet hook and the tension is reduced, the individual black stitches do appear more apparent. Also when you use T-shirt yarn, it does not really fray and the crocheting process is smoother but of course your amigurumi increases in size!
6) Lighted crochet hooks
Yes there is such a thing! Honestly I never knew it before and I personally have not used it. There are even different lightness settings and a USB cable! Go ahead and try it and see if it helps. It is supposed to help especially with dark yarn or in this case, black yarn.
Technique factors
7) Mix it up with other colours
Including other colours in your amigurumi makes for good interval breaks between the black stitches. Also, if you do lose count in the middle of the round, you can backtrack based on the last coloured yarn. To be honest, the black stitches are so difficult to differentiate, if you choose to use elaborate crocheting techniques, it may not even reflect clearly! So stick to simple single crochet stitches or if you are doing something more elaborate, mix it up with other colours - like I did here with silver yarn for Black Panther!
8) Make sure to untangle the yarn as you are crocheting
Getting black entangled yarn is no joke… it is as difficult to untangle as silver yarn. Once you tighten the knots while trying to untangle the knots, the black yarn just gets more and more tangled. As you can see, once silver entangles with black and other colours as well, trying to clear the knots takes up more time than the crocheting! So make sure to try to untangle it as you are working on the project… or if all else fails, cut it and restart again!
So there, my 8 tips for handling black yarn. Hope it was useful… I had all the similar issues when I was trying to make this little guy. I switched from making a baby Black Panther (lol, actually my 1st version) to making a more elaborate Black Panther:
If you happen to be interested in the Black Panther pattern, can go check it out here. Reblog or share this post if you feel it was useful!
Enjoy hooking your black yarn!
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