Experimenting with Marled Yarn: Part 3 Continued

In last week’s newsletter, I introduced the technique of assigned pooling and shared my plan to explore it using my beautiful marled yarn from JulieSpins.

This article is part of an ongoing series where I experiment with various stitches and techniques to find the perfect crochet fabric for that yarn. I’ll include links to the previous experiments at the end if you want to catch up. But first, here’s a quick refresher on what assigned pooling is before we dive into this week’s experiment.

Assigned pooling gained popularity in the knitting world, thanks to designer Dawn Barker of Barker Wool, and crocheters have started embracing it too.

What Is Assigned Pooling?

In this technique, different stitches are assigned to specific colors in a variegated yarn. When a certain color appears as you’re working, you switch to its assigned stitch—often something textured like puff or bobble stitches—while the rest is worked in a simple stitch, like double crochet.

The technique works best with yarns dyed specifically for this purpose. Typically, they feature a long stretch of one color and a short, contrasting accent color. The textured stitch uses more yarn, concentrating the accent color into little pops, while the base color forms a calm backdrop.

Want to see examples? A quick search for “assigned pooling yarn” will show you just how creative dyers have gotten.

How Does It Differ from Planned Pooling?

Assigned and planned pooling both work with the color repeats in variegated yarn, but the similarities stop there. Planned pooling is
precise—it requires swatching, counting stitches per color, and adjusting tension to create predictable patterns like argyle or plaid.

Will This Work with My JulieSpins Yarn? Let’s Find Out!

Step 1: Choose the yarn

Most sources recommend yarns dyed specifically for assigned pooling, but you can absolutely experiment with any variegated or self-striping yarn. I decided to untwist a hank of my JulieSpins Marled and take a closer look at how the colors are structured.

Typically, assigned pooling yarns have about three-quarters of the hank dyed in a base color, with the remaining quarter in a high-contrast accent color.

Here’s what my marled hank looks like unwound:

It’s hard to tell from this vantage point how much is white and how much is black, but I think it’s safe to say that it doesn’t fit the 3/4 base color and 1/4 accent color rule. Will this affect how the pooling plays out? Probably! But let’s give it a try and see what happens.

Step 2: Choose the right stitch

The next step is choosing the right stitch. After diving into my (frankly huge) collection of stitch dictionaries, I settled on a wrapped stitch.

Here’s why I think this stitch will work well for assigned pooling:

• It’s a type of stitch that will pull the accent color together in a visually striking way.

• It’s a “hungry” stitch; meaning it will eat up a lot of yarn.

• It will be easy to work this special stitch into another special stitch if the color sequence happens to line up that way.

Here is how to make this wrapped double crochet:

1. Work as many double crochet (dc) as you like.

2. Then, work a double crochet 2 together (dc2tog) around the last 2 dc made. Here’s how:

*Yarn over, insert hook from front to back around the posts of the last 2 dc made, yarn over, pull a loop around the posts, yarn over, draw through 2 loops (2 loops on hook—pictured at left below); working around the same 2 dc, rep from * one time (3 loops on hook—pictured center), yarn over, draw through all 3 loops on hook. Wrapped stitch complete (pictured right).

3. Skip the next stitch. Continue working a dc in each stitch across until you want to make another wrapped stitch.

Step 3: Make a preliminary swatch

To test it out, I crocheted a swatch using a D-3 (3.25 mm) hook. I started with around 50 chains, worked double crochet in each chain, and switched to my wrapped stitch when I hit a black section in the yarn.

I discovered that I was able to fit exactly two wrapped stitches in one black sequence. Magic! I actually did a little happy dance. I’ll be working groups of two wrapped stitches in this swatch.

For each additional row, I began with a ch-3, then worked dc stitches across until I hit another black section—then I worked two wrapped stitches again.

While I loved the texture this created, the wrapped stitches began to stack, creating an almost striped look. I was aiming for something more abstract and irregular.

Stacking like this seems to be a result of using consistent stitch counts. In a future design, I might use increases to break that pattern up. For instance, this stitch might work beautifully with this yarn in a triangle shawl or corner-to-corner project. But for now, I wanted to experiment within a rectangular swatch.

To disrupt the stacking, I tried adding a row of single crochet between each double crochet row.

Well… that didn’t help. Now we’ve got stacking and striping.

Step 4: Don’t give up! Try something else.

I was ready to give up. But something in me really wanted to make this work.

I tried changing the stitch count again—no luck. So I opted for a different approach: what if I could alter how long or short the black and white sections appear by varying the stitch types?

I started a new swatch with 40 stitches. In the third row, I switched to a mesh pattern (dc, ch 1, skip next st) until I reached the wrapped stitches in the previous row, where I went back to solid dc. This shifted the next black section about seven stitches to the left so that it wouldn’t be stacked on top of the previous one. Could I be onto something?

This was a full-on experiment. I didn’t follow a pattern—I trusted my instincts. I avoided using mesh in the wrapped stitch sections (too busy), used mesh to stretch the white areas, and kept it solid where I wanted to compress. Occasionally, I even worked mesh stitches with black sections to space things out a bit and add variety.

It felt like freeform crochet in the best way.

Conclusion

In the end, I made a fabric I like, but it took far more trial and error than I expected. Assigned pooling is often described as effortless and meditative: just stitch until you see a certain color, then switch. My experience with my marled yarn? Not so simple.

With this yarn, at least, the process was anything but mindless. I wouldn’t want to make anything larger than a clutch or skinny scarf using this method—it’s just too mentally taxing. But if you enjoy freeform crochet and like making decisions row by row, this might be your jam!

So… what’s next in my marled yarn journey? I’m still figuring that out, but I’d love to hear your ideas! Have you tried a stitch or technique that worked well with a hand-dyed variegated yarn? Is there something you’ve been curious to try with assigned pooling or marled yarns? Let me know by replying to this email—I’d be thrilled to experiment with one of your suggestions in a future article.

Previous Articles in This Series

Part 1: Holding additional colors double for an extra marled effect

Part 2: Pairing marled yarn with shorter stitches

Part 3: Introduction to assigned pooling

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