Roundup | 10 Ways to Create DIY Ombres, Gradients & Fades

In knit-world, ombres, gradients and fades continue to be a big color story, which is why we've spent much of the past year exploring numerous ways to create your own. 

The reasoning is simple. Fads come and go, but gradients remain one of the most versatile strategies you can use to maximize a prepackaged kit, leverage a few skeins of newly acquired yarn, or transform stash skeins into something fresh and fabulous.

Whether they fade from light to dark or soft to bright, you can distinguish between ombres, gradients and fades based on the color strategy involved. Briefly, in my world:

Ombres feature a monochromatic approach using shades from a single color family.
Gradients typically incorporate multiple shades from two or more color families.
Fades may do either.

These guidelines are open to any interpretation that works for you, but in general, it takes at least two colors and three stages or shifts to achieve a gradient or ombre effect. Anything less, and you're essentially working some variation of stripes or color blocking. With this in mind, let's revisit 10 easy strategies for creating your own DIY gradient and ombre combinations.

(Click the titles below to see the original posts, each of which highlights five different strategies. Click a bullet item to see how-to directions for that technique.)


Ombres & Gradients: 5 Ways to Create Your Own

This post shares strategies for creating a:

• Simple custom gradient using three colors.
• Three-stage gradient using two colors.
• Four-stage gradient using five colors.
• Five-stage gradient (option 1) using three colors.
• Five-stage gradient (option 2) using six colors.

Ombres & Gradients: 5 Fresh Ways to Create Your Own

This post shares strategies for working a:

• Six-stage gradient using three colors.
• Seven-stage gradient using four colors.
• Nine-stage gradient using five colors.
• Five-stage mirror gradient using two colors.
• Three-stage variegated gradient using four colors.

As you can see, you can begin creating gradients with as few as two skeins, which makes these different approaches especially useful for stashbusting. By mixing and matching awkward orphans and singletons, it's both fun and easy to create combinations that are uniquely your own.

With more than 20 posts exploring different facets of ombres, gradients and fades, you'd think we would have exhausted this topic, but au contraire! From useful stitches and techniques to untapped color strategies, several new gradient posts are hovering on the horizon. 

Meanwhile, I hope these ideas will inspire you to experiment, because where ombres, gradients and fades are concerned the possibilities are truly endless.

RELATED

Ombres & Gradients: What's the Difference?	Stashbusting Strategies (Part II)

To see all ombre and gradient posts, click here.
Connecting with the linkups in the sidebar.