Color Me This: Tips for Choosing Your Own Sweater Palette

When editor Kate Larson accepted my Amplitude Pullover design for Farm & Fiber Knits Fall 2025, we decided on La Rinconada yarn from Wooldreamers, a company with a holistic philosophy that grows from founder Ramón Cabo’s mission to champion the wool industry in Spain.

La Rinconada is spun from wool raised by shepherd Maria Pia Sanchez of the Dehesa de La Rinconada ranch in the Extremadura Region of western Spain. This organic wool is blended into four bases in a gradient: Bianco, Niebla, Granito, and Tierra. These colors overdyed with four different hues, plus an additional color Cacao (a pure dark moorit made from rare “black” fleeces), bring the total offering of color choices in this yarn to 21. The beauty of such a coherent palette makes choosing for colorwork almost fool-proof but a challenge to settle on just one.

Choosing palettes for knits can be so much fun, and I am delighted to share a few of the other ideas I had for alternative combinations of this yarn.

Two Colors for Contrast

The chart in the pattern proper for the Amplitude Pullover benefits from the contrast between the dark background of the rich blue Granito Azul (blue) with the muted pop of the Granito Gold (yellow) and the natural shade of Granito (gray), as you can see in the image above. A knitter might be inspired to reduce the chart to pure contrast using just two colors—light stitches against a dark background, or flip it and place dark stitches against a lighter background. With charting software, we can preview these alternatives using the La Rinconada colors Niebla (light) and Tierra (dark).

Experiment to determine whether you prefer light stitches against a dark background, or the other way around. Shown here are Niebla (light) and Tierra (dark).

Shifting Three Colors

Another possibility would be to shuffle the three colors used in the sample, changing the “feeling” of the sweater as the darker Azul and Gold shift visual emphasis in their assigned stitches.

Compare how the Azul and Gold play next to each other in different scenerios.

Monochromatic Experiment

It’s also tempting to explore monochromatic options using other Wooldreamers colors, such as Bianco Verde (green over white) and Tierra Verde (green over dark), adding in Niebla Natural (a pale neutral) as the third. Playing with different arrangements of these three colors, giving each of them a chance to serve as the background, results in this colorway.

Consider monochromatic versions of a favorite color.

Stripe Options

Not to neglect the moody pinks that this yarn comes in, here’s the chart worked using Niebla Rosa (pink over pale), Tierra Verde (green over dark), and undyed Niebla, with the pattern stripe happening in the design stitches (shown at left). And for something just a little different, here is that same pattern stripe but worked in the background stitches (shown at right).

Options that highlight the pinks.

Should any of these combinations inspire you to knit the Amplitude Pullover, or lead you to explore a design of your own, remember that knitting a personal garment is always a balancing act. It helps to visualize your result. When in doubt, swatch!

— Julia