Variegated Yarn Guide

Variegated yarns created in the Yarn Catalog

What Are Variegated Yarns?

Variegated yarns have multiple colors along their length — think of a hand-painted skein that shifts from blue to green to gold, or a tweedy wool flecked with bits of different colors. TempoWeave can show how these yarns will actually look in your woven cloth, so you can plan your project with confidence before you ever wind a warp.

Variegation Types

Space-Dyed

Distinct blocks of color with sharp transitions between them. The yarn is one color for a stretch, then switches to the next. This is the most common type of hand-dyed variegated yarn.

Ombre

Colors flow gradually from one to the next with smooth, gentle transitions. There are no hard edges — each color melts into the next.

Self-Striping

Like space-dyed, but with longer color runs designed to produce visible stripes in the finished cloth.

Heathered

A fine, random speckle of two colors mixed together — like traditional tweedy wool. The result is a rich, textured surface rather than distinct color blocks.

Marled

Simulates two plies of different colors twisted together, creating a fine alternating pattern with slight irregularity — just like a real marled yarn.

Where You'll See It

Once you set up a variegated yarn, its colors appear everywhere in TempoWeave:

• The drawdown (your main weaving draft)

• The warp and weft color bars

• Fabric Viewer (realistic cloth preview)

• Weave Assistant (pick-by-pick weaving guide)

• All printed output — drawdown, threading, treadling, color cards, project summary, and warp winding plan

Setting Up a Variegated Yarn

From the Yarn Catalog

1. Open the Yarn Catalog and select or create a yarn

2. Find the Variegation section in the yarn editor

3. Choose a type from the dropdown (Space-Dyed, Ombre, etc.)

4. Add color stops — each stop has a color and a position along the yarn (0.0 = start, 1.0 = end of one repeat)

5. Set the Repeat Length — how many threads before the color sequence starts over

6. Set the Thread Offset — how much the pattern shifts from one thread to the next (this creates diagonal color flow, explained below)

7. Watch the preview bar at the bottom to see what your yarn will look like

8. When you add this yarn to your project palette, the variegation comes with it

From the Project Palette

1. Double-click a color in your project palette

2. The same variegation controls are available

3. Changes here only affect this project — your catalog yarn stays unchanged

Understanding the Settings

Repeat Length

This controls how many cells (threads or picks) make up one full cycle of your color sequence before it starts over.

• Short repeat (e.g., 10): Tight, frequent color changes

• Long repeat (e.g., 50): Broad, sweeping color blocks

Thread Offset

This is the key to making variegated yarn look realistic. On a real loom, the yarn is one continuous strand — thread 2 picks up exactly where thread 1 left off. The thread offset simulates this by shifting the color pattern from one thread to the next.

• Offset = 0: Every thread starts at the same point in the color sequence, creating straight horizontal or vertical bands

• Small offset: Gently diagonal color flow across the cloth

• Large offset: Steep diagonal color flow

To get a physically accurate result, use the Warp or Weft buttons next to the Thread Offset spinner. These auto-calculate the correct offset based on your project dimensions:

• Warp: Calculates the right offset for warp yarn based on your weft pick count

• Weft: Calculates the right offset for weft yarn based on your warp thread count

These buttons appear disabled when editing a yarn outside of a project context (e.g., in the Yarn Catalog). Once the yarn is added to a project palette, the buttons become active. You can also set any offset value manually if you want artistic control rather than physical accuracy.

Blend Ratio (Heathered and Marled only)

Controls the mix between the two colors:

• 0.5: Even 50/50 mix

• Lower values: More of the first color

• Higher values: More of the second color

How Each Type Distributes Color

Space-Dyed and Self-Striping

Each color gets a solid block. The block runs from its position to the next color's position. The last color extends to the end of the repeat.

For example, with three colors at positions 0.00, 0.33, and 0.66:

• Color 1 fills 0% to 33%

• Color 2 fills 33% to 66%

• Color 3 fills 66% to 100%

Tip: To give each color equal space, distribute the stops evenly. Use the distribute evenly button (⇔) in the editor.

Ombre

Colors blend smoothly from one stop to the next. Each color is at full strength at its stop position and transitions gradually to the next color in between.

Tip: To create a repeating ombre that loops smoothly, add a copy of your first color at position 1.0. For example: Red at 0.0, Blue at 0.5, Red at 1.0.

Heathered

A random speckle of two colors. Only the first two color stops matter — additional stops are ignored. The pattern looks like a tweedy, salt-and-pepper texture. Stop positions and repeat length don't apply to this type.

Marled

An alternating checkerboard of two colors with slight random variation, simulating twisted plies. Like heathered, only the first two color stops are used. The alternation pattern gives it a distinctive plied-yarn character.

Show/Hide Toggle

For large projects, rendering variegated colors on every thread can slow things down. You can turn it on or off:

• Ribbon: View tab > Show Variegated checkbox

• macOS menu: View > Show Variegated Yarns

When turned off, all yarns display as their base solid color. Variegation is enabled by default.

File Compatibility

• Variegation is saved in .wif files as a custom section. Other weaving software will simply ignore it and show solid colors — your files remain fully compatible.

• .twa files (TempoWeave archives) preserve variegation inside their embedded WIF.

• Catalog yarns keep their variegation profile, and it transfers automatically when you add the yarn to a project.

Quick-Start Example

Let's say you have a hand-painted warp yarn that goes Blue → Green → Gold in repeating segments:

1. Open the Yarn Catalog, create or select your yarn

2. Set the type to Space-Dyed

3. Add three color stops:

   • Blue at position 0.00

   • Green at position 0.33

   • Gold at position 0.66

4. Set Repeat Length to 20 (each color block spans about 7 threads)

5. Add the yarn to your project palette and assign it to the warp

6. Click the Warp button next to the Thread Offset spinner to auto-calculate the diagonal shift (this button is enabled once the yarn is assigned to a project)

7. Check the drawdown — you'll see the color blocks flowing diagonally across your cloth, just as they would on the real loom

Note the variegation on the weft as well as the tri-color block in Active Palette.