Palindrome skeins are made by an artisan yarn-dyeing technique where dye is poured or painted onto skeins in a striped pattern. This method allows dyers to align multiple skeins in a row and apply the dye consistently across all of them simultaneously. The resulting skeins remain consistent in larger projects and streamline a time-consuming process.

This dyeing technique is especially valuable for weavers, particularly those using rigid heddle looms. Palindrome-dyed skeins enable color pooling in the warp, helping to maintain the integrity of the skein’s color pattern and avoiding the inherent chaos of working with variegated yarns.

Identifying Palindrome-Dyed Skeins

You can identify palindrome-dyed skeins by checking if the colors align when the skein is untwisted. This requires untwisting the skeins in a yarn store, so always ask for assistance first! Some brands frequently use this method, while others rarely do.

Because palindrome-dyed yarns rely on consistent color placement, they can be challenging to order online. Not every dyer and retailer knows this term and won’t be able to answer you if you ask directly, so you may need to buy them in person or dye them yourself.

The magic of palindrome-dyed skeins lies in their symmetry: no matter which direction you pull the yarn from, the color patterns remain consistent.

This photo demonstrates the difference between two palindrome-dyed skeins and one that isn’t.

For the Top Skein ( top two yarns are Palindrome Skeins): Imagine pulling the yarn end from the right side and unwinding it clockwise. The dye pattern would flow as mint, blue, light blue, mint, blue, mint, light blue, blue, mint. Now, picture unwinding it counterclockwise—the color pattern remains exactly the same. This symmetry is the hallmark of palindrome-dyed skeins.

Bottom Skein (Not a Palindrome Skein):
If you pull the yarn from the right and unwind clockwise, the first color will be green. However, if you unwind counterclockwise, the first color could be blue. The pattern changes depending on the direction.

Does this make non-palindrome skeins unusable? Not at all! For example, the vivid magenta section of this skein can be aligned intentionally to create a stunning effect, with magenta blending into blue and green intermixing. The resulting cloth would be unique and vibrant, achieving a look challenging to replicate with a painted warp.

How to pool colors of palindrome skeins while direct warping

First, we need to determine how long our warp can be. Measure the skein laying flat.

When working with palindrome-dyed skeins, some loops of the skein will be shorter and others longer. To estimate warp length, I measure from the middle of the skein’s thickness—in this example, about 28”.

For my final warp, the length needs to be a multiple of this measurement, such as 56”, 84”, 112”, and so on. This is only an estimate, as slight inconsistencies will arise while aligning the colors. Adjustments of a few inches may be necessary along the entire warp to ensure proper color alignment.

Ball the skein as usual. Once your skein is in a ball, it’s hard to know where the colors repeat.

Pull out a length of yarn, double your warp length, and adjust the center point until you find where the dye pattern returns on itself.

Tie one end on your back beam and pull the loop through the heddle slot.

Readjust if needed, then tie a little knot at the “bend” at the end of the warp then loop it round your peg.

This next warp loop tends to be the most challenging, but once I have these two loops warped, the rest follows more smoothly. Wrap it around the back beam apron as usual,

Match the colors as you walk the warp to the peg (or chair). It might take some adjusting to get them to match.

Tie a second knot in the loop at the peg end (or chair, or any warp anchor you’re using). These knots serve as reference knots. Keep them aligned at the peg to ensure consistent positioning, letting any slack in the warp resolve itself at the back beam.

For subsequent warp passes, the process will require less adjustment. Pull the loops through and adjust them until the colors align. If they become misaligned,  realign the reference knots first at the peg to bring them back into sync, then adjust each following warp loop to match.

Since this method prioritizes color matching over maintaining specific tension, the warp near the warp beam can become uneven and unstable, making it harder to keep the colors aligned. To address this, tie a choke tie behind the heddle every 5–7 loops. This keeps the warp ends secure and prevents the colors from shifting during the warping process.

You can use more than one skein for the warp; expect there to be a more significant shift in colors where you attach the new skein.

Once the loom is warped, beam as usual and thread.

What is the difference between painted warps and palindrome skeins on the final piece?

First, let’s look at the warps side by side:

A painted warp allows you to pool colors so that the color changes occur across the width of the warp, not just along its length.

When woven, pooling with palindrome-dyed skeins creates a more subtle effect. Colors gently fade into one another, there are no sharp lines. However, smaller color sections in the skein can sometimes get lost because they are hard to align, making the overall effect less dramatic compared to more distinct color transitions of painted warps.

There is also more color drag between each section for longer transition areas between colors. 

Painted warps can be more detailed and have sharper color transitions, lending a more dramatic effect. Painted warps are adjacent to ikat techniques that open a new world patterning in the warp.

Before wrapping up, I want to fully credit Syne Mitchell, who introduced me to the concept of palindrome skeins years ago through a WeaveZine blog post she authored. Although that post has since been lost, it provided invaluable insight into the technique. Syne goes into further detail in her book Inventive Weaving on the Little Loom.

And just for fun, did you know that computer scientist and weaver Ralph Griswold (of Handweaving.net fame) also collected palindromes?

To read more about using artisan-dyed yarns, read Tien’s blog : How to weave with handpainted yarns

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