Planned Pooling Calculator

Pooling is arithmetic wearing a trench coat: your yarn repeats a color sequence, and the row width decides how the repeats stack. Enter the stitches each color gives you, slide the width, and watch for the argyle: before you’ve chained a thing.

Your Yarn’s Color Sequence

Work moss stitch along the skein and count the stitches each color makes before it changes. Enter them in order; leave extras at 0.

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Preview

35stitches per row

sequence of 17 · shift 2 per row: diagonals stack

  • Colors in sequence4
  • Sequence total17 stitches
  • Chain to start (moss)about 70 chains, worked loosely
  • Rows previewed40

How Pooling Works

sequence = the stitches of every color, added up  ·  each row shifts the sequence by (row stitches + turning) mod sequence

When the shift per row is small and steady, the colors stack into diagonals, and moss stitch’s alternating offset folds the diagonals into argyle. Widths near a whole multiple of the sequence shift gently; the preview shows exactly what any width does with your counts.

Worked Example

A sequence of 5 + 4 + 4 + 4 = 17 stitches, moss stitch:

  • At 35 stitches per row with the turning stitch, each row consumes 36 = 2 × 17 + 2: a shift of two per row: a drifting diagonal.
  • Slide one stitch narrower: 34 + 1 = 35, a shift of one, the classic tight argyle for most sequences.
  • No formula replaces the preview, because the look depends on where in the sequence each color sits. Slide until it looks right; that’s also how the yarn itself behaves.

How to Count Your Colors

  • Work 30 or so moss stitches from the skein and tally the stitches per color run, in order, around the full cycle.
  • Repeat the cycle once to confirm: hand-dyed and budget yarns both wobble a stitch here and there.
  • Match the preview to your tension: if a color keeps coming up a stitch short in real fabric, your stitches grew: tighten, or re-count and re-enter.

Assumptions and Defaults

  • The preview works in moss stitch (sc + ch-1), the planned-pooling standard, drawn serpentine the way fabric actually builds.
  • The turning chain consumes one counted stitch by default: crocheters who chain airily can set it to zero.
  • Yarn dyeing varies between skeins; re-count when a new skein joins, and splice mid-color to keep the sequence.

Pooling Questions, Answered

How do I start planned pooling?
To start planned pooling, count how many stitches each color makes in moss stitch, enter them here in order, and move the width slider until the preview shows argyle. Then chain that many stitches, loosely so the chain doesn’t change the color lengths of the first row, and keep counting colors as you work.
What stitch count makes argyle in planned pooling?
The stitch count that makes argyle shifts your color sequence by about a stitch each row, which usually means a stitch or two off a multiple of the sequence total. With a 17-stitch sequence, look near 34 and 51 stitches, although the slider finds the right count faster than the algebra.
Why did my planned pooling drift after a few rows?
Planned pooling drifts when your tension changes and one color comes out longer or shorter, so the stack slips. Count every color in every row, and when one comes out wrong, redo that color run a little tighter or looser; some drift is normal, and catching it within a row is the core skill.
Does planned pooling work with any variegated yarn?
Planned pooling works only with yarns that have a consistent repeating color sequence, so look for the phrase consistent color repeats on the label. Randomly dyed yarns make lovely fabric but no argyle, and the preview will show a blur of color instead of diamonds, which tells you the yarn’s answer.

Counting method: The Knotty Lace, planned pooling guide.