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Custom Colourways & Sampling for Wholesale Crochet

Updated 18 October 2026 · Wholesale guide · Reading time ~6 min

A colourway is one named combination of yarn shades applied to one pattern — and because crochet carries colour in the yarn rather than in print, an existing design can be re-run in a new palette in about one working day.

What a colourway actually is in crochet

A colourway is one named combination of yarn shades applied to one pattern. In crochet it is a materials decision, not a print decision: nothing is inked onto the surface, so the shade you approve is the shade of the yarn that was dyed for that run. That single fact explains both the flexibility and the constraint of the process — changing colour is fast, but matching a shade months later depends on the dye lot.

Colour switch versus a new sample

The one-day figure is the reason a wholesale range can be tested in several palettes before a single bulk order is placed. It is also why colour is the cheapest variable to experiment with, and the one most worth getting right before production.

How to specify a colour precisely

Vague colour briefs are the main cause of rejected samples. Any of the following removes the ambiguity, in descending order of reliability:

1. A physical yarn or fabric swatch posted to us — the only reference that survives a mill's own naming.
2. A Pantone TCX reference, which is the textile standard rather than the print (TPG/coated) standard.
3. A hex or RGB value from a digital file, accepted with the caveat that screen calibration shifts it.
4. A photograph, used only as a starting direction, never as a match target.

Where a buyer supplies a brand palette, we translate each shade into the nearest available yarn and send the conversion for approval before sampling. The approval step is deliberate: a shade that matches on screen can still be one step off once spun.

Dye lots and reorder matching

Yarn is dyed in batches, and two batches of the same nominal shade can differ slightly. Practical controls:

• A yarn batch is locked at sampling, so the approved sample and the bulk run come from the same dye lot wherever the quantity allows.
• A retained sample is kept for every approved colourway and used as the reference on later reorders.
• Reorder quantities are quoted against the available lot, and a lot change is flagged before production rather than after delivery.
• Where an exact match is essential — a licensed range, or a shop whose displays carry a fixed palette — the lot is reserved for the season at order confirmation.

MOQ and what sampling costs

Minimum order quantity follows the hand-work in a design rather than its price: crochet dolls and amigurumi start at 100 sets, crochet flowers and bouquets at 200 pieces, and small keychains or bag charms from 200 pieces. Colourways within one category can be mixed in a single order, so a first buy can cover several palettes without meeting each threshold separately.

Bespoke sampling is charged at USD 45–80 depending on size and detail, and the fee is credited against the bulk order. With more than 8,000 designs already patterned, a large share of requests are answered by recolouring an existing pattern rather than drafting from zero — which is what makes the one-day switch possible.

Colour continuity across seasons is the other half of a custom palette: see seasonal colour planning and dye-lot risk.

Frequently asked questions