Meet Hue & Hook: My Free Crochet Color Theory & Yarn Color Planner Tool
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Stuck picking yarn colors? Hue & Hook is my free color theory tool for crocheters — color wheel, palettes, value checks, and color draping.
If you’ve ever stood in the yarn aisle holding two skeins, tilting your head, squinting, and thinking “do these actually go together, or am I about to ruin this blanket?” — I made this for you.
I get some version of this question All. The. Time: “Nicki, how do you pick your color combos?” Usually I just say “color theory,” and I can tell that’s not a satisfying answer, because color theory sounds like something you’d learn in art school, not something you need to finish a granny square blanket. So instead of just telling you, I decided to build you something you can actually play with.
Meet Hue & Hook, my free crochet color theory tool, built right into this post. It’s got a color wheel you can click around on, instant harmony suggestions (the color-nerd term for “colors that actually go together”), a way to check whether two colors are secretly the same shade in disguise, and — my favorite part — a color draping tool that lets you upload your own photo and see which yarn colors actually suit you, not just the blanket.
I built something kind of like this before with Year in Yarn, my free temperature blanket calculator, which helps you plan out an entire year of color changes. Hue & Hook is the tool I wish I’d had before that one — the one that helps you actually choose the colors in the first place, whether you’re planning a temperature blanket, a granny square project, a garment, or you’re just standing in your stash trying to make something work.
Go ahead and play with “Hue & Hook” below, then come back here and I’ll walk you through what everything does and why.
Why I Built This (and Why You’ll Actually Use It)
I’m going to be honest with you: I did not build this because color theory is my favorite topic to think about. I built it because I was tired of the guessing game — buying yarn that looked perfect under store lighting and then looking completely different once it got home, or finishing a project and realizing two of my “matching” colors were actually just… the same darkness, dressed up differently.
Here’s what’s actually happening in each part of the tool, and why it earns a spot in your process:
The Color Wheel
This is your starting point. Tap anywhere on the wheel to pick a base color, and drag the lightness slider to make it lighter or darker. This isn’t just a pretty picker — it’s the same color wheel that professional designers use, just built for yarn instead of paint chips.
Colors That Go With It
Once you’ve picked a color, this section shows you real color relationships — complementary (opposites, for bold contrast), analogous (neighbors, for a soft blended look), triadic, and more — using your color, not some random example. Each one comes with a plain-English explanation of when you’d actually reach for it, so you’re not just trusting a computer; you’re learning why it works.
Check the Value (This One’s a Game Changer)
This is the section I wish every crocheter knew about before their first colorwork project. Two yarns can be totally different colors and still be the same value — meaning the same lightness or darkness — which is exactly how stitch definition disappears in tapestry crochet, C2C graphs, or photos. This tool shows you your colors side-by-side in grayscale so you can catch that problem before you’ve crocheted three skeins into it.
Tints, Tones & Shades
If you’ve ever wondered what actually separates a “dusty” color from a “bright” one, this is it. Play with one hue and watch it lighten into a tint, mute into a tone, or deepen into a shade — and tap any result to send it straight up to the wheel.
Compare Your Actual Yarn
This part is just plain practical: upload photos of the yarn you already own, one at a time, and the tool pulls the color and shows you exactly how light or dark each one really is — then lets you drag them into a gradient order. Perfect for multi-color blankets, ombré projects, or just double-checking your stash before you commit.
Will These Colors Work Together?
Build a little palette from whatever you’re considering — pull in a color from the wheel, add a neutral, or import the yarn colors you just compared — and get an honest, plain-language read on whether the combo works and why (or what might help it work better).
Drape It On Yourself
This is the one that gets the most excited reactions when I show people, because it’s borrowed straight from the fashion world. Professional stylists literally hold fabric up under someone’s chin to see what colors make their skin glow — it’s called color draping. I built the same idea into this tool: upload a photo, and it’ll suggest colors based on your skin tone, then let you virtually “try on” any color as a hat, scarf, shawl, or garment, right on your own photo. So the next time you’re deciding what color to make yourself a project (instead of a gift), you’ll actually know what’s going to look good on you before you buy a single skein.
Everything you build in the tool can be printed or saved as a PDF for your project notes, and none of your photos are ever uploaded anywhere — it all happens right there in your browser, and disappears the moment you refresh the page.
A Few Extra Resources
If you want to go deeper on the actual color theory behind all this, Wikipedia’s rundown on tints, shades, and tones is a solid, no-fluff explanation. And if the personal color draping section intrigued you, here’s more on how color analysis works in the fashion and styling world — it’s the exact same concept I borrowed for the drape-yourself feature, just done with actual stylists and fabric swatches instead of a website.
As for yarn to actually put these colors into? I design almost everything using WeCrochet yarn — their color range makes it so much easier to actually find the tint or shade you just discovered you needed.
Now go pick some colors you’re actually going to love — and if you make something using a combo you found in here, I would love to see it! Tag me on Instagram or share it in Nicki’s Crochet Club, my all-access membership where I help you troubleshoot exactly this kind of thing.
Happy hooking! 🧶
— Nicki
