An adjective describing the effect of an irregular arrangement of complementary and diverse colouring producing a harmonious whole. The yarn itself is mottled, having been spun with fibres of different colours and tonalities. In woven cloth it’s usually enough to use one mottled yarn alongside several other plain colours.
In any given weave the mulitcoloured yarn might contain a mixture of the other colours used, or it might be used plain to introduce just a touch of extra lightness or depth.
Mottled textiles are almost always a collection of colours reminiscent of and occurring within the landscape they are designed to represent – moorland or woodland etc.