Changing the color of part of a pattern

[#1]

Hi. I have a knitting pattern in illustrator and I would like to "fake" a pattern on it. It is now one color. The pattern swatch is only 3 "stitches" so I would either have to make the pattern swatch include more stitches so that I could make it repeating, or I would have to individually color each stitch in the pattern after it had been applied. Or some other wild idea that you have? Is there any way to do this? Thanks in advance.

[#2]

Can you show a meaningful sketch, or, if required, a couple of sketches, that may elaborate what you are looking for?

Also, which version of Illustrator are you using?