For today’s yarn review, I’m sharing my review of Muse Hand Painted Aran Yarn from We Crochet. Earlier this year, I reviewed Muse Hand Painted Fingering Weight Yarn but after getting some of the Muse Aran to design with and seeing some noteable differences in two yarns, I felt that it warranted a separate review of its own. I’ll be sharing those differences with you as well so if you’re trying to decide between ordering the Muse Hand Painted Aran and the Fingering, it may help you with your decision
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Before we get into our yarn review, let’s go over the yarn label information so we know what we’re talking about here:
We Crochet Muse Hand Painted Aran Weight/Heavy Worsted:
- Current Number of Colourways Available: 26 Check them out here on the WeCrochet website.
- Fiber Content: 100% Superwash Merino Wool
- Weight: 4 (Aran/Heavy Worsted)
- Ball Size: 100g
- Yardage: 114 yd / 104 m
- Suggested Hook Size: 5.5 – 6.5 mm (I – K)
- Suggested Needle Size: 4.5 – 5.5mm (US 7 – 10)
- Crochet Gauge: 11 – 14 scs = 4″
- Knitting Gauge: 4 – 4.5 sts = 1″
- Care: Machine Wash Gentle Cold and Tumble Dry Low
- Other Yarn Weights Available?: Yes! Also available in Fingering Weight. Check it out here on the WeCrochet website.
Check out the video review of We Crochet Muse Hand Painted Aran/Heavy Worsted yarn:
The Muse Hand Painted Aran Yarn has been, as the name suggested, hand painted. The We Crochet site says Muse Hand Painted Fingering is “meticulously dye by Japanese artisans, who blend and apply colors by hand to achieve a range of colors and chromatic explosions. Precise districution of color minimizes the streaking and pooling you might see in other hand-painted yarns.” The colours I checked out are Savvy Handpainted, Devotion Hand Painted and Serenity Tonal. It was love at first sight when I opened the box. Seriously. The colours are bold and the three of them work together perfectly. I seriously couldn’t stop looking at them. It doesn’t hurt that they are are all variations of my favourite colour but I was very pleasantly surprised that they were so much more gorgeous in person than when ordering online.
Muse is a roving yarn with a tightly twisted strand. During my video review, I noted that this will likely assist with pilling and looking at the WeCrochet site now, I can see that they have indicated that is the exact reason for such a tight twist to the strand. I have not washed my swatches yet as I ordered just enough for my design but I am interested to see what will happen after washing the swatch. The twist also has another great benefit, it made it easier for me to frog my work! If you’ve worked with roving yarn before and had to frog it, you know what a nightmare that can be! I was able to frog my swatch hassle-free with this yarn (also demonstrated in the video review). The strand has a consistent thickness throughout the strand and due to the hand painting, tonal variations can be seen on the strand as you work and result in a gorgeous fabric. Due to the fact that this is a roving yarn, there were zero issues with splitting.
The main difference between the Muse Aran and the Muse Fingering (other than the yarn weight difference) is the strand construction of the yarn. Muse Fingering is a plied yarn while Muse Aran is a roving yarn strand with a twist. Both have great stitch definition, with the Aran having a stitch definition that’s a bit more pronounced over the fingering. The second difference is that while both yarns are comprised of Superwash Merino wool, the fingering weight has a 25% nylon content (for sock making) while the Aran weight is 100% superwash merino. At the time of writing this, both yarns are sold for the same price but the Aran weight has 114 yards and the fingering weight hanks have 423.
I created two different swatched with Muse Hand Painted Aran yarn. Since I ordered two tonal colourways and 1 variegated colourway, I did a swatch with one of the tonals and the other with the variegated so you can see how the colours work up. I did my swatch with the Devotion Hand Painted (the variegated colourway) with a 6.0mm crochet hook and basic stitches – starting with single crochets, moving to half doubles and finishing with double crochets. The colours were beautiful but I found the fabric to be a bit stiffer than I would have liked. For my next swatch, I used the Savvy Tonal and a 7.0mm crochet hook. The fabric had a bit more drape but had more gaps in the fabric than I would have liked. The fabrics will tend to relax a bit more after being soaked in a wool wash and blocked but ultimately, more experimentation that includes some blocking will need to be done for me to find the fabric that I’m after.
Overall, Muse Hand Painted Aran was a pleasure to work with and I’m excited to begin my design with this yarn. If you’re trying to decide between the Muse Fingering and the Muse Aran, honestly, you can’t really go wrong with either one. I thoroughly enjoyed both of them and will definitely be utilizing both of them again in the future.
Thanks for checking out this yarn review. I hope you found it helpful. While you’re here, check out some free crochet patterns and crochet product reviews:
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- Crochet Witch Gnome Ornament free pattern
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