Yarn Review: Knit Picks Muse

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If you’ve ever taken time to peruse my “portfolio” of knitted creations, you probably noticed that I primarily work in solid colors… occasionally a tonal will sneak in, but I almost never work with multi-colored yarn.  Lately, however, I have been making an exception for Knit Picks’ new-ish hand painted sock yarn, Muse.

The primary reasons I steer away from multi-colored yarns are because (1) I don’t like the way it tends to pool in places when you add shaping, like a sock gusset; and (2) sometimes drastic contrast in the yarn colors can be too overwhelming and will take away from my careful stitchwork.

I don’t have these problems with Muse.  Knit Picks designed it to be as “pool-resistant” as possible.  It is hand dyed by skilled artisans who place the colors strategically to avoid the patterns that cause pools or stripes like you see in other hand painted yarns.  They also offer color options that are pretty subtle so it doesn’t take away from your stitch work.  (They also have the high-contrast options if that’s your jam!  Check out “Impulse”.)

These socks were made with the color “Poetic.”  Notice the lack of pooling?  Also love how the subtle color shifts add to the beauty of the lace instead of distracting from it.

I made the shawl below in “Savvy”, and again, I’m super excited that the color transitions stay even, despite the fact that the stitch counts changed constantly.  I also loved the texture of the yarn for a shawl like this.  It had great drape.  The softness & twist in Muse is very similar to Stroll, if you are familiar with that yarn (it’s my fave!)

Finally, they recently launched a line of Speckle colorways in Muse!  I’m a sucker for speckles.  I snagged this skein, in the colorway “Enthusiasm” but haven’t picked a pattern yet.  Any ideas?

Have you tried Muse? What did you think of it?