Yarn Profile: Muschio

First Impressions
It's hard to find a bulky yarn with good fiber content that's soft to the touch and interesting to the eye. Muschio is one such yarn.

Brought to you by our friends in Italy, it is also an expensive yarn. One skein has 39 yards and retails for $8.95, which means an average loose-fitting women's sweater could run into the high $100s.

Knitting Up
Muschio is a cord-spun yarn that consists of three separately spun strands that have a slight loopy boucle texture thrown in. As a result, although the yarn is bulky and knits up quickly, it will make even the easiest of patterns look like much, much more.

At a little over three stitches per inch, you could easily knit up a sweater in a weekend, but why rush it? You'll want to savor every moment.

The boucle-like texture did add a slight challenge. There's a lot going on in every strand, so you do need to pay attention. It's easy to knit only two of the three strands by mistake, or to miss a loop.

Blocking / Washing
There was slight bleeding during washing. After my swatches dried, I noticed that my ocean-colored blue had faded ever so slightly, taking on a hint of yellow in the process. It wasn't too much, but I did notice it.

The stitches flattened out nicely, and the surface of the swatches developed a more uniform sheen. There was no stretching whatsoever.

Wearing
This yarn is fabulously soft with a nice, substantial loft to it. It's not fit for patterns where drape is important, but it's ideal for any hug-me/squeeze-me sweaters. (Vogue Knitting featured it for one such sweater on the cover of its Fall 2000 issue.)

Even after I gave the swatches a terrible thrashing, the gauge stayed true and the fiber refrained from pilling.

Conclusion
I see price as the only potential limiting factor for this yarn. Its buttery softness and thick, rich texture will make even the simplest designs stand out.

If you can afford it, you'll have a very special treat when you're done. Just keep the pattern simple and let the yarn speak for itself.

Previous Reader Comments
"I'm making hats and scarves in Muscio (black and charcoal grey) for father and brothers. The results so far have been fantastic! My only problem with the yarn is that the dye has rubbed off on my wooden needles. Arg!" Sarah, 12/12/2001