Yarn Review: Caron Simply Soft Paints

I feel a little bit disappointed with my recent yarn reviews. There’s nothing wrong with the reviews themselves but I’ve been focused lately on reviewing brand name yarn and I’d really prefer to be reviewing indie yarn. The thing is that I do use both types of yarn but of course indie yarn typically costs more so I use it with less frequency, for smaller projects. Also a lot of the indie yarn I have right now is laceweight yarn and that takes longer for me to work up. So this week I’m reviewing another name brand yarn but just wanted to say that I’ve got some more indie yarn reviews coming up. And having said that, this week’s review is of Caron Simply Soft Paints and this is a cheap brand name yarn that I actually really like, so I’m happy to review it.

The Basics of this Yarn

This is a 100% acrylic yarn that is considered bulky weight although honesty I think it feels and works up like a worsted weight yarn. There are 200 yards of yarn in a four ounce ball, which I think is a good amount of yardage for an affordable price. This is one yarn in the line of Caron’s Simply Soft yarns. It is the same as the original line but is multi-colored instead of solid in color. One of the things this line is known for is the “sheen” of the yarn and I can see why. It’s got a nice soft shininess. It is machine washable and can go in the dryer as well.

The Yarn Colorway

Each yarn in the Caron Simply Soft Paints collection is a multi-colored yarn that has up to eight different colors in it. To be honest, I don’t love the colorways. I tend to prefer hand-dyed yarns and this just feels too manufactured to me somehow. It’s hard to explain but the brights feel a little too bright and the darks a little too dark for my taste. There is also a really limited number of colorways. That said, I do think there are some interesting color combinations. I specifically chose this yarn for a project that I had in mind that I wanted to keep to earthy tones so I went with the Driftwood color but if I was going to just pick a colorway because I like the color then I’d go with Harlequin or Spring Brook. Obviously that’s just personal preference but my point is that I like the yarn well enough to consider trying either of these other colorways in the future.

The Way This Yarn Feels

I do love how this yarn feels. It’s the kind of acrylic yarn that has a really soft, lush feel to it. I had actually first used a solid color of this yarn when making a blanket with my mom and sister earlier this summer and the whole reason that I went ahead and purchased more of it was because I knew it was an affordable choice for a yarn that feels really nice and would work well for a blanket.

My Use of This Yarn

This is the yarn that I used for the bulk of my large granny square blanket that I showed off here on the blog recently. I like the way it worked up and am happy with my choice to use this yarn combined with some rounds of other yarns.

I had a little bit of this yarn leftover and have been making some cowls with it. It’s chunky enough to make some cozy cowls for autumn.

The first time that I used Caron Simply Soft (the original line, not the Paints line) was to make small granny squares for a blanket:

Conclusion: Although there are many reasons that I prefer indie yarn, there is definitely value to a good affordable name brand yarn and this is a soft yarn that is enjoyable and easy to work with.

Do you like working with Caron Simply Soft? And do you prefer working with name brand yarn or indie yarn?