Deramores Studio DK & Chunky yarn review

I was delighted when given the chance to review Deramores Studio DK & chunky yarn because it’s only available online. When I’m buying online, the temptation is to stick to yarns I’ve used before, or at least felt in person. So I hope this review helps give you an idea of what this yarn is really like.

Appearance

The Deramores Studio yarn range is 100% acrylic with anti pilling technology, so those pesky bobbles shouldn’t appear after use. I don’t use acrylic much but this yarn is at the premium end of the spectrum. It feels exceptionally soft & plump in the ball.

I received 4 balls of Deramores Studio DK yarn in vibrant shades called Citrine (yellow), Raspberry (red with a hint of pink), Lapis (cobalt blue) and Malachite (teal green). I also got 2 balls of Deramores Studio chunky yarn in muted shades called Heather (light purple / blackcurrant) and Taupe (light beige).

Test Swatches

I found both yarns nice and easy to work with and they gave good stitch definition. The yarn plumpness resulted in quite a solid, sturdy fabric, without much drape.

My tension is usually fairly standard but I was way off here!  My Deramores Studio DK yarn tension on 4mm needles was 19×28 instead of 22×28. Hence why my knitted yellow Rowan Martin Storey KAL moss heart square is quite the rectangle!

3 of the 4 balls of Studio DK I received felt very plump & closer to an aran to work with than a standard DK yarn, certainly significantly thicker than Stylecraft Special DK acrylic for example.

However, the blue lapis ball I got did feel finer, and while I still got 19×28 tension approx., the test square knit using this ball did not feel as rigid and had more drape.

My Deramores Studio chunky yarn tension on 6.5mm needles was 11×19 instead of the stated 13×16. Odd that I was getting too few stitches horizontally but too many vertically! I rarely use chunky yarn.  My test square had quite a bulky, quilted feel which would make a nice cushion. I think that the Studio chunky yarn could also work well at a larger needle size.

Washing & Tumble Drying

Both the double knit & chunky versions passed the standard cycle 40 degree wash test with flying colours. No colours ran and all pieces came out the same size looking as good as new. A bonus was that my test squares all came out fairly dry too, so items should not take long to dry naturally & would not need tumble drying.

The ball band does state it can be tumble dried though, so I wet my squares again and tried a short low heat cycle. Afterwards, they were completely different! That’s not necessarily a bad thing though. I found that the double knit squares were suddenly much softer with a lighter feel and lovely drape.

The chunky yarn did not soften as much, but did stretch considerably, changing from a very bulky solid fabric to a much looser one.

All squares increased in size. The yellow DK moss heart grew from 22cm x 19xm to 24.5cm x 20cm and the purple chunky square increased from 24.5cm square to approx.  28cm x 27 cm after tumble drying.

So my advice here would be to avoid tumble drying unless you want to dramatically change your finished piece. From a practical point of view, you shouldn’t need to tumble dry items made from this as they emerge from the washing machine fairly dry anyway.

However, if you are looking to make something like a drapey shawl, tumble drying once could work like magic! Just bear in mind that you should make the item a bit smaller than you want as it will increase in size after tumble drying.

Overall Verdict

Deramores Studio yarn is a premium acrylic yarn at a great price. The best bit is that you can just chuck it in the washing machine knowing that it will come out good as new. I’d recommend it for toys, cushions, blankets and other items where you want a material with structure and body that is easy to care for.

Deramores Studio DK yarn

• 100% acrylic
• 250m per 100g ball
• over 40 shades
• tension quoted is 22×28 using 4mm needles, but strongly advise swatching if tension matters
• only available from LoveCrafts.com

Deramores Studio Chunky yarn

• 100% acrylic
• 80m per 100g ball
• 30 shades
• Tension quoted (2020) is now 10×24 using 9mm needles.
• At time of review (2016) stated tension was 13×16 using 6.5mm needles, but strongly advise swatching if tension matters
• only available from LoveCrafts.com

Disclosure: Deramores kindly provided this yarn to me free of charge but this did not influence my review. Full disclosure policy