Disclaimer: This review is my own honest opinion of this product. I am not sponsored by, or affiliated with the manufacturer or seller of this yarn, in any way. I purchased it myself and I am not being paid, or given free gifts, in exchange for writing this review.
"I'm in love!!"
This is the first 'review' post I've done, but since this is a product that I've been DYING to try out, I think it's a good one to start with. Perhaps I'll make reviews a regular feature, we shall see.
As I said, I've been wanting to try out Red Heart for ages. A huge number of knitting/crochet YouTube channels and blogs seem to use this yarn for their tutorials/projects. I've also made a lot of various bits and bobs using their free patterns (they've got tonnes of fantastic ones on their website).
I've been in their online shop numerous times drooling over their wares, but what had put me off ordering up until now was that they didn't have a list of shipping rates for Ireland, and I didn't want to fill up my cart with goodies only to get to the checkout and find out that shipping costs more than the actual order (I've experienced this with a lot of sites, and I really can't justify spending $30 to have a $25 order shipped) However, their website has had a complete overhaul and they now have a super clear shipping table showing the exact prices for loads of different countries. Their shipping prices are very reasonable when you consider the size of the packaging required - when you're shipping balls of yarn it's not so much the weight that'll push costs up, it's the fact that it usually has to be shipped in a box if you're ordering more than one or two balls.
Anyhoo, enough about that. One of the projects I'm currently working on is a Halloween blanket for my son (it's another Red Heart pattern, I'll link it below) and the colours used in it are orange, spring green, royal purple, grey, and black. Now, because this is an American company, their patterns use yarn in US weight terminology. Most of them use 'worsted weight' yarn, and the UK/Irish equivalent is 'aran weight'.
This is where I usually run into problems, because if I want my project to be the correct size, I need to use the same weight yarn (or else try to work out the stitch count with different size hooks/needles and a different weight yarn, and my poor addled brain just isn't up to that challenge).
I have two main gripes about the aran weight yarn that's available in Ireland:
- When it comes to variety of colours, pickings are pretty slim - if you want traditional 'tweedy' type colours, or baby colours, then you're grand. If you're looking for bold, vibrant, funky colours then you'll find it difficult to find something to suit.
- The yarn thickness is massively inconsistent - I've found the thickness varies hugely depending on the brand you use. I've also found that even within the same brand, certain colours are WAY thinner than others. (this was particularly problematic when I was making my stitch-cation afghan, some of the yarns which were aran yarns were as thin as a lot of double knit yarns)
So with those two things in mind, I bit the bullet, and ordered the yarn for the blanket from Red Heart. The estimated shipping time was something like 20 working days, so I was a little concerned that I'd be under the gun to get it finished in time for Halloween but it actually arrived in about a fortnight, so I was pleasantly surprised.
Now, if it's not already evident from what I've written so far, I had very high hopes for this yarn, so I was almost nervous opening the box because if it didn't live up to my expectations I'd have been devastated!
Well, let me tell you, I was not disappointed. I can honestly say that this is, hands down, THE BEST YARN that I've ever worked with. The yarn weight and thickness is consistent throughout all the balls. The colours are beautiful (especially the purple, oh my God, the purple). It's a good sturdy yarn, exactly what an aran weight yarn should be. It's just a dream come true, right down to the little details, like how on each one of the yarn skeins there's a centre-pull and at the other you can pull from the outside, whichever you prefer (I'm a centre-pull gal, myself) and there's a handy dandy guide on the wrapper to tell you which end is which. There's also a free pattern on the reverse of the wrapper.
"idiot-proof yarn band"
So in case there was any doubt, my rating of this yarn is two very enthusiastic thumbs up. In fact if I was some sort of mutant and had extra thumbs, I'd be putting them up, too. Seriously. I know I sound like a broken record but I actually can't get over how much I love this yarn. If I wasn't already married, I'd be putting the moves on it (providing there isn't some sort of law preventing that sort of thing). It goes without saying that I'll be buying more of this, I'm planning my Christmas gifts so will likely be purchasing the supplies for those in the coming weeks. Hooray!!
Oh, in case anyone is wondering, the other yarns pictured in the top photo are Lion Brand Yarns. I'm making a poncho for my sister using those. So far, I'm liking them a lot. Hopefully I'll do another review when I've gotten further along with the poncho and have a better feel for how they are to work with.
Yarns I bought:
Shade 312 - Black (2 skeins)
Shade 356 - Amethyst (1 skein)
Shade 254 - Pumpkin (2 skeins)
Shade 672 - Spring Green (1 skein)
Shade 400 - Grey Heather (1 skein)
Halloween blanket pattern: Pumpkin Face Throw
