Yarn review: Red Heart – Heart and Sole

A while back I got an email from Yarn Canada asking if I’d review a new yarn they are carrying. Of course I said yes (I mean, twist my arm), and was sent a few skeins of a new sock yarn by Red Heart, called Heart and Sole (of course):

I know what you’re thinking: Red Heart? Really? And yes, it’s true that I long thought of it as “that stuff I knit with when I was a raw beginner” but it turns out they are making inroads on the yarn snob demographic, or at least attempting to. I was definitely skeptical but I’m not going to lie–I actually like this stuff. What first caught my eye was the colour ways:

This is “Riverstone.” I also picked out “Lakehouse” (or “Mason du Lac” in the mangled French on the label, hehe). Both are pretty gorgeous colour combos. One thing I would change is to make this self-striping, rather than variegated, but I’m not a variegated fan anyway. When you knit up even small samples, you can see how quickly the colours change, so I bet it would pool or flash:

And how does it knit up? It’s ever so slightly splitty, and isn’t the softest yarn I’ve ever worked with, but the hand is decent and it’s not scratchy. It does feel softer after blocking. Overall, I’d say I was pleasantly surprised, and if they ever come out with self-striping colour ways, I might just be tempted to pick up one or two.

Thanks to Yarn Canada for the opportunity to try out this yarn! As I said, I was pleasantly surprised.