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New Yarn Alert: Lerke Pluss

I was excited to try a new yarn courtesy of Heart of the Mitten, an online store & yarn shop in Michigan who is also the exclusive US retailer of Dale Garn. Lerke Pluss, is a shop exclusive available in a gorgeous palette of 20 colors. It's an interesting blend of 53% Merino wool and 47% Egyptian Cotton, and it's made up of several plies which creates a nice, round yarn with lots of bounce - so if you find traditional cotton yarns tough to work with, this yarn is worth giving a try. Plus, it arrived with a packet of delicious tea!

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I really liked this yarn overall; the only downside I can come up with is that the yardage per skein is on the low side (87 yards in 50g). That's not a problem for a small project, but if you plan to make something larger like a sweater, be prepared to weave in a lot of ends. Having said that, I'm confident that the effort will be worth it. This yarn has excellent stitch definition and is super-soft, but I have a feeling that it will wear really well over the years with minimal pilling.

I chose to knit a free hat pattern with my 2 skeins of Lavender: Lake Reed by Asita Krebs. I think the English version is translated from German, and some of the directions were a little funky - I had to stop and think for a few moments to figure out what they were trying to say. The good news is that the instructions also included charts, which transcend any language barriers.

The finished hat is super cute and fits really well. Just to mix things up, I had Tyler model it this time around (he offered!!).

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I fully intended to knit this pattern as written, until I realized that I would not win at yarn chicken. Last weekend, I ended up ripping back a considerable amount  and made the following modifications to working the charts: 2 full repeats of Chart 1, 1 repeat of Chart 2, and 1 repeat of Chart 3. It's a good thing I did, because this is all the yarn I had left over:

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I really enjoyed working with this yarn and wold totally use it for another project - it would be perfect for a fair isle or striped pattern!

See for yourself - Click here to buy Lerke Pluss in the Heart of the Mitten online store.

You may like to know: This yarn was provided for free in exchange for my honest review. I don't receive any compensation for the links included in this post. 

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