King Cole Panache DK!

I AM ON FIRE! It is Tuesday, though I'm posting this on Thursday (hopefully) and this is my third blog of today. I was going to go home at a reasonable time but there's so much that I have to do that this feels like a reasonable thing to do, stay late and blog. Woohoo! Might just be caffeinated up to the eyeballs, might just be in the middle of a podcast that I don't want to leave, might just be waiting for a vlog to upload - who knows?!?!!?

Annnnnnnyway - King Cole Panache DK! This really is new! We are up to date! This came in at the end of last week, I got the final patterns on the internet on Saturday and then I had Sunday off (wahey!) and Monday off like normal and then this is the first day that this could possibly have made it onto the blog! Boom!

Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnyway.... This is the most amazing yarn! I am SO thrilled that it's finally in stock! King Cole give me a booklet at the beginning of the year with all of the new colours and yarns for the next few months and this is the final one that I have been waiting for. LOVE it! I have been telling King Cole for a long time (literally, since the first time that I spoke to my rep like six years ago) that they need a 50/50 wool/acrylic plain coloured yarn. So many of you love the Riot DK but again and again I'm asked whether there's a plain yarn that goes with it, I usually end up with the Diploma Gold which is nice but this new Panache DK is perfect! It's a similar texture - being a single spun yarn (lots of those about...) - although it's much more woolly feeling and that's what the 50/50 does instead of 30/70. Lovely.

Gosh, we've got very far without a photo. Let's put that right.

How gorgeous is that?! You can see three of the things that I want to impress on you in this photo - the shine, the haze and the colour.

Let's begin with the shine. Actually, I can't talk about the shine without the haze. The shine is obvious, we all know what shine is. But haze? That's something a bit different. It's the wooly-ness about it. The furry bits around the outside. When I first felt this I thought of angora, you know, fluffy bunny wool! I must admit, it's not as soft as that, but the haze does give it the look and it is as soft as it needs to be to wear (and, at £3.75 for 100g (yes that's one hundred grams) it's softer than it bloody should be - what a bargain). I suspect that the haze will mean that the shine gets lost after a while. But the shine could also be to do with the colour. To quote Sarah Brown, "every colour has a mystery colour". YES IT DOES SARAH! This is what I suppose is called a heathered yarn i.e. it's a plain colour but within that there are subtle variations which add up to something a whole lot more interesting than your standard yarn. So, the navy colour, dusk it's called, is a beautiful deep navy base with understated fibre running through in the most delicious deep magenta pink (don't get too excited though, that full packet sold out within 24 hours so I'm waiting until it's back in). The pink that I'm working with, is a delightfully delicate blush pink with hints of sky blue that adds a greyish tone - making it much less sickly than it could be. Can you tell I love it?!

I cannot wait to do something for myself in this, but like I was talking about yesterday, I have many many projects to finish and the Constantine in the King Cole Venice to cast on and finish before I can justify starting something for myself in the Panache. I will have to coco with this beaut that I'm knitting as we speak:



King Cole 4266. I started this one because I love it but I'm not convinced I would make it for myself - it's a little too classy for me. Haha. I also thought that the three different stitch patterns gave me the interest that I might need to actually finish a DK garment for a shop sample. haha. I get bored you see... Also note, I'm using the same colour to knit it as on the pattern. Why??! All those beautiful colours! Well, I can tell you why, I either want to knit the rest of them for myself - the snotty green, the red, the navy, the teal, the charcoal and maybe even the sky blue or I really dislike them - the beige, the darker beige, the grey and the brown. Please buy these colours that I don't like and show me that I'm wrong. haha.

I've just had a thought - I CANNOT WAIT TO CROCHET THIS! I've nothing else to say on that matter (apart from that all of the patterns are knitting patterns which are beautiful and interesting but they're not crochet. Hmmm. Cogs whirring....).

I think that this is the one that I'll make:

King Cole 4271. I like the jumper. Although I deffo need cardigans. Shall I make the cardigan? I'm almost certain that I'm doing to do blocks of colour but I can't work out whether I want to do a block that includes the stocking stitch, the lace and the garter stitch or one colour for the stocking stitch and lace and one colour for the garter stitch. I know this will come to me as I'm working away at other stuff so I just have to have the willpower not to cast it on this very minute. Gah! It's killing me! It's killing me that I'm sat here typing within a metre of this beautiful stuff on the shelf.

Now, let's talk colours a little, although, as usual, I've been through the colours on the vlog which has already been uploaded (this one features Jazz and she is very good with words so you need to watch it) and you could pop over to the internet shop to see all of the beautiful colours or you could pop into the shop. But please, stop, take a moment, grab a cup of tea, because I have something to show you....







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Are you ready?







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I think that really shows off the mystery colours. This is Sue's fairisle cowl from Saturdays evening lesson (went very well thanks but I think I'll wait to do the next one until we're in a bigger shop). Sue wasn't happy with doing the English style knitting so she's created her own way of doing it and she is smashing it! Anyway, the colours. Phwoar! The background colour is the heather, she started off by contrasting it with the pasture and then moving onto the Biscuit (or perhaps the Oatmeal but I think she may have both in her mix). I was pleased that lots of us chose Panache to work with on Saturday, seeing as it's a brand new wool and that can be a little scary. Steph is also smashing it out:

She's used a similar combo but there's charcoal, dusky pink and seaspray in there too. I can't tell you how happy it makes me to show you this in colourwork. The minute I saw it I knew that that was it's destiny, for me anyway, there will be a full fairisle something in it for me me me me me.

So, can you tell I love this?! It is RIGHT up my street. The colours! The textures! The fibres! The patterns! Once more for the google rankings - brand new and delicious - King Cole Panache DK (and find the patterns by clicking here.

That's it, tomorrow, something slightly different if I get round to it! And maybe even something the next day! BOOM!

Love Eleanor. xxxxxx

P.s. I didn't tell you but this has 312m per ball. That's a hell of a lot. DK's are averaging around 280m nowadays (down from 300m when I was learning, things change, sigh) so 312 is a treat! Makes this yarn veeeeeeeeery affordable. Very good. Well done King Cole.