King Cole Cherish Yarn Review – High Hopes and Honest Thoughts

When you're always on the lookout for the perfect baby yarn, some sit on your "must try" list for a long time. King Cole Cherish was one of those yarns for me.

The colourways looked beautiful, I'd heard good things about the softness, and I genuinely hoped it might earn a place in my core range of handmade crochet baby clothing. So I ordered two colourways — Pavlova and Bilberry — and did what I always do: skipped the swatches and went straight to real projects. Cardigans, hats and booties. The full test.

I had high hopes. Sadly, this one didn't quite live up to them.

First Impressions

Before I'd even picked up my hook, Cherish made an excellent first impression. It passed my unofficial squishy test with ease, and both Pavlova and Bilberry were even prettier in person than I'd expected. The colours were gorgeous. At this point, I was convinced I'd found a winner.

Crocheting with Cherish

My first project was a newborn cardigan in Bilberry, using a 4.5mm hook. The yarn felt soft and glided well over the hook — enjoyable to begin with. But as the cardigan grew, I found myself disappointed by the colour placement. Those beautiful colours in the ball just didn't translate into the effect I'd hoped for once crocheted.

Moving on to hats and booties in Pavlova, something else became clear. Cherish is considerably thicker than the DK baby yarns I usually work with — it's labelled DK but it crochets more like a lightweight Aran. It's a bit like making a DK pattern with the wrong yarn: the easy, flowing rhythm I love just wasn't there.

And after a while, I noticed I wasn't enjoying the feeling of the yarn through my fingers the way I do with Bambino. It's hard to put into words, but when you crochet for hours every day, that tactile experience really matters.

Sizing and Yarn Usage

This was probably my biggest practical surprise.

Using my usual newborn patterns, the finished items consistently came out closer to 0–3 months. Even dropping to a 4mm hook for the booties, they still finished larger than expected. The extra thickness means it uses more yarn per project too — which has a real impact on cost.

The Bilberry cardigan used virtually the whole ball, leaving nothing for matching accessories — not even one bootie. With Pavlova, my plan was two newborn hat and bootie sets from one ball. I ran out of yarn on the very last row of the second hat.

For anyone making matching baby sets, that's a significant consideration.

The Finished Items

The finished garments are undeniably soft against the skin — that part I can't fault. But I found myself preferring the stitch definition and yarn twist of Bambino. Cherish has a lovely twist in the ball, but once cut to finish a project, it unravels quite quickly. That would rule out any decorative finishes — a pom-pom, for example, would be out of the question.

The Pavlova pieces did turn out beautifully though — soft, wearable, and genuinely lovely to look at. If you'd like to see them in person, the finished hat and bootie set and cardigan are both available in the Colour Story collection, where I share the ready-made pieces that come out of these yarn tests.

My Verdict at a Glance

Softness: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Ease of crocheting: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
Stitch definition: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
Colour transitions: ⭐⭐☆☆☆
Hand comfort: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
Would I use it again? Probably not — it didn't earn its place in my range.

Would King Cole Cherish Join My Core Range?

Sadly, no.

It's more expensive than Bambino, uses more yarn for the same projects, produces larger finished items from my established patterns, and I couldn't justify charging customers a premium price for the finished result. When a yarn costs more but doesn't deliver more — for the way I work and the products I make — it simply doesn't add up.

My Final Thoughts

King Cole Cherish has been the biggest surprise in my yarn-testing journey so far — and not in the way I hoped.

It arrived looking full of promise. It passed the squishy test. The colours were beautiful. And then, project by project, the little niggles added up: the colour placement, the unexpected thickness, the sizing, the yarn usage, the way it felt after a long session.

It's a lovely soft yarn, and I'm sure it suits plenty of crocheters and projects. It just isn't the right fit for the way I work or the baby clothing I make.

Not every yarn earns a permanent place in the basket — and that's exactly the point of The Yarn Basket. Honest tests, real projects, genuine verdicts. On to the next one.