It came (very slowly) from out of space...
I first saw this cushion on a preview advert for a new pattern book for Patons Fab DK. Before I got round to sending for the whole booklet, the cushion and its matching children's cardigan showed up in the Irresistible Gifts to Knit supplement to September's Simply Knitting magazine. Handy non?
I feel a bit guilty about it but I decided to eschew the Patons Fab DK yard for two reasons. One, I didn't have any and my stash is getting out of control. Two, Fab Dk is 100% acrylic and so doesn't meet my yarn snob 50% wool criterion.
Instead, I decided to use some Artesano Hummingbird DK in Woodpecker, which is 100% alpaca and variegates through red, orange, yellow and green. I got it as a magazine subscription gift and have been looking for something nice to use it for as there's no way I could make the sock pattern it came with. For the alien's plain red arms and legs I used some Rowan Pure Wool DK I had in stash.
The cushion is knitted flat on 3.25mm needles and hence has taken me about three weeks to complete, which is an eternity for me. You make two body pieces and four arms and legs. I had serious motivational issues making the second body piece, which is why I'm not sure I'll ever knit socks. The body was fairly straightforward with some simple shaping and division for the eye stalks.
The arms and legs were pretty quick to make. I sewed them up with mattress stitch and then stuffed them prior to sandwiching them between the body parts for the final making up. I opted to back stitch the two halves of the body together as I find mattress stitch on shaped pieces difficult, plus I needed to sew in the arms and legs firmly. I left a gap at the bottom and stuffed with what felt like endless amounts of toy filler, before mattress stitching the gap up neatly.
The pattern used felt for the eyes but the templates weren't included so I decided to give that a miss and use two large plastic buttons I had purchased recently. My husband agreed with me that the mouth design from the pattern didn't really work so I decided to add a felt heart applique instead. I appreciate this is not functionally the same but I thought it was more atheistically pleasing.I sewed the heart on with oordinary pink sewing thread, overcoming my lazy instinct to glue it on.
The finished cushion is cute if a little odd. The Artesano alpaca yarn is really lovely so I'm glad I trusted my instincts on that one. I'm off to knit something nice and chunky now...
Melx
Extremely easy
These two cushions come from Rachel John's Extreme Knitted Cushion Kit that I purchased from Create and Craft TV for £29.99. Rachel has had a lot of publicity in the magazines and she even popped up on Dragons Den the other week, although she unfortunately didn't get investment. Mostly, I was seduced by the idea of being able to produce a cushion in 1-2 hours.
The kit contained 15mm high quality wooden needles, seven sets of yarn and a 12 inch cushion pad, plus the pattern. Four of the yarns were 100% cotton ribbon and the rest were wool.
The pattern simply gave you a choice between garter stitch and stocking stitch and told you to cast on 14 stitches using all your yarns together and keep going until the cushion fit around the pad.
I was a bit surprised, there wasn't more by way of instruction on how to handle all your strands of yarn, but I set off in faith and garter stitch and, actually, it was easy. My top tip would be simply to keep a firm grasp on all the strands of yarn, as you can leave one behind if you're not careful. Other than that, you just need to knit cleanly through all seven strands on each stitch. I can't believe I used to be nervous about knitting with two stands together!
Once I'd knitted enough, I sewed up the sides and top of the cushion with mattress stitch and there it was. I didn't time myself but I certainly finished in an evening. As there seemed quite a lot of yarn left, I made a second cushion of the same size using stocking stitch, again with good results.
Now, for confession time. I don't actually like the cushions. The inclusion of all the ribbon yarn gives them quite a rag-rug texture. I like my knitting softer and more cuddly. So, although I'd definitely use the technique again (I'm thinking it would be good for a throw), shortly after the photo at the top was taken, the cushions were banished to the charity shop. Cushion space is at a premium in my house so only cushions I love get to stay. Harsh but true...
Melx
Let's Knit Issue 45
I never had any Sylvanian family animals as a child. I was deeply aggrieved by this so, as an adult, I bought my own. I particularly love the babies, although my husband insists that, in real life, they would eat each other rather than play happily together whilst wearing cute little outfits.
Anyway, I was thrilled when I saw Val Pierce's Carry on Camping project in August's issue of Let's Knit magazine. I felt my assorted critters would really like a summer camping holiday.
You could use any double knit yarn for the project and my Sylvanian family were very lucky as they ended up with Bowland Wool Blue Faced Leicester in four delightful natural shades.
First up was the tent.
This was knitted in one large strip for the main part of the tent, done with two strands of different shades together using 5mm needles. I used to be nervous about knitting two strands together, but with one ball in each of my two yarn bowls, it was easy. The back is knitted as a triangle and then the two tent flaps were knitted on smaller needles in just one shade. I'm not confident I sewed the tent flaps on the right way round, but they look okay to me.
The hardest part of the tent was in fact making the frame from cardboard. I found some thick cardboard left over from bedding packaging and cut three triangles with a tab on each, glued them to together and then used some gaffer tape for extra strength. The knitted tent fit over the frame really well and is still standing so must be sufficiently robust.
The ground sheet is also knitted two strands together, with one colour combo for the edges and another for the middle and it lies nice and flat. The sleeping bags are made on 4mm needles in two colours - one for the pillow section and one for the bottom. I made two in different colour ways. You pad the pillow section slightly with toy filler when making up. I decorated my sleeping bags as the project suggested, using Papermania bows on the front of each.
The picnic blanket is made up of three garter stitch strips sewn together. I used slightly fewer colours than the magazine, but I think it looks nice:
You get no fewer than three patterns to use for the little cushions. One in moss stitch, one in garter stitch and one in stocking stitch stripes. These were a little fiddly to sew up but look sweet piled up on the picnic blanket.
The bunnies and their pals seem to approve of their new holiday lodgings, I had fun making all the bits and pieces, so a fab project all round...
Melx
