How satisfying is it to make something lovely with materials that were gathering dust in your cupboard?

The pillow inner, I confess, was made by an upholsterer after a fruitless search for one ready made. Some things are best left to professionals. The hexagons were knitted one evening while watching Sally Potter’s Orlando. Hands up those who love Tilda Swinton! (I may have to watch it again sans tricoter since the costumes are exquisite and I’m quite sure I missed some important details while concentrating on my hexagons)
The linen fabric was left over from a bolt David once found at a yard sale in LA (do you want this honey? I got it for ten bucks) You have to love a man who’d buy 50 yards of fabric off a front lawn. It covered the sofa at home and the sofa at Wildfiber with quite a bit to spare. I love the combination of vivid brights grounded by a natural coloured background.
The hexagons were sewn together then stitched onto the linen with yarn. Doing so reminded me of embroidering on hessian the way we used to in primary school and I thought I’d like to do more of that some time soon. I added stripes of gros grain ribbon along the gusset for some extra sunshine.

 

 

The sewing together of the pillow was done on my machine, with a 38cm zipper along one edge.

When assembled it reminded me of Moroccan pillows and spawned a whole new set of ideas about more patch work cushions and another knitted one, this time in Koigu KPPPM multi-coloured merino with a tweedy wool fabric.

Below is the pattern for a hexagon. Mine are 14cm from point to point.  If you want smaller pieces you could use a thinner yarn or even stop short of my 66 stitches.

For the casing, I cut two 38cm diameter circles and an 18cm wide strip for the gusset.

I used:
Blue Sky Alpacas Dyed Organic Cotton in shades 607-lemon grass, 630-caribbean, 604-aloe, 627-flamingo, 617-lotus, 634-periwinkle, and 638-dandelion: small amounts of each.

Size 4mm double pointed needles.

Pillow Size: 38cm [15"] in diameter
Your choice of yarn will affect the size of the pillow.

 

 

HEXAGON [make 7]

With dpns, cast on 12 stitches. Distribute the stitches so that there are 4 on each of 3 needles and use one as a working needle.

Rnd 1: Knit into the back of all stitches.
Rnd 2: *K1, kfb; repeat from * to end.
Rnd 3: Knit
Rnd 4: Kfb in first and last stitch on each needle, and in the middle 2 sts of each needle.
Rnds 5 & 6: Knit
Repeat Rnds 4-6 until there are 66 sts in total, ending with Rnd 6.
Bind off loosely.

Happy knitting!

–Mel

This entry was posted on Monday, August 31st, 2009 at 7:48 pm and is filed under Free Patterns, home decor, quilts, using your stash. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.