Bed throws and cushion covers

I made a blanket last year for our little sitting room but also to double up to use over clients when they are having a facial, as our sitting room doubles as my treatment room.  When you’re lying for a while having a facial you can get cold, I have a fleece blanket but it’s quite thin and I wanted a more weighty blanket to put over that to give a more cosy affect.

The colours I chose were the lilac and grey of my facial business (Facials by Katherine Jayne) and pinks, lilacs and duck egg of the sitting room.

I love the outcome of the blanket but I had a lot of yarn left over. I had seen a couple of patterns for Granny squares that I wanted to try, the Willow and the Sunburst squares. So with the left overs and some other left over yarn from another project, I started to have a go at these patterns. Having no other WIP at the time, I ended up with quite a bag full.

It became my ‘fill in’ WIP, anytime I didn’t have anything to work on I’d make a few squares but as soon as I got the opportunity to make something else, it would get put to one side again.

Over time the bag I stored them in got very full to the point I couldn’t get any more in. One day here on my own in the days when Mr KMT didn’t wfh and the children went to school rather than be home schooled…when was that? Seems so long ago now doesn’t it ! Anyway, I digress, one day, I took the bag upstairs and lay the squares out on our bed to see how many I had and what size blanket I could get out of them.  Our spare room is painted an off white colour but the bedding and accessories are pinks and lilac with pale green.  I knew exactly where this was going to go.

I had nearly enough squares to make a blanket, needing to make about 20 more or so to complete it.

Since then, again in-between other WIPs I have gradually made the squares required and joined them together resulting in a lovely patchwork affect.  No fancy border for this one though, it required something simple to not take the affect away from the the pattern of the squares.  So a simple round of double crochet, half treble crochet, linen stitch and crab stitch to finish.  There wasn’t a plan on the border, just what felt right as I got to the end of each round.

Once again though, this has resulted in left overs. Not too many but enough for something small.

Which brings me to cushion covers. I’ve only ever made cushion covers from fabric and as I stated in the Upcycling, Recycling and Revamping blog, I had fabric to make new cushion covers for the sitting room. I knew I didn’t want crochet ones in there as they get a lot of use.

However, I’ve been desperate to work out how to crochet a cushion cover, so I had a go anyway.  Using the beautiful shells pattern I started with the smallest left overs and worked up a square to about 15”. I’m not sure if I have a spare cushion pad yet or what size I have if I do so stopping here for now is a good place to be.

Then there’s the turquoise and stone left overs from other projects.  Worked into small traditional granny squares, these have made the beginnings of another cushion cover.  The plan with these is that I’m working them in different ways to try and work out the best way to ‘close’ them once the cushion is in. I don’t want zips - I’m thinking buttons - and maybe a flap like a pillow case.  Works in progress (WIP)…I’ll let you know how they turn out !

For now I’ll leave you with these photos of the progress so far…

Since I started writing this blog back in August, other blogs have been posted over it so things have changed. The children are now back at school full time and I'm working more hours than I initially thought I would (I work odd hours at their school). Life has taken on a sense of normality, however, there is a new normal to it with face masks being worn pretty much everywhere and hands being washed or sanitised constantly.

In amongst all of this, I did manage to finish these cushion covers (apart from closures) and find pads for them. The turquoise and stone one is still held together with stitch markers, I can see me actually sewing up the opening !

I did a pillowcase style closure with the Beautiful Shells one, just by hooking a few rows of treble crochet and then joining to the two pieces. I think this works better but still needs something just to keep it in place, I will probably put a couple of buttons on at some point.

Something else I have been working on, again this started with left over bits of yarn, is the High Tide Waves blanket. This is quite an intricate pattern and probably one of the most intricate I have attempted. I really like it and have carried on, making it larger as I'm going to use this in my new craft room on the sofa, when I get it ! Due to Mr KMT wfh and taking over the dining room I have had to find somewhere else to sew. If you've read "My First Blog" you'll know that that space is now in the spare room. It's now been agreed there's to be another move around as the spare room is going to be my permanent Craft Room, the double bed is going into Miss KMT's bedroom and her single in the craft room temporarily. Which means the throw I made for the double bed will now go into Miss KMT's bedroom, so I need something for my craft room, don't I !!!!!