Cushions

When I went to the Knitting Show at Earl's Court in the spring I bought a really huge ball of chunky Aran wool. I've had the idea to knit some cushion covers for myself, and our holiday seemed the perfect time for this "big for me" knit. 

This was my first cushion, and I was delighted with how it turned out. It is a 50cm cushion pad, so quite big. The pattern worked out perfectly with exactly five leaf designs on it. It may look a bit like cable knitting, but isn't, just a combination of knitting together and increasing. I am going to put the pattern for this Leaf Cushion online soon, though may knit another one in a deeper colour first.

I had enough wool left for a second cushion, and thought I would try something a bit more pictorial. I had a few problems, as originally the tree was going to be in a frame of leaves. Something went wrong and I had to unravel, which is why there is just a leaf in each corner. I was really pleased with the tree, which I planned out on a grid of paper. You can see my enormous grid below, which is actually 9 pieces of paper glued together. I had thought of writing it up as a pattern, but I am not sure that anyone else would want to follow such an enormous chart, or even how I would get it into a document. I even got a bit confused myself near the top of the tree, but thought that so long as I keep the right number of stitches, no one will be able to tell if the odd leaf is not in the place I originally planned. So this is probably going to be just for me. I may have a go at another similar cushion, as it was fun to do, and I would like to make the tree a bit more asymmetric, and knit it in a deeper colour.