The Armchair Traveller's Cushion Cover

I have a crochet cushion cover pattern for you today. I'm calling it Armchair Traveller. I hope you'll like it and make it your own.

My Armchair Traveller's Cushion takes you to an ancient place. 

I have woven into my Celtic Tartan the colours of Credenhill Camp. It's the second largest iron age Hill Fort in Britain and it just happens to be up the road from me. It's a place of magic and refuge. What more could you ask from a cushion!!

Standing sentry at the hill top are a ring of Yew trees with their roots dug deep into the red soil of Herefordshire.

So let me tell you a bit about the pattern. It uses Surface Crochet, and is hopefully just the first pattern using this technique that I will produce for you. If you weren't following my series of blogs post Here is a link to the first one.

For the first pattern I've started off simply with a traditional stitch pattern. You'll find something similar in Betty Barnden's 'Handbook of Crochet Stitches'.  I actually tried really hard to come up with something else, but there's a reason why these traditional patterns continue to be used! Despite ending up with a huge pile of swatches, I eventually went with a few gentle tweaks.
 
The best feature is the yarn itself and for that we have to bless those clever people at Scheepjes. I have used two different weights of yarn, two different sized hooks but the same glorious colours. I've used the Sport weight to create the filet base and the Aran to surface crochet on top. This has given me a thick, yet light weight, soft comforting cushion.The first thing you'll want to do when you finish your cushion is just sit and cuddle it.

  
I have used Scheepjes Stone Washed which comes in those two different weights but the same colour range. It has a white cotton core which sparkles through the gem like acrylic colour. I expect you have your own favourite place and colour choice so if you can't find the colours you want in that yarn you can also look at their River Washed yarn. It also comes in the same two weights, Sport and Aran. This time the yarn has a coloured cotton core which really glows through the acrylic layer.
 
After all those swatches I mentioned, I decided to work the surface crochet into a Back Bump Treble Filet Base  [DC-USA]. The back bump stitches do a number of things. Firstly they slightly reduce the height of the trebles leaving a nice square gap to surface crochet into. Secondly they stack the Trebles neatly on top of one another, ensuring our chain stitches form up in nice orderly rows. Thirdly they twist the tops of the stitches forward creating a mock line of surface chain.

So what do I mean by Back Bump Stitches?When we talk about working into the Back Bump of chain stitches we're merely referring to that third loop at the bottom. By working into this loop it turns the chain stitch upside down.
When we talk about the Back Bump on other stitches we're talking about that little horizontal bump at the top of the 'post', on the back.
Insert the hook down from top to bottom. Like all things crochet, it's fiddly to start with but you'll quickly get the hang of it.
 I've also tried really hard to reduce the number of ends you have to sew in. We start by stitching in the round and then later we join the tube at one end to cut the number of surface crochet 'ends' by half.

CLICK HERE! for the free down-loadable PDF. I'd love to see your finished designs on Ravelry and hear about the places your armchairs take you to!

Book Review: Blueprint Corchet Sweaters

I was gifted a copy of Robyn Chachula's book for my birthday. I have now had time to take it to bed with me and read it thoroughly from cover to cover. (I know how weird that sounds but I also dream in stitch diagrams as well. Possibly the two things are related!) I learn a lot from crochet books and spend a lot of time choosing what to put on my wish list, so I thought you might be interested in more information than the blurb gives you.

The blurb seems to describe this book as an introduction into crochet garment design. I don't think this means it's for 'would be designers', rather it helps us to understand what it is we are making. I keep hearing that crocheters are afraid of making garments. I have certainly picked up patterns that I didn't understand. Maybe I couldn't work out how the peices fitted together or how to alter the size to fit me. Not so here, all the pattern's come with schematics and stitch diagrams. If you don't understand diagrams there is page dedicated to you! There are also plenty of photos of each garment.
I'm a big believer in learning from my own mistakes, although of course that can be a costly exercise with garments! Robyn is obviously of the same mind and the book opens with a generous list of fixes for when it all goes horribly wrong. She also gives us some help working out how to alter fit.

Basically the book is divided into four sections, each a different way to construct a garment. These are Classic, Top-down, Motif, and Unique. Within each discipline are four patterns, each a different solution within that brief.

Classic Construction 
For some reason designers are often stuck on the idea that crochet has to be constructed in the same way that a fabric garment would be. That is from a number of panel pieces which are then stitched together. I don't know about you but it is always my seaming that lets me down. The clever shaping of the four garments in this section allow for minimal seaming, often joined and shaped by the addition of edgings and collars.

Top Down and in-the-round
My favourite garment type. The problem here is how do you sneak increases into your design without destroying the stitch pattern? Maybe you use a lacy panel to make the raglan design a feature. (see stitch sample above) Or maybe you use a strong linear element and sneak the increases in between the lines! (see stitch sample below)

Granny Motif
Granny Motifs make me think of those garish things that haunted my 1970's childhood. Not here however, these stylish motifs create clothing that you can dress up or down in. At the end of each pattern in the book are a few helpful suggestions to create the perfect fit and finish.

Unique Construction
Fabric consists of a warp and a weft, with knitting you have to fit all those loops on a needle. Crochet doesn't have these restrictions, it can go up, down, forwards, and even backwards! There will always be a crochet solution which doesn't fit easily in a category. Perhaps it is made in one piece and folded with clever minimal seaming, or perhaps it has a sneaky hidden seam.

I should probably have mentioned that four of the designs in this book aren't by Robyn. Despite this the book seems to have a cohesion so the other designers' work doesn't leap out at you. One of the things I really liked was the use of post stitches to give not just stitch texture but also definition. There are some more traditional cable designs, but four of my samples here use post stitches.
(I should probably say my fabric swatches are not made using the same yarns as in the book!)

Sometimes you pick up a book that claims to have 20 patterns in it only to discover that that includes 3 cowls and 2 scarves. While I have to say that there are more cardigan/jackets than sweaters in this book, they are all substantial patterns. If you want to see all 16 designs, check them out HERE on Ravelry. The good thing about a book being around for a while is (if you're a Ravelry member) you can go on and see what the designs look like when other people have made them.You can even read their thoughts, the problems they encountered and ask for help yourself should you need it!