The latest issue of ‘Knitting’ has hit the shops and it’s theme is ‘glamping’. What is it? Well glam camping of course, and as one who has just watched coverage of last weekend’s Glastonbury with a nostalgic glint in my eye it would be my preferred choice. I went ( to Glasters ) the year the Pyramid stage burnt down and amongst many bands remember seeing Orbital on the Saturday night. It was an amazing experience and though I would LOVE to go again my days of roughing it on hard ground are over, I’d like to be able to walk the next day thanks. So yes, back to the magazine and therefore my latest design, the Kilim cushion.
It’s a large floor cushion which as it’s name suggests was inspired by not just the patterning but also the beautful faded qualities which are so characteristic of traditional kilims. It’s knitted using the intarsia technique using Sirdar Click Chunky with Wool which I felt was the perfect choice as it has gentle tonal changes throughout the colourway which gives the finished cushion a slightly aged look.
At 60 cm square I wanted to keep the scale of the patterning bold rather than use a smaller motif repeated several times across the design. The main colour ( sh 111 Blazer ) is a wonderfully bright, almost tweedy mix of reds, pinks, oranges, yellow, ecru and even a touch of power blue. This clever blend of so many colours means it would suit just about any colour scheme. As a contrast I chose another yarn by Sirdar, the more neutral Escape Chunky although don’t let the neutral description make you think of boring ecru, again there are a lot more subtle changes in each colourway, and I used sh 198.
The cushion is fabric backed and fastened with 3 large wooden buttons and button loops which are made from yarn rather than fabric in order to tie the whole thing together. I’ll be writing a little tutorial on the making up of this design and adding it to the blog in the next couple of days
- Image copyright Jeanette Sloan
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