Say Yes to Knitting!

My mum tried to teach me to knit when I was younger, but as she was left handed and wasn't 100% sure what she was doing herself, it didn't entirely work out! Then, at uni we had 'stitch and bitch' sessions, where members of the community, who were retired, came into uni on Wednesday afternoons and taught us to knit, while we drank tea and ate biscuits.

The challenge was to knit teddy bears which were being sent to a school in Chennai in India, where our uni had a link with a school. Now knitting a teddy bear sounds quite complicated but they really weren't at all. They were basically a series of rectangles in basic knitting stitch, and to be honest, we felt a bit sorry in the end for the children who had to receive them and feel grateful!!

Anyway, I've since knitted many more rectangles, and then managed to progress onto knitting beanie hats, basically by learning to decrease!

However, I love a challenge and so when asked to knit some stool covers for a shoot last year, I said yes immediately, even though I had no idea how to knit shapes!! A few 'how to' videos on you tube and a lot of practising and I succeeded in making some lovely stool covers.

So this year, the challenge was knitting textured cushion covers. By this point I'd mastered knitting and purling to create rib stitches so at least that was a start.

1. Checkerboard Cushion.
    This was fairly easy once I found a pattern http://knittinginmybackyarn.blogspot.co.uk/2009/07/checkerboard-dishcloth.html which was a brilliant help and made this very straightforward. So after lots of counting, I created this cushion front:

For the back, I just knitted rib for the whole of both halves, and then sewed on some buttons to fasten the openings and voila, a beautiful cushion. 

2. Linear Textured Pattern

    So this one was more difficult. Basically, it was a case of knitting and purling, and then doing the reverse on the next row to make the correct pattern. The only problem with this one was that I couldn't find a pattern to follow anywhere, so ended up having to write my own!

So my pattern is: 

cast on 34, knit 3 rows. 

1. k12, p1, k3, p2, k3, p1, k12

2. k2, p10, k1, p3, k2, p3, k1, p10, k2

3. Repeat 1

4. Repeat 2

5. k2, p11, k3, p2, k3, p11, k2

6. k13, p3, k2, p3, k13

7. Repeat 5

8. Repeat 6

9.-12. = Repeat rows 1-4

13. k3, p3, k2, p3, k12, p3, k2, p3, k3

14. k2, p1, k3, p2, k3, p12, k3, p2, k3, p1, k2

15. Repeat 13

16. Repeat 14

17. k3, p3, k2, p3, k1, p10, k1, p3, k2, p3, k3

18. k2, p1, k3, p2, k3, p1, k10, p1, k3, p2, k3, p1, k2

19. Repeat 17

20. Repeat 18

21. - 24. = Repeat rows 13-16

Then repeat the whole thing again, knit 3 rows, cast off. 

Finished!! And I am very proud of them. They're for the Baby Boden Autumn 2013 shoot so I'll upload photos in about 6 months time when the catalogue is launched. 

As reference for learning more stitches, this website is also fantastic: http://www.knittingonthenet.com/stitches.htm