CUSHION CAL 17th January start

To Start on the 17th January a mini cal making a Cushion Cover

Over the years i've made dozens of cushions, so before we start I'm going to share a couple of tips with you.

TIPS:

 1: Never make a cushion in just dk Acylic yarn, it stretches and all your hard work will grow and be too big for the cushion pad in with a couple of months.....infuriating
Aran not completely free from stretch but it does hold its size better. 

2: Mix your Acrylic with some 3/4ply sock wool or Merino or similar, matching the colours if you want a plain colour...or use Aran weight yarn and keep your crochet quite tight.

3: Make you own fastenings, buttons or ties, then you don't need to go searching for that perfect button, or use a zip, but not so nice to look at.

4: Make a button band so you don't get happy openings 

5: Make sure the cushion pad fills your cushion cover.

6: Buy the best quality cushion pads you can get, it will make your cushion special.

CUSHION CAL:

You will need 16 Aran weight yarns or a 16 Dk and sock wool mix. 
Please pick your own colours if you want the cushion to go in a particular room scheme. 

An 18" cushion pad...the better quality this is, the better your cushion will be. 

5mm hook keep it quite tight so change hook size if you crochet is at all loose. 

SPECIAL ARAN/ALPACA TWEED COLOURS:
To get the exact shade i wanted i've used some Alpaca shades but mostly Special Aran
1: Special Aran, Parchment
2: Alpaca tweed, Sea Breeze
3: Special Aran, Sage
4: Alpaca Tweed, Duck Egg
5: Special Aran, Storm Blue
6: Special Aran Denim
7: Special Aran, Cloud Blue
8: Pistachio
9: Special Aran, Meadow

Special Aran for all following colours
10: Saffron
11: Camel
12: Gold
13: Spice
14: Pomegranate
15: Raspberry
16: Rose

BATIK AND LIFE 
Worked together make a good Aran weight  but I cant get 5 of the colours to the right shade so that won't work!

 Pity I love the Batik and Life together as an Aran Weight and i have managed to make 20 shades (chary below), but not the 5 missing colours needed for this project if you want to tweak the colours then you can use the Batik and Life together 

COLOURS:
1: Cream and Cream
2: Sage and Mint
3: no match
4: no match
5: Teal and Aqua 
6: Indigo and Denim
7: no match
8: Pistachio and Zing
9: Olive and Meadow
10: Old Gold and Daffodil
11: Biscuit and Oatmeal
12: no match
13: Coral and spice
14: no match
15: Raspberry and Lily
16: Raspberry and Rose

DK AND SOCK WOOL
match your nearest sock wool to the same shade to match the Aran colours 

Its going to be a square Cushion in 9 sections, a new section every 2 days, worked one after the other in a section of stitches and cover shapes like triangles circles, squares, hexagons, ripples and stripes in both directions. 
some scribbled nots and sketches as a taster
but of course all this could change as i actually make the cushion

If i have time i will do a circular cushion too, but no promises on this one as i will need to move onto the next Mini CAL

NEXT CAL: The Camper Coat for the 20th February 2017

You can pick your own yarn for this one and there will be options for dk or Chunky
I am actually using some recycles James C Brett Marble in a couple of colour ways.
Click the link to see the colour options above 

The new pattern will be based on this pattern 

but with a shaped sleeve this time