First of all, THANK YOU for your enthusiastic participation in the It’s A Stitch-Up giveaway. We had 631 entries across the various platforms in less than 48 hours! Winners* have been notified, and prizes are on their way. Huge thanks to Suzie at It’s A Stitch-Up for offering such generous prizes.
And whilst all that was going on, I finished knitting a thing. It came out reasonably non-dreadfully, given that I made it up as I went along with pretty much zero planning. (I don’t do planning.)
I realize that I’m in a minority here, when it comes to (not) planning. There are people who plan ahead so effectively that they could tell you what they’ve having for dinner a week next Thursday. These people genuinely terrify me. And then… there are people like me. Dinner? Next Thursday? I’ll start thinking about that next Thursday… at about dinnertime.
I’m not a planner. I’m a WingItAndSeeWhatHappens-er. (A winger?) In life, this is a mixed blessing. Planners are ready-prepped for all eight different ways that a situation might pan out. Wingers’ lives, meanwhile, are full of surprises, both good and bad. Plus, we have a lot more time to knit, whilst all the planners are busy planning.
Some time ago, my parents very generously gave me a rocking chair that they’d owned for nigh-on half a century. It’s painted brown because the 1970s happened, but it’s otherwise lovely, and one day (I don’t know when because I’m not a planner) I’ll paint it a less excremental colour. Its cushions were plain and cream-coloured, which doesn’t really work in our sitting room. Also, I don’t do ‘plain’. So I began to ponder…
And then, on one of our Stylecraft Blogstars’ weekends, we were introduced to the then-new cakes of Stylecraft Batik Swirl. Maybe this stuff could be useful for the rocking chair?
I doodled in my stranded knitting notebook, and I looked at the yarn, and I looked at the cushions, and I began to knit. And knit. And knit. I had two cakes of Batik Swirl in the same colourway, so I worked my motif over and over again using both of them, and let the yarn’s colour changes tell their own story.
This blog post would have been brought to you a lot sooner, but for a while I wasn’t sure whether my idea was working, so I tried to show it who was boss by shoving it in the corner and ignoring it for several months. In hindsight, I’m not sure that this achieved quite as much as I’d hoped.
The chair has two cushions, a simple rectangle propped upright against the back, and a neatly curving shaped pad on the seat. For the latter, I properly winged it, working decreases to – hopefully – match the curve of the cushion. Normally, such overambition would lead to a great opportunity for a blog post about everything going wrong, but d’you know what? In this case, things worked out rather well. I’m almost pleased with the result cushion-wise, but deeply disappointed blog-wise.
Now, I realize that most of you won’t happen to be needing cushions of these exact dimensions, so I’m not going to publish the pattern. HOWEVER, the motif has worked out well so I’m knitting some conventional cushion-covers and will write up the pattern shortly.
* Giveaway winners, as selected randomly using random.org: stephlambourne1 (Instagram entry), Stevie (blog entry), Lisa V Helsing (Facebook entry), susanjaneknits (Instagram entry), Janet Donaldson (Facebook entry), and Mary Roane (Facebook entry).
If them’s results from zero planning, I can only say [gasp !].
Lovely.
Professional.
Complimenti bella !
*blushes deeply*
What a very nice little table!
Thank you!
My cousin and I are in your minority! We hate planning our knitting or crochet – love the continuous surprise and pleasure row by row. Think it comes from early Kaffe Gasset thinking – a big bowl full of odds and ends and just Go! The more colour the better. Love your rocker cover. Love all your work actually and the lovely photos. Thank you!
Julie in Banbury
That pattern is incredible, the shape of the motif is gorgeous. I brought some multi colour yarn recently to swatch to put either with a plain or with another multi as I love the look two contrasting yarns together creates- another reason I love your makes, the colours work so well, the cushion I especially love
Wowzers, for an winged project it’s a stunner. Love that book table ???? too. Hun, my working life is planned, every second.Please leave my own life as free as possible. Only thing that keeps me going is random crafting and winging it all the time.
Don’t do planning either, lots of plotting though, can’t help devising future projects whilst knitting.
Chair cover is fantastic.
Love it! I too am in the non planning group. Matter of fact, I’m working on random stranded knitting: start with a sort of motif idea and then go off grid. No charts! Magic ball! Colors happening randomly! It’s really fun and liberating. Not everything works out but enough that I’m experimenting with different “motifs.” Try it!
If I could design and then knit like that I wouldn’t worry about not planning. I’m a beginner and I often wing it just to see what happens. Fun is fun.
Your lovely creation is an inspiration.
Congrats to all the winners. I hope we’ll get to see what comes from the wins.
Love it, especially the retro vibe. I’m with you, if I’ve planned something I’m bored with it by the time I’ve got halfway through planning ( this is also why I don’t swatch) – in fact I feel it should be a swear word. Wing everything, it’s so much more fun, especially watching your very analytical husband go pale at regular intervals. ????
Super impressive, especially when you didn’t plan them!
Love, love, love it! Specially the cushion.
I plan and wing it. Swatches come in useful for pockets/blanket squares anyhow. And I do so hate having to rip back, specially on jumpers &/ with expensive yarn.
Otherwise yup, let’s go wing it, and make copious notes so that the other sock stands at least some remote chance of matching – for those who get bothered by such things!
Another winger here! Beautiful work on that totally transformed cushion and I love that yarn.
That reminds me so much of the Bargello Florentine Canvas Work in Elsa Williams book of same name. The book I have was published in 1967 so is an antique but I so love the patterns in it. I bought it in the early ’80’s when a student at the UofM in Winnipeg. I wish I had read more of it then because I would have known there was a museum in Florence that I could have visited when we travelled there in 1985….oh, well, just means I have to go back some day!
Another U of M alumnus!! Nice to see you here!!
Wow, what a lovely pattern, thank you! The rocker you featured in your last post is a dead ringer for the rocker I bought and finished for my very first apartment in 1975. The quilted cushions my dear mum lovingly sewed for me back then are long gone, so I may have to take a stab at your pattern once the holiday craziness dies down.
Sympathies for the rain, I’m in Seattle where we’ve had five or six inches of rain in two days. Yours looks much more devastating….
Thank you so much for the gorgeous knitting notebook! I have never won a giveaway before so it was a complete surprise!
That chair cover is just lovely ???? I hope the rain lets up soon….