My Mixed Stitch Cushion Cover

I mentioned in this post that I had so much fun doing the mixed stitch blanket pattern by Little Woollie that I had started another one.  And here she is:

This is what she looks like from the back, slightly messy still, I'll admit, but who looks at the back, hey?:

And here they are together on the playroom sofa.  I am so pleased with them, and I can't believe that it has taken me this long to start crocheting cushion covers...

I'm sure the Husband is delighted, I'll have to think of something that will make him happy too, if I wish to add more cushions into the house, hmmm, maybe a minecraft cushion cover would work?  I'm really pleased with how the colours work, on each of the cushions individually and when they are together.  I tend to include white in the majority of my projects, especially when I'm picking the colours, so I'm pleased that they fit so well into the room.

For those of you who want all the details, I've listed what I actually did below.   I'm using UK terms, and I used a 4.5mm Hook with DK acrylic yarn for this project.  I picked the colours as I went, trying to use them in equal amounts as they include both my daughter's (various pinks and purples) and son's (various red and oranges) favourite colours.


The stitches and the order I used them in: 

I started by creating a chain long enough to go round the top of my cushion. Guys, if you're doing this at home, remember the top of the cushion is smaller than the middle, always measure round the middle, not the top.  Learn from my mistakes!

Next were 3 rows of half treble crochet.

3 rows of the Crossover Stitch (my name, I'm sure it has a real name somewhere, but this is just something I was playing about with).  You start with a treble, then *skip one stitch, 1 treble crochet in the next three stitches, go back and do one more treble crochet in your skipped stitch*, repeat between the *'s until the end.

2 rows of half treble crochet

5 rows of this stitch which is 1 double crochet, one double treble crochet all the way along.  It gives a lovely textured stitch.

2 rows of half treble crochet

1 row of this flower stitch which incorporates the flowers into the row, without having to sew them on - amazing!  I'm not sure I did exactly as instructed, but it works.  This is how I did it.  I started with 7 treble crochets.

Then 1 treble crochet, chain 1, one half treble crochet in the next stitch.

(Right Side only)Next the petals form out of these 2 stitches, you complete 5 in total.  I started with 2 on the half treble crochet, 1 on the stitch below (the one that I had completed the 1tr, ch 1, 1htr into) and then one on the stem of the treble crochet, finally one more back at the top.

Each petal  consisted of (1 double crochet, chain 3, 3 double treble crochets).  Once you have done this 5 times in the places explained above slip stitch into the middle of the flower, skip one stitch and carry on with treble crochet across.  I did another 7 treble crochets and completed the flower pattern again.

I found I twisted the flower a lot and needed to move the piece of crochet around while I was crocheting the flowers so this didn't happen.  For the next row I used half treble crochets until I came to the flower, and then chain 1 behind the flower and repeat until the end.

I did another 2 rows of half treble crochets.

Next I completed 3 rows of outlined clusters, details for which are on the Little Woollie's crochet along.

1 row of half treble crochet and one row of bullion stitch (twice).  Bullion stitch is wrapping (loosely) your yarn round your hook 6 to 12 times and then through the stitch, yarn over and through all at once. I wrapped my yarn around 7 times.  The information I found suggested that Bullion stitch is just for use on the right side and I did use the right side, but actually I like both.

5 more rows of this stitch which is 1 double crochet, one double treble crochet all the way along, still loving the lovely textured stitch it gives.

2 half treble crochet rows

1 more flower stitch row, followed by the row of half treble crochets until behind the flower, and then chain 1 and repeat until end.

Next I did another 2 rows of half treble crochets.

3 rows of the Crossover Stitch again.

2 half treble crochet rows.

To finish I folded the rectangle into the middle and slipped stitched into the middle on both sides, top and bottom.  I then completed 7 rows of half treble crochet (more so it would fit round the cushion than for design purposes, remember how I measured round the cushion incorrectly?).  I added some button holes on one side at regular-ish intervals (yep, should have measured them more accurately too), using chain 5 over 3 skipped stitches and then making them bigger with 7 half treble crochets into the button hole space.  I found 3 buttons in my stash that I liked with the cover and added those on the other side. I also slipped stitched the bottom and top 1/4 of the opening of the cushion cover together.  And that was it!  All done.

Blankets, blankets everywhere...

I've been crocheting for a bit now and we have a selection of blankets around the house.  I've used a variety of patterns, and (hopefully) linked to them.

Here is the first one, I made a vertical stripe blanket: 

Here is one I made for my daughter's bed (still Vertical Stripe Pattern):

And one I made for my son's bed(still Vertical Stripe Pattern -I liked doing this pattern):

I also made blankets using these patterns; the ripple blanket, a giant granny square, and a moss stitch blanket, and I have made a couple of blankets for other people too.

Here is the Ripple:

And here is the Moss Stitch Blanket: 

All the Blankets together:

 Have you seen this blanket by Little Woollie?  Isn't it just beautiful, I think I've pinned it about six times - everytime I see it I love it more.  So I got some yarn for Christmas, two whole full bags of brand new multi-coloured yarn.  I had to try the multi-stitch blanket, right? 

 But I didn't need a new blanket, so I decided that a cushion cover would be a great alternative.  And here it is:

I mainly followed the pattern (badly as it turns out, I can't show you the back of this project!)  Little Woollie created for her "Crochet Along", but I added a couple of stitches I'd seen elsewhere, I'll talk about those another time.  As I was doing a cushion cover, it only took a few days.  I had a lot of fun seeing it come together, so much so, I'm already working on cushion cover number two!  This time I'm using different stitches though(again, will talk about these another time), some I've wanted to try for a while.  Here's a sneak peek.  

So far so good.  My sides are a lot less wonky (notice I'm still not saying they are straight), and I've learnt how to do so many more stitches, which will definitely be used in some more projects in the future.