So I made my first crocheted thing – a cushion. When I mentioned I learned to crochet, I mentioned the throw my sister made for me and The Boyfriend. When she gave it to us, she gave me the left-over wool. In the Summer before we went to uni, my sister and I used my mum’s fabric stash to make ourselves some cushion covers and I made a throw, to have some nice things to have in our rooms. Mine were all blue and hers red – predictable for anyone who knows us! These cushions are now (cough, cough) 10 years old and falling apart. They were all on our sofa but they don’t match the beautiful throw or brown sofa. One of them totally gave up the ghost, which is sad because I really liked it and it was done with reverse applique – the first and last time I’ve ever done that technique; plus I sewed it in a circle with a pin stuck on the machine to make a perfect round. But the back was made of lining material so it totally disintegrated.

Why am I telling you this? Because the cushion pad inside this dead cushion was still okay so I decided to use it as the pad for a brand new, shiny, crocheted cushion made to match the throw! I backed the crochet and the cushion with calico and I hope it will be a bit more sturdy than the previous one.

I made 9 granny squares with different combinations of colours. It is the same pattern I made when I was practicing crochet, which I thought was the same as the one in the throw but, according to people who know a lot more about crochet than me, it isn’t.

I crocheted them together with the biscuit colour wool, which made some nice lines, and I edged it the same as my sister did with the throw – one row of light green chains, then one row of navy blue chains. I think I might have added a second layer of navy blue chains to make sure the crochet filled the whole square of the cushion.

And here it is with the throw, looking all lovely and matchy 🙂

So my verdict on crochet is I love it! It was pretty quick to make the squares, and I found it satisfying to finish each square as it felt like I was getting somewhere, unlike with knitting which can feel like you’re doing it for ages and not really getting anywhere – not that I don’t love knitting, it’s just different. It was a pain in the arse to weave in all the ends, is my only grump with crochet, but I’d get that if I made a knitted patchwork cushion/ throw. So all in all I’m really proud of my first crocheted make 🙂

EDIT: My sister (who is a crochet expert) informs me that the edging is made up of double crochets not chains – oops!