More ideas

I have been trying to come up with a good design for some heart detail in a flat panel, that would work for a blanket or cushion. Yesterday evening while I was merrily rippling away on my new blanket I had a moment of inspiration, put down the ripple and hooked myself up a short foundation chain to see if the idea would work.

 It didn't! Not quite there, so I had another go and...

...This time success! Super chuffed with how that worked out and seemed quite simple to do. In my opinion simplicity is the key to good designs, yes they can have lots of detail but if there is a good repeat, chances are it will look better than having to make adjustments everywhere.

I found a spare 18 inch cushion pad and made a foundation chain big enough for one side and started making rows of little hearts. 

I soon realised that having this heart repeat on its own looked a bit sparse, so I wanted to pop another little row of detail in there too and this is what I came up with:

I think it looks very sweet and if you look closely it sort of looks like a row of tiny flowers.

So this is as far as I have got:

It will need a bit of blocking when it's finished but I think it looks quite effective!

There is a lot of work in this cushion cover, each repeat in the pattern is ten rows - as much of it is made in double crochet which means it grows quite slowly. It is good fun to do though so I don't mind it taking time at all. 

I find the hardest part of coming up with a new design is working out how to start and finish each row and I have to say that my panel is a bit slapdash in this regard. Some rows have one less stitch than they are supposed to but that is being fixed as I go along. What was I saying about simplicity being the key? I have come too far with this panel to start again now but I know exactly where I was going wrong and I will fix that for any more that I make. It won't notice on this one, I will sew it up carefully to hide the messy side bits :)

Meanwhile the cat has given my chair his seal of approval:

And Dolly and Polly have a home (for now):

All is good in my colourful little crocheting world. More hearts and flowers and ripples await!


XXX