27 August 2018

Stripes for Summer and Winter

Derwent Cove Cushions by Moira Ravenscroft, Wyndlestraw Designs
Today is Autumn Bank Holiday in the UK, usually seen as the grand finale of the Summer Season. Up and down the country, families will be returning from their holidays and getting ready for the start of the new school term.

It can feel a little sad to see a season end, especially when it has been as exceptional as this one! However, I have to admit to liking these transition times. True, the summer is wonderful with its clear, bright skies, the feeling of the sea breezes in your hair and hours spent walking aimlessly on sandy shores. But one day a slightly cooler breeze comes along and you feel that wonderful thrill of anticipation imaging knitting warm scarves and blankets ready for the winter ahead.

So here in the last of my “Summer and Winter blogpost series, I am thinking of stripes: stripes to capture those beautiful summer colours in a set of cushions, and stripes on a warm rug to step onto when you emerge from the shower.
Derwent Cove Cushions by Moira Ravenscroft, Wyndlestraw Designs
It is one of the delights of knitting that you can be sitting one moment by a limpid pool with a set of colouring pencils in your hand, sketching the rocks or perhaps just letting the sound of the gulls wash over you. Then a short while later, you find yourself in a yarn store and the self‐same colours are in your hands.

These cushions arose from just such an occurrence. There was a brief 15-minute interlude between a walk by the harbour in Venice, Florida and finding these yarns in a small yarn boutique close by. I wrote about this in a previous blogpost, but it still amazes me how well matched the colours were. The very same blues and turquoises I had just seen down by the harbour, and now they are a set of cushions. A memory of summer.

These are the Derwent Cove Cushions and have been worked in a crisp, cool cotton yarn. They are easy to make and can look completely different depending on which colour you start the pattern with. It’s the same stripe pattern and the same yarns used for each one, but this simple switch of lead colour gives a co-ordinated set of cushions.
Loopy Rug by Anna Ravenscroft, Anna Alway Designs
Now of course,  you don't need to go very far back to remember the summer‐time at the moment. But now delve further back in your mind to last winter... Can you recall that cold feeling when you stepped onto the icy bathroom floor first thing in the morning? The heating hadn't fully kicked in yet and the tiles seemed to be draining away every last ounce of warmth from your morning shower... Remember that feeling? … Argh!

​Well, here's something to help. A cozy bathroom rug with colours to chase away the chills! This is Anna’s Loopy Rug pattern and is worked in a soft chunky wool‐mix yarn so it knits up quickly. You'll be able to start this now as the leaves change colour around you, then when winter sets in you'll be able to face your shower without the shock of the cold floor to follow.
Loopy Rug by Anna Ravenscroft, Anna Alway Designs
For more information about the Derwent Cove Cushions please click here, and to read more about the Loopy Rug, please click here.  Both patterns are available for instant download from the pattern sites, and both are also graded as "Easy" – perfect for getting back into knitting after the long lazy summer.

I hope you have enjoyed this exploration of knitting patterns for Summer and Winter. If you would like to read the whole series, please click here to read the first blogpost and then follow the links at the bottom of each page to get back to this point.

We’re heading off on our travels again next week, so I’ll be back next time with a “Postcard from England".

Until then – Happy Knitting!

Moira
Keywords: Patterns/Cushions,
cushion, pillow, rug, summer, winter, easy pattern, blue, turquoise, white, orange, yellow, black, Garter Stitch, Loopy Rug Stitch,

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