Crocodile stitch cushion

It’s finally finished. The Crocodile stitch granny square has now been made into a cushion, as planned.

I’m really happy with how it turned out. The Crocodile stitch sits beautifully with the cushion pad inside it. I even made the cushion that goes inside it.

I had a plain cushion inner from Ikea but as it’s white and not particularly pretty, I didn’t want to use it on its own. I bought some pink fabric and a zip to make a cushion cover for the inner which I could then slip inside the crochet cover.

I don’t have much experience of putting in zips but the instructions that came with my sewing machine are quite good. Basic but good, so I managed ok with those. It’s not too bad as long as you don’t look at the back. Also, I must remember that if sewing a hem, it’s a good idea to use the right colour cotton in the bobbin…

I’d closed three sides of the crochet cover with single crochet and planned originally to stitch the fourth side to the edges of the zipped side of the inner, but in the end, I thought it would look nicer if I closed it with single crochet. If I want to open it to clean it, it’ll be easy enough to unpick that and then crochet it closed afterwards.

I just need to decide where it’s going to live now.

Crocodile Stitch granny square

I started this ages ago and made quite good progress on it. I did the Bubble stitch centre and then the rows around it until it was about 13″ square. That was the point at which I posted about it and mentioned that it might be a bit more advanced than I could handle, but I thought I was doing ok.

Famous last words. I did the first row of surface stitches, the Crocodile stitch, and realised I’d made a tiny mistake. When I tried to unpick it, I couldn’t find where I’d woven in my ends so eventually had to resort to cutting it. This was where my problems really started as I managed to cut the layer underneath instead. This was a disaster as it meant I then had to unpick EVERYTHING, right back to a couple of rows after the Bubble stitch centre.

I was gutted.

After putting it away for a couple of weeks, while I had a good sulk, I finally redid the bits that I’d had to undo and then put it away again rather than face the Crocodile stitch. I’m such a coward. Eventually though I got it back out and after a couple of mis-starts, I got the hang of the stitch and this is the result.

I’m sure the Crocodile stitch could be a bit more even, but I’m very happy with it for a first attempt. I need to crochet the back now as this is going to be a small cushion cover. That’s going to be plain though so won’t take nearly as long. I hope 😉

Pattern by Joyce Lewis on Ravelry

Now that’s what you call a Granny Square!

I found a lovely pattern for a large Granny square that I’m  planning to use as the base for a cushion cover. I’m not quite sure why I thought I’d be able to do it, mind as it’s fairly advanced. For some reason I don’t seem to have any fear when it comes to  crochet patterns, or counted stitch designs come to that. I see them, I like them and I decide to do them. With no thought of whether I have the ability to do them. No fear at all. It’s going to come back to bite me in the bum one day.

Still, this one seems to be going ok so far. I had to resort to YouTube once but other than that the instructions were perfectly adequate for someone who hadn’t done the stitches before.

I’ve used the pretty brightly coloured cottons that I bought at the NEC with a paler pink that I bought to go with them. They were lovely to work with, but I can’t say that I enjoyed balling up the skeins.

This is the centre, which is done in Bubble stitch.

I love working with that cotton. It has a sheen to it and comes up beautifully. The pale pink cotton that I bought to go with the four from the NEC is softer but still very nice. It’s a bit plumper though so you get a slightly different effect. I rather like them together.

This is about 13″ square now but is not yet finished. I won’t be adding any more to the edges. The next step is the surface stitches. I’m hoping it’ll look as stunning as the original once I’ve done that.