Rowan have been doing a Knitalong for Martin Storey’s Midwinter Blanket. (You need to sign up but the pattern, videos etc are free)

This is the pattern pic of the blanket, made up of separately knitted fair isle squares in Rowan Felted Tweed…

This immediately appealed to me – partly because of the potential to make a dent in my stash of Felted Tweed leftover from numerous projects over the years. …but I don’t have houseroom for ANOTHER blanket!

Current Blanket Count

I had a blanket count – I have knit or crocheted eight blankets and only given one away to my lovely sister Carol during lockdown as a “hug” from me cos I wasn’t allowed to visit her.

There is a blanket in nearly every room – any more and our home will look like a stand at a craft show.

These are my creations so far (always popular with the furry family members)…

 Two blankets have never been blogged (centre (given to Carol) and bottom left (Summer Palace from a kit by Janie Crow) but here’s the completed knit report posts for the rest if you’re interested…

Fabulous Stashbuster Blanket

Kitty loves Tartan

That was a long Blog-Break! How about a Blanket?

Choices: 7 Fugly Scarves or…

At Last – The Flower Blanket is Done

Blankie – Finished and Boiled!

If not a blanket, then what?

I decided to make a 9×9 square cushion.

Still undecided it it will be 2 cushions with fabric backs or 2 cushions with a giant knitted motif on the back or 1 cushion, knitted both sides? What else could I do for the back?…something for another post 😉

Tumbling Blocks cushion in Felted Tweed

I know Felted Tweed is super durable for cushions as I used it in 2004 to make a a version of the Kaffe Fasset Tumbling Block cushion which was a Rowan Member’s gift that year.

The original Rowan version was beautiful but suffered a horrible and “Halloween worthy” death from moths, like this …

Read about the horror story here: What Knitters with Stash Fear Most

My Felted Tweed version was to match my then purple living room (it was in the days we all had an aubergine coloured feature wall!!)

This is now developing holes after a great deal of cat-love and trips through the washing machine. It is 19 years old and still a cat bed…

Here’s a selection with my now passed, beloved old blog-stars, Thug and Mewsley enjoying it..

So how is the Midwinter Cushion going?

I only needed to buy the background colour – I couldn’t get the lighter Clay colour shown here (sold out cos everyone is making this blanket!) so I went with the more muted Stone… and then my green didn’t work so I had to buy a ball of green … and while I was there the deep red spoke to me… I may end up with a net gain of Felted Tweed but I tried to stash bust!!

This is the green than didn’t work against the Stone colour – it just melted into it.

The only downer with these little squares is that they are knit flat so I needed to remind myself how to do fairisle wraps on the purl row – yuck!

I considered steeking and knitting in the round but it over complicated it. It was easier to suck it up and knit the blocks flat.

What do you think of it so far?

Even the backs look neat – and I used my new Ladderback Jacquard skill on the large plain areas on the stag and the pine tree!

So far it has been fun, especially experimenting with the layout. This is what I’ve settled on – and just 2 green and 2 red squares to go…then I can start my experimental, exciting back!