Beekeeper Cushion no.1.

 

My mission to finish the various projects sitting in bags in my spare room led me to get my head around this curiosity. It turned out to be the result of a Beekeeper's Quilt pattern I bought seven years ago, presumably to use up left-over bits of wool. I don't think I ever had the intention of making a quilt, and I certainly don't intend it now.

It is, however, a good way of using up left-over yarn. You knit a series of little pods, using three dpns. The first three rows getting set up are awkward

but it gets easier after that.

After 20 rows you stuff the pocket with wadding and join the two rows together.

After adding a few more pods, I wondered if any of my family were in need of a teacosy. It seemed to me that would be a good use to put this to.

No-one wanted a teacosy (nor did I, I have several!) but there was a very positive response to cushions to cover four particular church chairs, so, with measurements, I got to work.

I needed eight pods to cover the length stipulated, so as I finished each pod I added it to a central line to mark the length. I already had the width  of five pods

It gave me something to aim for and meant I could choose and spread the colours I had, rather than ending up with blocks of the same. 

I was a bit concerned that a cushion of such random colours might look out of place in a church. I checked out the Saint for which the church is named, St Margaret of Scotland, to see if she had any colour association. To my joy I discovered that one of her famous acts was to introduce colour into the Scottish Court! She encouraged ordinary people, as well as the nobility, to wear coloured clothing, and introduced colour into wall hangings and church furnishings! She also set up workshops in the palace to produce embroidered textiles - and was herself an embroiderer!  Wow!

Eight rows by five is obviously 40 pods needed. The rows, however, interlock, meaning that some half-pods are needed to give a straight edge on two ends.The other two sides meet in points, not conducive to squaring off in knitting.

So the last two pods were four halves - the trickiest to knit, since, to get a smooth edge, I cast on from the centre and decreased rather than the other way around. 

It is now a more-or-less rectangular cushion that fits in a particular space. I’m wondering how I could have made it a couple of cm wider to reach exactly to the front edge of the chair. 

Half pods wouldn’t work. Slightly larger pods on the front row might work, but the best answer might be to to join the pods in vertical, rather than horizontal rows, with half pods along the long, rather than the short edges. I shall wait for a report on how it works in practice. It may, in fact, not be an issue.

I can, however,  begin work on the next one!