Oh My!
Each week I have an idea of the subject of the blog post. Sometimes I tweak it when I walk into the shop to take photos. This week, as soon as I walked into My Sister Knits, I was totally smitten with a pillow that I saw on the table and knew I had to write about it.
This is the most beautiful knitted pillow I have ever seen and It’s the only one I’ve ever wanted to make! I couldn’t wait to find out more about it. Each detail I discovered made it more and more special!
The Wildrose Cable Cushion is a lumbar pillow with hand-woven fabric on the back and knitted fabric on the front. Barb Lynn is a textile designer who lives near Steamboat Springs. This project of combining woven fabric with knitted fabric is the culmination of an idea that began several years ago and was inspired by Laine magazine.
Barb uses yarn from Wyoming sheep, spun at Mountain Meadow Wool Mill in Buffalo, WY for her warp. The warp thread in weaving is the one that is strung over the loom vertically and stays put. The magic happens when she uses Shibui Reed colors for the weft, which is the yarn that is woven between the warp threads and creates the pattern.
Barb sent us kits with her exquisite herringbone woven fabric, three pewter buttons that are handmade in Vermont specifically for this design, and some of the warp thread to hand sew the seams. I was pleased to find out that this pillow is all hand made, no machine sewing involved! Shibui Nest and Lunar are held together and used for the front of the pillow. Because Shibui yarn is used in the entire pillow, the finished product has a classic, designer feel.
Barb’s directions for the knitting and the finishing are excellent! The cable chart for the center design is both written out and charted. She gives us a choice of seven cables with Double Moss stitch or three cables with Single Moss stitch. Moss stitch gives the front of the pillow a nice texture. You can substitute Single Moss stitch for Double Moss stitch on either chart if you so desire. This pillow front has a sturdy, dense gauge that will hold up over time.
I was a little concerned about sewing the two pieces together but after I looked at the directions I don’t think it will be difficult at all. I love the fact that the sewing yarn included in the kit is the warp yarn! It will make such a professional finish.
I have noticed that there is a difference in the feel of pillow inserts and I love the one in the sample pillow at the shop. Barb uses down pillow inserts that are nice and squishy but hold their shape. This is a vast improvement over the polyester ones that feel rather like rocks.
This fabric and yarn in this kit make a pillow that you will cherish for years!
Happy knitting,
Jenny