4th December 2013: It’s multiplied! Two of my friends have made the same cushion for their daughters too. The girls are all very good pals and their faces should be a picture when they see their matching Christmas presents.

4th October: Just made the cushion back and sewn it all together. The back is a circle of purple needlecord about 60cm diameter, with a full length zip opening. I had to do a running stitch round the knitting to gather it in to this size and ease it onto the fabric back when sewing it on my sewing machine. The pad is a short, fat cyclinder, 60cm circle and 20cm tall. I stuffed it with beans at the bottom and wadding at the top, and it’s filling the shape quite nicely. There’s room for some squishiness when you sit on it, it’s not very firmly stuffed. On the whole I’m really pleased with this, and if my daughter doesn’t want it for her bedroom I’ll be happy to keep it in the lounge!

The other thing that happened is that the centre medallion is now recessed on the top of the cushion rather than sitting poking out. I prefer it recessed, it’s more like a button on traditional upholstery now.

9 Sept: aha! Saw where my kitchener stitch had gone wrong, spent a long time today unpicking and redoing, now looks much better. Photo 2 shows the improved version and has been steam-blocked, photo 5 was before blocking and with my original, not-so-great seam. Worth redoing!

6 Sept: Completed! Had a bit of a nightmare with the Kitchener stitch seam but it turned out OK in the end. It was looking beautiful…until I unravelled my waste wool on both my cast off edge and my provisional cast on. Then for some reason only one colour section was properly sewn, and the others weren’t secure, so some stitching required at the back. I’m waiting for my daughter to go away next weekend so I can block it and am hoping it will be fine after that, though thinking I’m being a bit self-critical and it is actually fine as it is!

Really enjoyed knitting this. I think the fact that I had to do it when my daughter is at school was a bonus because it was a grand excuse to do some daytime knitting. Also the technical aspect and working with this number of colours kept my interest. I’ll post a photo once I’ve made the back and the cushion pad.

Have completed 12 segments out of 24. Thinking about a fabric back, and making the cushion pad half beans and half wadding to turn this into a sturdy floor cushion for my wee girl. Great fun to knit but very technical, have to sit at a table and concentrate. Loving the Drops wool, and great service as always from Wool Warehouse (UK). Using 3mm pins so it’s a tight knit but makes a dense fabric.

Wool quantities, looks like I’m going to use 1 ball of each colour EXCEPT the light purple - 2 balls, pink - 2 balls and the dark purple - 3 balls.