Inspired by India

Hello folks, have you had a good weekend? Here in the UK we have just had our second May holiday weekend, for us a quiet time of pottering about, enjoying the garden and of course crochet for me.

As the weeks pass and summer comes closer I find myself thinking of days out, tea in the garden and picnics, especially picnics. I'd been thinking for a while that I'd like to make a summer blanket, perhaps in ice-cream shades or bright summery colours however I didn't get around to it early enough for this year. I still feel the need for something bright, colourful and new though so I had a think about it and came up with the idea of making bright crocheted cushions which would be much quicker to make for use in the garden and for picnicking.

I haven't ever been to India (yet, maybe one day) but I love the vibrancy of the colours I see in photos, magazines and film. What colours do you think of when you think of India? I think of vibrant colours such as cerise pink, turquoise, orange, lime green, yellow, purple, jewel colours, all these colours suggest to me brilliant hued saris, wending their way through the streets and markets of India on the backs of the women. This train of thought reminded me of the beautiful cushions I have seen made from pieces of sari fabric, those cushions are stunning so why not try a crochet version? What would the pattern be? For me it has to be the instantly recognisable kidney shape of the Paisley pattern. With this idea firmly in my head I set off.

A visit to my local wool shop allowed me to gaze at all the beautiful yarns and find inspiration before buying the yarn I showed this peek of a few weeks ago.

It's Robin DK acrylic in shades Bright Turquoise, Cordial, Fiesta, Sunflower and Marigold. I love these bright colours and using acrylic yarn means I won't be precious about it being used outside, I could never be that relaxed about a silk yarn. I brought it home and started playing around with it to develop a Paisley type shape. I worked out the pattern then tried it with both 4mm and 3.5mm hooks. In the end I decided to go with the 3.5mm hook as I tend to crochet fairly loosely and it just looked a better shape. The 4mm hook gave an elongated Paisley shape, however I preferred the curvier motif made using the 3.5mm hook. I have made this using double crochet and half treble stitches to keep it simple, do you like it?

I worked up motifs in different colour combinations to see how they looked,

 and laid them out to choose which ones I like best.

 I definitely like the yellow (Sunflower) and pink (Fiesta) and the turquoise and orange (Marigold) but haven't decided about the other colour combinations yet. What do you think of them? Is there one you are drawn to or a combination I haven't tried?

Once I have decided which colours to use I will make a smaller motif to go with these and work out how to join them. I'm using a 50x50cm cushion and I'm still deciding whether to do an all-over design, just a border, or a mix of designs for each cushion, I'll see how I get on with the first one. What would you do? I'd love to hear your ideas too.

Hx