Third Kaleidoscope Cushion

The colours for the third design of my summer Kaleidoscope cushion collection was inspired by a visit to the seaside on a sunny warm day in June. The dog played on the beach we paddled in the sea and indulged in very big ice creams! The sea was very blue and the cliffs were two shades of rusty brown and in bright sunshine the sand was a pale beigy grey.

The colours didn’t seem like an obvious combination but if they work in nature.....When we came back from the seaside I had the inspiration for my 3rd cushion in my head and I couldn’t wait to start. For this 3rd cushion I wanted to show more detail of the crochet stitches so I needed to use a finer yarn.

Searching my stocks of yarn  I found some Shilasdair which is made using natural dyes  and is a lovely yarn  from independent spinners on the Isle of Skye. It has slubs of wool something that I love as it brings another dimension to the finished designs. In this cushion I used an oatmeal colour. For some reason finer yarns seem to have more subtle colours. I combined the Shilasdair with West Yorkshire Spinners 4 ply from the Spice range. The blue is Sirdar Country Style 4 ply. I used a 3.5 crochet hook.

The theme that runs through the Kaleidoscope collection is the colours and using colour combinations to define the designs. All of the Kaleidoscope collection were made by me when sitting in the garden when it was not always warm and I sometimes had to dodge the showers!

The garden in June

As you know I love embellishments and while I loved the finished design it looked a bit masculine with an all square design so I added the 3d roses. As you can see I loved making them and got a bit carried away. Find the pattern here