Thursday Thoughts – Knitting for the Home

Now that the major holiday gift-giving season is behind me, my thoughts turn to knitting items for my home.  There are several items that I’d like to knit on my circular needles and I want them to have a cohesive feel.  So, I decided to design a collection of small items that share both form and function.  Commonality of form will come from the stitch pattern that I designed for the collection and the colors in which the collection will be knit. For function, I chose items for the collection that soothe or ease members of the family.  Thus was born the notion of a Comfort Collection.

When I began thinking about construction, I knew that I wanted at least a portion of each piece to be knit in the round.  I also wanted to use a common stitch design in a large segment of each component pattern.  A richly textured fabric spoke “comfort” to me and influenced not only the sequence of stitches with which I experimented in coming up with my stitch design, but also guided my choice of a worsted weight yarn for these projects.  The color blue has always had a calming effect on me and I find the combination of blue and white to be clean and soothing.  So with these considerations in mind, I came up with this basic stitch design:

 

The first piece in the Comfort Collection is a Heating Pad Cover.  I’m knitting this from the bottom up with a long circular needle and the Magic Loop technique with a closed cast-on.  The top will feature a button closure with worked button holes.  I am knitting the sample to fit a popularly sized heating pad of approximately 12″ x 24″ and detailed instructions will be provided for this size.  Notes will also be included for adapting the pattern to other heating pad sizes.  From a knitting perspective, the pattern offers ample interest and, as you can see from the photo below, is knitting up quickly.

 

Are you designing or knitting any items for your home this winter?  Please leave a comment and tell us about the projects that are currently on your needles.

. . . Linda, the well-rounded knitter

 

Filed under: Knitting on Circular Needles

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