Tag: free pattern

Happy Circles II – A new pattern

YAY – my Happy Circles cushion cover is finally finished! – Okay, to be honest, it has been for over a week now.
Unfortunately, it took me a very long time to write the pattern. Like other countries in Europe, we had a terrible heatwave here. The temperatures climbed up to 40 degrees Celsius. And this was definitely too hot for my brain. I found it hard to concentrate on anything.

But now the time has come. Everything is written down and hopefully well explained!

You can download the free pattern here

If you have any questions about the pattern (or spot any mistakes), simply email me. You can either use the contact form or email me directly under hookedonhakelmaschen@gmail.com

The Design

The cushion cover is designed for a 50 x 50 cm (20 x 20 inch) cushion. The finished size is about 46 x 46 cm (18 x 18 in).
With the size I followed an advice I found on the internet. It said that to make a square cushion look nice and plump, the cover should be about 5 cm (2 in) smaller than the cushion.
At first I was unsure whether this would really work. And when I finally put the cushion into the cover to close the last seam, I was pretty sure at first that it had become too small. But everything turned out well in the end. I am totally happy with the result!

The front part of the cover is made up of 16 squares, arranged in a 4 x 4 layout. Each square measures about 10 x 10 cm (4 x 4 in).
For the back, I opted for a simple square. Mainly single-coloured, with a few small contrasts.

The size is easy to adjust by enlarging or reducing the border of the front piece. The rounds for the back must then of course be adjusted accordingly.

My Colours and Colour Placement

My colour choice was inspired by a cushion cover I got from IKEA some years ago.

I selected five colours from my Stylecraft Special DK stash focusing on yellow-green and blue-green tones.

Originally, I wanted to create a random colour scheme for the design again. This time, however, I failed with the use of the random generator. I didn’t like the results, so I worked out something of my own. The outcome is not really random, but has a similar effect. You can read all about it in one of my earlier posts.

Of course, you can also use different yarns and/or different colours. But please bear in mind that using a different yarn may affect the size of the finished cushion. It may also change the quantity of yarn required.

I am totally happy with the result! And I hope you like it just as much!

Related Posts

Happy Circles – A new pattern

New Year – new wall decorations

It is already mid January and I hope you had a great start in the new year! Hubby and I got off to a very cosy start.
After that, however, we started renovating another room in our house – just in keeping with the theme of new beginnings.
We want a new insulated floor – the same one we have already laid in the living room and hallway. After that there will be new cupboards. So again, it looks a bit chaotic here at the moment. Never ending story …

However, within all the renovation stuff, we have a new wall decoration in our living room! But of course these are not the result of our renovation work but of my colour experiments last year.

My colour experiment in 2024

You may remember that last year I experimented a little with random colour placement. This project really opened my eyes to new ways of combining colours.

I started by selecting yarn in 15 different shades from my Stylecraft Special DK stash. Mostly leftovers from other projects.

But instead of manually compiling all possible colour combinations in a table, I tried an online random generator, Random.org . They offer a lot of free services, including a list randomizer. It works wonderfully for generating random colour combinations. I described in detail how this works in an earlier post. You can read all about it here

I needed a bit of colour – Colour Experiment Part 1

My first Panel

To try out the random colour combinations, I started crocheting little circles. Each with 3 rounds. In doing so, I have strictly adhered to the results that the random colour generator had given me. I only replaced a colour if it would otherwise have appeared twice in a circle. In the end, this resulted in 25 colourful circles, which I then turned into small squares. I joined them in a 5 x 5 layout. To determine the exact arrangement of the squares, I also used the random generator.

Details on my colour placement and layout can be found in this post

Random Layout – Colour Experiment Part 2

After adding a small border my finished panel was about 52 x 52 cm.

At first I had thought of making a cushion cover out of it. But then I decided to use it as a wall decoration.

My second Panel

Overall, I was so thrilled with the result that I have since made a second panel.

I used the same colours and the same process as with the first panel. The colour combinations are completely different, but it looks just as great.

Here the results:

The table below shows the colour combinations that I have used for my second panel. The colours are listed for each circle in the order of rounds 1, 2 and 3. As for my first panel each circle was squared with two more rounds in the colour Graphite.
At the same time, the table shows the layout in which I have arranged the squares. 

I had already listed the pattern for the squares, joining, and border in a separate post. If you are interested you can find it here

Step by step – A new wall decoration – Colour experiment Part 3

But in addition, I have now written down the pattern again and summarised it in a pdf file. Besides the actual pattern, this document contains the colour combinations and layouts for both panels.
So you can also download the complete file here.

Please note: Some left over yarns and 1 ball of Stylecraft Special DK for squaring and joining are sufficient for one panel.

Happy CirclesDownload

I hope you like it as much as I did!

Have a lovely time 💕

Granny Square Day 2024

Some days ago, on Wednesday, it was Granny Square Day. Em …, I can’t believe it, but I missed it completely!

Blame it on the heat, or the summer flu I’m suffering from at the moment and that is making me very tired, or whatever … I don’t know!

However. Lately I’ve been experimenting a bit with colours and colour combinations using circles and Granny Squares. In this process, I also created a little Granny. So, to honour Granny Square Day, too late or not, I thought I’d share the pattern with you.

Nothing big, but quite nice, I think.

Just a Granny

“Just a Granny” is a four round Granny Square and measures about 10 cm / 4 inch- if made with a #3 (DK / worsted weight) yarn.

I made my version using only two colours as I think it shows the pattern best.
Of course you can also use more colours or a different yarn. Using a different yarn though might affect the size of the square.

The Granny requires only a small amount of yarn and I used some leftovers from my stash. For both I used Hobbii Rainbow Cotton 8/6. It is 100 % Cotton and has a yardage of 105 m / 50 g. I find it best to work with a 3,75 mm hook.

I made two colour variants. The first one is made with

  • # 49 – Peach
  • # 47 – Dark Old Rose

… and the second one uses

  • # 65 – Apricot
  • # 12 – Volcano Gray

Apricot and Volcano Gray is one of my favourite colour combinations. Unfortunately it looks like #65 Apricot is discontinued, at least in the 8/6 quality.

The Pattern

Like a regular granny, the pattern mostly uses double crochet, but also includes extended treble crochet, double treble crochet, and shallow back post double crochet (all US terms).
Due to these special stitches I have categorised the pattern as „beginning intermediate”. But since it is only a few stitches and rows, I think that even an adventurous beginner can do it. Of course, the placement of the stitches is explained in the pattern. And if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

In case you’ve never heard about a shallow back post double crochet: it is more or less worked in the same way as a normal bpdc. Only the placement of the stitch is a bit different which makes it a bit less textured. The pattern includes a link to a helpful video on how to do this stitch (made not by me but by Tamara Kelly from Moogly).

You can download the free pattern here

Happy belated Granny Square Day and have fun 💕