new design: your great-aunt’s pillows

Hey folks! I'm just popping in to let you know I have a design in the current issue of Crochet Today! The issue is hitting stands as I type, and on its way out to subscribers. My pattern is called Your Great-Aunt's Pillows. It's a round pillow in a textured waffle stitch. Again, a great opportunity to play with color. Head on over here to queue it up on ravelry.

The description in the mag says, "A clean, modern couch is the perfect canvas for colorful crochet cushions." Um, how about my dirty green velvet vintage couch? :) I love the way they styled the pillows for the magazine's shot of them. Quite a few people have already msged me to ask about that orange couch - I hear they got it at Urban Outfitters. It's super cute, no?

The magazine did a great job with the editing on the pattern, but I'd like to add a word about the finishing. First, I debated about the buttons for a long time. They look cute, but if you're going to lay down and put your face on the pillow they might not be the most comfy thing. I could see the pillow working with or without them. I picked up the ones you see in the magazine at my local JoAnn. The colors were just too cute with that yarn! Second, about stuffing the pillows - I know they're out there somewhere, but I could not for the life of me find round pillow forms locally. People, I live in the third largest city in the US. And I can't find round pillow forms. What is WITH that? So what I ended up doing was again, going to JoAnn, and buy upholstery foam. I got the pre-cut pre-packaged squares of it because this was far cheaper than having them cut the bulk foam. Then I just went to town with a pair of scissors. There was a lot of trimming involved in order to even things out. The reason I'm making note of this here is just because the finishing took longer than you might anticipate, and I'm hoping that if I declare this publicly then people won't be surprised when they finish their two pillow-halves and don't have a completed object 5 minutes later.

And one last word about this issue of Crochet Today! There's a whole ton of super cute designs in there, but one of them - only one! - is super cute AND FREE on the Crochet Today website, and it's by my internet-buddy Maryse. It's called Your Nana's Potholders and you can get the pattern for free right on over here.