I’m in the mood for a fairly mindless small-scale project, and this will be something of a stash-buster, too. I’m using up some yarn I bought super-duper cheap years ago, at Hudson’s Treasure Chest in Mobile. I’m not sure how this pattern will look in the “fleck” yarn, but… well, how bad can it be, right?

July 10th--
This pattern starts out ok, but I get tired of it fairly quickly. Now I just want it done. (g) So, considering that, I’m going to make just one side of the cushion cover ruffly. The other side will be flat/plain (and therefore much faster to crochet).

If I ever do this again, I want to remember to at least consider doing fewer increases per round. At some point, I abandoned the 15-increases-per-round instructions and did… I’m not sure how many increases instead. (Just fewer than fifteen.) Worked according to pattern, you don’t end up with a flat circle. Once I stretch it over the pillow and crochet the two halves together, I think it’ll look ok, though.

I used this method to make a flat circle of double crochet for the back of the cushion. However, instead of using a chain to get to the right stitch height each round, I used a chainless starting double crochet. I use pretty much the same technique as shown in this video, but I’ve never used that “paperclip tool”. (It might be helpful for a beginner or someone new to the technique, but otherwise, it looks like it would slow things down.)

July 11th--
I’ve finished both sides and stitched them together with the pillow inside. (I made the pillow myself and crocheted the cover to fit. Much easier than sewing a cushion to order afterwards, in my opinion.)

I think I’ll use a button (or two-- one for each side?) to cinch the two sides together a bit in the middle… which will also serve to cover the hole in the middle of the “petals” side.

I’m planning to make the button(s) from polymer clay, as I don’t have any store-bought/salvaged buttons that look big enough.