My dear friend is a philosopher, writer, poet, literature teacher and mender of broken souls. So rather than another humble pair of socks, I’m attempting to knit a thematic cushion for his home. I’m certain he will appreciate the theme as it is a story he introduced to me many moons ago..

Plan on making a cushion/pillow using the following colors all in Eidos:

Front MC = Struggle for Existence
Front CC = Altruism
Front Lettering = Theobroma

Back MC = Struggle For Existence
Back Dragon CC = Altruism

Will use the Hwaet! chart as a guide for the lettering on the front in the lighter color of Altruism. Will also frame the front with borders of Dragon Knot.

The back will have a dragon on it - pattern to be determined. ETA will use this chart.

Sanguine Gryphon is having a huge end of season colorway sale (yeah) and I thought the colors would be manly yet tasteful. Hope so. Can’t wait to see the yarn!

Construction: Provisional Cast on 99 sts. Knit MC border across for 2 inches (25 rows). Then 4 rows of plain knitting with CC to center and border lettering. Then to begin charted lettering I knit 12 sts MC, attached CC and Letter color and strand knit across the 72 stitch wide chart, added 3 more CC stitches to center the design, then knit 12 sts MC for opposite border. This gives me 99 total stitches and should end up being 12 inches wide when blocked.

Stranded flat knitting is tricky on the purling back rows! I find it easier to flip the chart so it is oriented in the left to right position so it is in the same direction as what I am knitting, then flip it over again once doing the knit rows. In hindsight, it would be going much quicker if I steeked this side of the cushion to avoid all purling, but I wasn’t confident that I’d stick with this plan when I started and didn’t want to ruin this gorgeous yarn by taking scissors to it!

Progress: 9/23/11 Hurray! Finished the front panel on Autumnal Equinox. I’m taking this as a good sign! I ran a lifeline along the bottom length so that I can keep the stitches live for easier and neater attachment to back panel.

9/26/11 - About half done with the back panel dragon.

9/28/11 - Made a big push and finished 2nd panel. Both panels now need washing and blocking before being pieced together.

9/29/11 - Pieced top and bottom edges together with three needle bind off because I had provisional live stitches for these edges. The sides were stitched together using a simple single crochet stitch.

9/30/11 - Decided to knit two color braiding all around the pillow edging. First using SFE with Altruism on US 0. Then Theobroma with Altruism on US 1. Lastly, Theobroma and Struggle for Existence on US 3.

10/4/11 - I’m binding off! Using Theobroma with simple bind off. Will add 4 tassels. I hope I have enough Struggle for existence left!

I have decided that I am mad and should have my head examined. Knitting around (actually purling around) a stuffed pillow with such tiny circulars is insanity. This is a new technique for me. I used this video as a guide.