Sari Silk Cushion instructions

For those who want to make a mitred square recycled silk cushion cover, here are my instructions. I am knitting 8 separate mitred squares to send to Hip Knits - which she will then join up and stuff with a cushion.

cast on 48 stitches
row 1: k22, (k2tog) twice, k22
row 2 and every ws row: knit every stitch
row 3: k21, (k2tog) twice, k21
continue decreasing 2 stitches at the centre of every RS row until 2 stitches remain.
Last row: this will be a ws row - slip 1, k1, PSSO, fasten off the last stitch.

Believe me, there is a point half way through knitting the mitred square when it looks like you are actually knitting underpants... but it will eventually become a square.

I am reckoning on using at least 560 grms of sari silk because each square weighs between 60 and 70 grms. The variation in weight is due to the fact that a single skein of sari silk is handspun and inconsistent and scrappy in nature (you will find the odd stray bit of hay, or other fabric like cotton, spun in too), this is part of its charm. This weight is only a guideline though, because each recycled sari silk skein is different - look at how different these two little skeins are that I bought at The Handweavers Studio:

Interestingly, I have 62 grms left of the Hip Knits silk ... will I be able to make a square out of that? Only knitting will tell.

The Wool Peddler has a lovely photograph of a woman sorting out the silk in Nepal.

Comments

[eendar]

Hola Jess! Acabo de ver tu mensaje en mi blog, si quieres puedo hacerte algun muñequito parecido a los que estan vendidos que te gusten, solo dime cual te gustan y si lo quieres pintado con algun color especial.
Un saludo!!

[Lolly]

Lovely silk, Jess. Thanks for the instructions too :)

[gleek]

what a great idea! i love the colors of that recycled silk.. i was thinking about doing something like this with white cotton and then dyeing the resulting sqaures with kool-aid. it might work :)

[Christina]

The pillow covers look lovely- what a good use for the recycled silk. Have fun knitting up the store samples.

[Siow Chin]

Hi Jess, that's a cool idea! I've got some sari silk left from the bag and will go knit some squares.