Sitting pretty
Of all the furnishing items around the house, the ones
that most often get overlooked are stools – rating low
on the aesthetic scale and high on practicality. Well,
let’s redress the balance a bit with a little dressing
up of our own. This sweet stool-topper is simply
made with rounds of double crochet in your favourite
colours (or a mix of whatever dyelots you have going
to waste in your yarn basket). Starting at the centre,
keep working rounds until you reach the size of the
stool-top diameter, then add enough extra rows to
comfortably accommodate the lip and turn-under.
The cover can be fi nished with an out-of-sight,
under-stool drawstring or with a piece of elastic.
Seat sweater
Luxurious linens, timeless ticking and country
cottons make wonderful seating upholstery, but
for the avid crafter, what could be better than a
hand-knitted chair cover? There are two upcycling
options for this idea: (1) simply use an existing
jumper by tailoring it to your furniture’s proportions,
or (2) knitting bespoke upholstery to use up leftover
yarns. Everything comes together beautifully in
the design we are showing you here – the colour
combination; the texture of the ribbing; and the
apparent contradiction of styles, with the ornate
French chair rusticated with something crafty.