Dr Who Scarf Inspired Cushion Cover

This simple cushion cover is just the thing for the Dr Who fan in your house.  It is so simple that even a beginner can do it and you will end up with something original that money can’t buy in the shops.  They look great on couch (see picture) and have a different pattern on each side so you can flip them over according to your mood.  It’s a subtle tribute to Dr Who – fans will love it and those who aren’t fans will just think it’s a normal cushion cover.  It is stylish enough that it will not be forced to hide in the study like all the other Dr Who merchandise!  And besides – what else are you going to do with your time while waiting for the Dr Who 50^th Anniversary special!

Dr Who Scarf Inspired Cushion Cover - Side 1

What you will need:

• A 46 cm x 46 cm (size 18) cushion insert.  I picked one up at Big W for $6.87.
• 5.5 mm knitting needles
• Vanna’ Choice Yarn in the following colours and quantities (see my note below on yarn choice)
• Beige – 1 ball
• Olive – 1 ball
• Charcoal – 1 ball
• Brick – 1 ball
• Toffee – 1 ball
• Burgundy – 1 ball
• Mustard – 1 ball
• Scissors
• Wool needle

Dr Who Scarf Inspired Cushion Cover - Side 2

Instructions:

1. Cast on 70 stitches in Olive.  You will be knitting every row (aka Garter stitch).
2. Knit 20 ribs (a rib is two rows of knitting counted from the right side) in Olive.
3. Knit 3 ribs in Mustard.
4. Knit 7 ribs in Charcoal
5.  Knit 3 ribs in Brick
6. Knit 21 ribs in Beige
7. Knit 3 ribs in Burgundy
8. Knit 8 ribs in Olive
9. Knit 5 ribs in Charcoal
10. Knit 3 ribs in Mustard
11. Knit 7 ribs in Brick
12. Knit 3 ribs in Burgundy
13. Knit 16 ribs in Toffee
14. Knit 4 ribs in Beige
15. Knit 3 ribs in Charcoal
16. Knit 17 ribs in Brick
17. Knit 6 ribs in Mustard
18. Cast off all stitches
19. Fold the resulting rectangle in half so you get a square with the right sides facing out.  Sew up the two sides closest to the fold using a proper garter stitch seam here for a fantastic seamless result.  There are lots of great tutorials on the web to teach you how to do this if you don’t already know.  Here you are doing a VERTICAL garter stitch seam.  The result is mostly seamless it but may show a little so use toffee yarn here as it isn't obvious when it does show.
20. Insert the cushion into the cushion cover
21. Sew up the final seam using a HORIZONTAL garter stitch seam.  Use olive yarn here since you are joining two green sections together.

Yarn choice:

I’ve listed here what I used.  I started out by making a Dr Who scarf thanks to the directions of a really great website wittylittleknitter.com.  I then had the idea of making a cushion cover with just a section of the scarf.  The lady behind Witty Little Knitter has gone to a lot of effort to choose colours and create patterns as close as possible to the original scarf.  The instructions I give you here are how turn a section of that scarf into a cushion.  To be exact, I have chosen a section from the Season 12 scarf.  I chose a section that includes a bit of every colour of the scarf.

Witty Little Knitter will give you other yarns that you could use instead of Vanna’s Choice.  Or you can go to your local yarn shop and try to match the colours to yarns that you have access to.  Some of the colours used are quintessential 70s colours that aren’t so readily available today.  So I ordered Vanna’s Choice yarn from fabric.com.  To me it was worth the extra cost of postage just to avoid the hassle of colour matching a local brand. 

Happy knitting!