It’s official. I’m knitting furniture. I am one of those people.
This is the Puff Daddy knitted stool, and I thought the kids would absolutely love it. I originally saw similar items on Pinterest and fell in love with everything but the price tag. When I noticed the Puff Daddy pattern I was intrigued, and everything just fell into place when I thought about pairing it with some old DK yarn in the stash.
The yarn is Sirdar Country Style DK which I bought in 2003 to make a jumper for my husband. I made most of a cabled jumper but just wasn’t thrilled with the results. After a while, I didn’t have the desire to finish it or the heart to give my husband a highly cabled (mostly) acrylic jumper. He deserves wool. The jumper got frogged and the yarn has sat in the stash for years. I contemplated giving it away on several occasions, but with nearly 3000m the frugal side of me just couldn’t quite give it up. It had to be useful for something.
And it was! It makes a perfect puff. :)
The puff is stuffed with 6 cheap Ikea duvets that I bought for 19DKK each. It could possibly take one more duvet. The jury is still out. I think I’ll let the kids bounce on it a few times before I make a final verdict. I’ve left the one end easy to undo for the moment so that I can make adjustment as everything settles into place.
I lined the mid section of the puff with some similarly coloured stretchy fabric I had in my stash. Unfortunately, the piece wasn’t quite big enough to cover from top to bottom, so I think I’ll make a quick trip to the fabric shop and buy a big enough piece of fabric to make a ‘bag’ to line the puff and stuff the duvets in. I’m a bit worried about the fabric (as is) shifting over time, and am keen not to see the white of the duvets showing through. I’m certainly happier with it lined, though, since I used a dark colour yarn to make it. I think the pops of white showing through would really detract from the final look.
The pattern is very simple. Big yarns, big needles, big garter rectangle. I think the shape could be refined to give a more couture look by using short rows, which is what the original puffs seem to use, however, with a little patience in the closing up of the puff, the opening pretty much flattens out. A curved wool needle would actually be of great asset in this endeavour, as I found it difficult to do the final bits with a straight needles. One last thing of note, be sure not to seam up that first seam too tight. Allow it a little slack otherwise it will pull and become taught during the stuffing process.
In all, I’m happy with my first piece of knitted furniture. I’m delighted that I got to use old stash yarn and make it into something useful for the kids.
The details:
Pattern: Puff Daddy (rav link) by Anna and Heidi Pickles
Yarn: Sirdar Country Style DK. 926g used, or 2945m (3220yds)
Needles: 15mm (19US)
Finished Size: 40cm (15.75”) tall and 1.91m (75”) around
Notes: Nine strands of yarn held together. Puff is fabric lined and stuff with duvets.