Knitting v Crochet

Recently I have been toying with the idea of going back to knitting. I learnt to knit and crochet last century.  I have a sample of crochet that I made back in the...... cough cough......., seventies. Amazing how young I was when I made that. Very bright and I must say very neat crochet.
I would show you, but I have put it in a special place.
When I remember where that special place is, I will take a photo.

In the eighties crochet became naff and knitting was the choice of millions. I used to live in a cold climate where there were proper winters, with frosts and no sun, so I knitted jumpers and cardigans for myself and boyfriends and husband. Obviously not at the same time, boyfriends first, then husband came along later.......... and went, he he.
For quite a while now I have lived in much warmer climates, Singapore, Brisbane, Sunshine Coast, and Sydney,  I think Sydney is still cold enough in winter sometimes to be able to wear hand made woolen garments, here on the Sunshine Coast, not so much.

A week or two ago I found this pattern book and flicking through the pages, I was inspired to try knitting again.

I found a gorgeous pattern that I would love to knit. Not too difficult and with a spectacular result.

I just love this cushion and the throw, although I have absolutely no intention of knitting a throw, it would take way too long and I have the attention span of a 2 yr old. I checked out the pattern and it uses Patons Shadow Tweed and guess what, Shadow Tweed is no longer available.  

Sorry not a fabulous photo, but Patons, also in it's wisdom, no longer gives details of what ply a yarn is, so you can't substitute for a different yarn, because someone might use a yarn other than Patons, and we can't have that can we!

I was determined to try making this cushion and I found a lovely Cleckheaton 8 ply that had a similar tweedy look.

I didn't bank on the fact that, as it was 8 ply and the original was somewhere between  a 10 - 12 ply I would have to completely change the pattern. I knew I would have to change the number of stitches but forgot about the number of rows.  I knitted up a swatch, to determine the number of stitches  I would need to use to keep it the same size. So far so good, but as I had to knit triangles of colour, I had to be able to make a square, which meant I had to completely knit up a square to see how many rows so that I could blah blah blah blah...........................

Waaaaay too hard, I gave up after two tries.  No patience.

Next idea was to crochet.............I love crochet.  I found a pattern for a crochet square incorporating two triangles of different colours. It looked easy, the pattern was easy, until I tried it and had a disaster trying to count which rows I had increased, and which I hadn't. It is crocheted diagonally, I tried it three times and gave up. Sorry no pics as I pulled all my samples apart before I thought about taking a photo.

Now I am back to staring at the pretty picture, hoping I can come up with an idea...before the end of winter.............

I will probably go back to trying knitting it and making a sample square first to work out the number of stitches and rows I need.......................... when if I have the patience.