FO: Chill Pill-ow

This project was a request from my sister about 2 years before I made it, lol. Can't rush. Last summer I was on a big kick to finally fulfill the promised makes for my family, and this one turned out to be a huge hit.

About 2 years before, my sister sent me this photo and asked if I could crochet her one. The original is tufted, but I knew I could translate it into crochet without much difficulty. So I said yes and the promptly did not make it up, lol.

I did make a chart for myself back when she asked me initially for this pillow, which was handy. I just guessed at the size and it turned out to be right - woo hoo. I didn't know what to do for the actual outer size of the pillow itself, so I made it as a bit of a rounded edge rectangle knowing I could serge off the areas I didn't need later. This file is large enough to print just in case anyone else needs a chill pillow of their own.

And this was the finished top! I made this while watching old Twilight Zone episodes, lol. I was pretty pleased with it. I did this as tapestry crochet where you carry the other color along and crochet it into each stitch so it is available when you need to switch. I remember I did have to fudge the chart in one place because it didn't look right - it was somewhere on the 100mg part, I just can't remember specifically what I had to do. Once it was all crocheted, I just made a template of what shape I wanted the pillow to be that would use the most of the crochet I could while still making it look uniform and deliberate. I then used that template piece to cut out some white denim from my stash, and I sewed and serged the pieces together, leaving a few inches to flip it and stuff before closing it by hand.

The back is plain but sturdy, helping give this a good finished shape. I find it's hard to get a fully crocheted pillow to keep the shape you want without it bulging in odd areas since it has so much give built in. Also, I stuffed this thing within an inch of its life. My philosophy with anything you will be hugging and squeezing or laying on is that you want to stuff it very firmly in the beginning because the stuffing with compact over time. So this was very firmly stuffed when it went to its new owners.

It turned out a nice bolster size, which has now made this pillow legendary in our family. My mom brought this along with a few other things I sewed for my sister when she visited her for the birth of her baby. She had the baby, and this pillow became invaluable. She now swears that I should make this pillow for everyone as a baby gift - they use it to prop up the baby, to prop their arms up when feeding, all kinds of things. Who knew? 

My other 2 sisters also just had babies, so now I have to make more pillows similar to this but without the crochet. Maybe this can be my signature baby gift? A firmly stuffed bolster pillow. I really like how this came out initially and I'm very glad that I buckled down and got it done in a time that my sister could get the most use out of it.

Summary:

Yarn: I Love This Yarn in Soft Blue and Antique White - $3.00

Pattern: My own 

Fabric: 1/4 yard of white denim - Free

Time: 2 Days
 

WIP Wednesday: Slowly, But Surely

So, I have been thrown into yet another bout of running around like a crazy person this past week, which has certainly taken a tole on my crafting time. Not only did I have a bunch of personal crap to deal with, but last night I taught a knitting class at church ... to about 20 women! It was crazy. Luckily I had assistance by a few other knitters, but man, that was just flat out too many to try and teach in the 1 hour period we had. There were a few who really took to it though, and most of them still seemed enthused when it was over, so that's good. We had so many that there is talk of doing another teaching activity so they can get further in our project.

So, since last I wrote about my WIPs, I did manage to have something to show for my time :)

I finished my Bunsen and Beaker square for the Geek-Along. I managed to finish this one in just a few days because I actually buckled down and worked on it for stretches of longer than 20 minutes like the Tesla square, lol. I feel much more confident in my tapestry crochet abilities now, that's for sure. I'm excited to keep going with the blanket :)

Also, miracle of miracles, is that a sleeve cap I see on my Emelie cardigan? Holy crap, guys, this thing is going to get finished if it kills me. I made the entire sleeve cap once and started on the sleeve itself, but my wrap & turns looked like a hot mess. I never realized that I didn't actually know how to properly wrap & turn. I mean, I knew the wrapping and turning part, but I never worked the picking up of the wraps correctly before. So, since I love this cardigan and this yarn and I've spent so much time making it, I decided it was a perfect time to finally learn it correctly. I tried reading written instructions, but it still wasn't clicking and I couldn't get it right, so I turned to the Free Short Rows Class on Craftsy which finally saved my butt. I am just a more visual person, and I need to see things done in real time.

So now my sleeve cap is looking really nice :) I'm now ready to progress onto the actual sleeve knitting, so hopefully I get more time to work on this in the near future. I'd really like to have this one to wear. It may even assist in distracting the eye while I wear my Skewed Flowers Dress, lol.

In my book world, I am finally finishing This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I actually read half of this book last year, but it's seriously so full of 1910s slang that I could barely understand it. I know that probably makes me sound like a bonehead, but seriously the dialogue is just nuts. So when the audiobook was available this week, I snagged it. I've already passed where I had read to in the physical book, and the audiobook helped a bit on that first half, but holy cow I'm so confused when these people talk, lol. I'm a big history buff and I love historical films and literature, but I've never heard most of this jargon. I am determined to finish it though, so hopefully it all makes sense in the end.

And that's what I've had going on in the craft world these past few weeks. If you'd like to see what others have in the works, head over to Gracey's Goodies and check it out :)