A Finish?

I'm not sure that I've mentioned it here, but I've been working on a second pillow in the same yarns as the other one I made last fall.

It took me a while (in between all my other projects) but I finally finished it this past weekend...I think.

I'm not completely satisfied with it but I'm not sure I'm going to do anything about it. (Or be able to do anything about it.) So for today, it is finished. Tomorrow, who knows...

I knit the front square in solid linen stitch. I really like how the variegated colour works in this pattern. Although there was general pooling in wide stripes that seem to wash back and forth like a tide,

the stitch also produced vertical movement, which is pretty rare in knitting:

I love the little "towers" of colour that build up and intrude into the other colour. (Purple towers into green; green towers into purple.) This is the "purl" side of the linen stitch, usually used as the reverse. But I like it. The "front" side was less interesting:

It took me a while to get this done. First because slip stitch patterns take more knitting to get length. Second because the pattern (or at least the way I was doing it) was making the stitches tight on my needles. Knitting it for any length of time made my fingers, hands, and wrists sore. (Ok, and sometimes my elbow too. Just the left one. Don't ask me why.) And I had other projects to distract me...

When it was finally done, I had to decide how to use the little bit of curlicue yarn I have left. It certainly wasn't enough for a border. I decided to knit a little square and sew it to the middle of the pillow. Once that was done (figuring it would be easier to sew it on before it was assembled into a pillow), I found the sweater that I used for the first pillow. (This only took a month; I couldn't remember where I stashed it.) Then I cut out a back to match the size of the front:

I had saved the front of the sweater for this pillow and it has a cable running up the middle of it. Then I made short work of sewing the two parts together. The pillow form I was going to use didn't fit so then I had to wait until I could buy another one. (This project had to be really patient!)

But finally, Friday, I sewed it all together:

And I wasn't too happy. It looked too stuffed. Too fat:

My first thought was to tack it down in the middle with a button or something, but I don't really like the idea. I probably should have tacked down the pillow form before I stuffed and sewed it in. But I did not have the fortitude to rip out my sewing and redo it. Yes, I have those days/projects too.

All I had left of the worsted weight (left) and bulky (right)
after the pillow was done!

I also wasn't happy with the plain edges so I spent some time on Saturday trying to work out a border. But I couldn't imagine anything that would look right and I was very limited on wool. I certainly did not have enough  of the curlicue. (I didn't even have enough to just outline the pillow which was my first thought.)

What I did have was a little of the worsted weight and some leftover bulky from my Subway hat in a purple that matched perfectly.

What I ended up doing was adding big fluffy tassels:

It was a tough decision because once done, it could not be undone. There's no going back from all those cuts! I'm not sure it's made it into the best pillow it could be, but I think it helps. I like it enough that I'm going to keep it like that for a while.

Here are the two pillows together:

Project Stats
Started: 27 Nov '11
Finished: 11 Feb '12
Pattern: my own
Materials: Farmhouse Yarns Andy's Merino in Grapes on the Vine ($19.50); Our Warrick's Border Leicester Lashes, 4 yards (leftover); Rowen Big Wool (042 Mulberry) (leftover); sweater for felting; pillow form ($8)

I'm calling this my Fuzzy Navel pillow.