Easy knitted pillow

I will openly admit that I have a somewhat short attention span when it comes to doing just one thing at once. It has to be something very absorbing. Otherwise, I do at least two things at the same time: Watch a movie I have already seen five times this year? Read a book I pretty much know by heart? If I do one I might be bored, if I do both, I have a great time.

I don´t really now what that says about me, but because of this I love crafts that allow you to keep your hands occupied while your mind can wander somewhere else. This is were (easy) knitting enters the scene.

Unfortunatly, my wrists tend to go on strike if I knit too much, so I am not very good at it.

Fortunatly, there are many super easy knitting projects that still look awesome. 

This is one of them.

You need to know exactly three things about knitting to do this: how to cast on stitches, do knit stitches, and bind off. Really, if you have never knitted before, this is THE  project for you and an alternative to the universal scarf most people knit the first time.
(I actually knitted one for my doll when I was seven. Halfway through, I somehow ended up increasing one stitch per round, so my scarf got wider and wider... this misadventure kept me from knitting for five years!).

BTW, if you never knitted before, try to find a friend or family member to explain it and help if you mess up. There are tons of tutorials online, but there is something so homey and traditional to knitting... I think it should be carried on the time-honored way. Also, it makes it way easier if you are as knitting-stupid as I.



You need:

- a pillow insert (go with Ikea´s cheapest)
- some balls of big, cozy yarn
- the fitting needles. Try to go with an 8 or more to get fast results similar to mine.
- fabric, twice the size of the pillow + 10 cm (3 inches) as seam allowance. I went with a slightly rough looking linnen because I wanted this pillow to really add texture to my couch.
- a zipper, if you want one
- stiching yarn & needles.
- a sewing machine, fabric scissors... the typical sewing supplies.

1. Do a tension sample ( meaning you knit about twenty stitches for a couple of rounds and measure how large the result is). Then calculate how many  stitches you need to get a rectangle the size of the pillow.

2. Cast on that number of stitches and then just do knit stitches.... for a while... but not a long while, which is why this is a great project. Once you reached the lengh you need, bind off.

Place the pillow on top of the fabric and trace the outline twice. Add a couple cm/in on each side as seam allowance. Cut the rectangles out and trim the edges.

If you want a zipper: add more seam allowance to one rectangle. Cut it in two parts and trim the edges. Fold the edge where the zipper is supposed to go, pin the zipper to the fabrics left side and sew it on. Repeat with the other side. It is surprisingly easy... this was the first zipper I ever sewed in and it turned out ok.

3. Sew the pieces of fabric together. Enter the pillow (before or after depending on if you used a zipper ; ).

4. Sew the knitted rectangle on top of  the cover using stiching yarn.

Snuggle in and happily ignore the nasty winter weather for the rest of the day!



I am linking to these cool parties: