Rainbow Pillow Cover

A few weeks ago I treated myself to a birthday present. Well...that's what I called it, because let's face it -- I was going to buy it anyway. I'm an avid follower of the Attic 24 blog, written by the inimitable Lucy. She recently came up with a few designs using some chunky yarns, which she then worked with the shop to make available as kits. I snagged a kit and then eagerly awaited its arrival from across the pond (which is an interesting sort of torture). This weekend I started working on it--the stitch that she used worked up quickly and I felt like I was changing yarn colors at the speed of light, but in a paradoxical way it felt like it took a long time to work this up. But it's finished and the rain has held off so I snapped a few shots after work today.

This is essentially just a spike stitch, but the alternating extra long and short stitches give it a really interesting texture. The yarn is soft and not scratchy, and was very easy to work with. I had finished up a baby blanket just before I started this using a G hook and baby weight yarn, so switching to a J hook and chunky yarn felt like I was working with rope and a telephone pole.

For some reason the 'yellow' that is available in the chunky Stylecraft range is a camel color and not a true yellow. I wish it was just a wee bit more yellow, but this keeps the rainbowiness of it all toned down just a little. The only crochet pillow cover I've ever made is this one, so it was my first time sewing up the sides. My, my, my were they quite the chunky thing to stitch together! I used some of my Clover sewing clips to keep it all in place and stitched as tightly as I could.

Here's the back of it. I don't know why this is the back and not the front as it's so stinkin' adorable--

I was going to sew the buttons with needle and thread but that was too fiddly, so I marked the button places with scrap yarn, and then tied them in place. It worked fine, was easy, and looks the same. The finishing of it all took me much longer than it should have because I was watching Fargo. Is anyone else watching that series on FX? I don't think I've ever so audibly watched TV before. It seemed at regular intervals I was gasping and saying to no one "Are you kidding me?" or "OH!!!!!" or "Oh my God!" I texted my sister in all caps "ARE YOU WATCHING FARGO?????" and she responded with equal vigor. I look forward to this show each week--it is so brilliantly done. So that's why it took me about seven years to sew on a few buttons--for once the show I had on was more interesting to me than what I was making.

If you're interested in making one, you can find the kit here. It's just basic chunky yarn and some buttons if you want to source it locally. The pattern is here for the stitch how-to, and here for details on the pillow cover. I've got about half of each ball of yarn left. The other project Lucy posted to use it up is a bag, but I'm not one for yarny bags (for myself--they make me feel too hot) so if you've got any ideas or funky stitches I could use I'm not above making another pillow....

I've got another project in the works, but this one is with needle and thread. See you soon!