Wednesday, July 7, 2010

got cookies?

cuz, if you do, I've finally got my quart of milk:
It has been fully knitted, waiting for stuffing, for quite a while. I tried just regular stuffing, but it ended up looking rounded, lumpy, and pillow-ish, so I knew I wanted to use some of the foam slab I had set aside for my cushions.
Having finally done all those cushions for the patio, I at last had a scrap of leftover 4" foam that I could use to stuff this with. Looking at it now, I should have shaved that down to the 3 1/2" original measurement of the knitted piece, but last night it seemed like a good idea to stretch it a bit. I put a layer of thin batting (also leftover from making cushions) over the green foam, hoping to hide the color, and also because it makes it so the "fabric" doesn't cling to the foam and end up skewed (a well-known technique for making cushions). The color still shows a bit - maybe thicker batting next time? There's also a little stuffing on the top where it "folds in", just to give it a little more definition.
As previously mentioned, I worked mine in the round until I got to the top section, where I then worked back and forth, due to the fact that otherwise I wasn't sure what I was doing with the shaping, and I didn't want to totally re-work the pattern just to avoid sewing up a 2" length of knitting.
My version is taller than the original (9 1/2" total height, about 7 1/2" before the "folded" portion). My base was 1/2" bigger both ways as well, so I think it made sense to go a little longer before starting the top.
I sewed the folds with regular sewing thread, hiding that on the blue side by running the thread through the yarn instead of over it. The very top part was sewn using the tail of blue yarn left after casting off.

Speaking of pillows, this is exactly the right size to put on your shoulder so you could take a quick nap on an airplane or in the car. Might be a bit weird carrying around a knitted quart of milk, but the lack of a stiff neck should make up for that.

Yarn: Vanna's Choice in White and Sapphire

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