Category: Woven Pillow

Long time readers may remember a pillow I knit last year while stuck in a car for 15 hours on a drive back from Talbott, TN.

There were so many things wrong with it. The most grievous error was my forgetting to insert a pillow form before seaming up all the sides. Even if that was overlooked, the knitted strips curled inward since I had knit them in stockinette stitch rather than a stitch that would lay flat. The strips did not alternate in color when woven together. The pillow required massive amounts of mattress-stitch seaming. It was so small that only a doll could realistically use it.

So, I scrapped the design, but I couldn’t let the idea go. I loved the way the knitted strips looked when woven together.

Four attempts later, I had finally resolved all those silly, little problems.

I am proud to present my latest two knitting patterns:

Woven Checkerboard Purse

Photography by The Unique Sheep

Woven Checkerboard Laptop Bag

Photography by The Unique Sheep

The patterns may be purchased through my Ravelry store or my website store.

They may also be purchased from The Unique Sheep along with the recommended yarn. Click on the following links to be taken directly to the pattern page(s): Woven Checkerboard Purse and the Woven Checkerboard Laptop Bag .

My advice to new knitting designers: If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.

I wasn’t going to tell you. I was going to keep my reputation for being a slow but accurate knitter.

Me? I don’t make mistakes. All my projects turn out perfectly.

Then, I remembered how much I loved to read about other people’s blunders. It always makes me feel more relaxed and at home. It’s like I tell Dan all the time: misery loves company. He is trained to tell me that he feels awful when I’m sick.

So, in the hopes that I can trash my good reputation, allow me to flaunt the latest mistakes which I made on my woven pillow.

First, I did not make a gauge. It is the first cardinal rule Knitters are taught. I ignored it. In my defense, I was stuck in that 12-hour car ride without proper measuring tools or blocking tools.

Second, I did not remember the concept of weaving two colors. One side of my pillow should have had all blue strips while the 2nd side should have had all cream strips. If you recall, I had mingled the colors.

Finally, I made the biggest mistake of all. I forgot to insert a pillow into my pillow cover. I had it all seamed up. It was finished. It looked great, ignoring the fact that it wasn’t a perfect square. Then, I started to turn it over and realized that it was a bit flat. Dan was a witness to what happened next. He looked over at me while I had my face buried in the pillow cover, half laughing and half weeping. He tried to comfort me by reminding me the pillow cover was merely a prototype. “You was planning on reknitting it anyway”, he said. I only laughed harder.

What am I going to do with an empty and completely enclosed pillow cover?

It might make a lovely trivet, but I can’t bring myself to felt it.