Pillows of Comfort

It all started with some gorgeous slub organic cotton from Americo Yarn’s new line of organic cotton.  After checking out ravelry and finding very few scarf patterns that used slub yarn, I decided to try to create a pattern which would highlight the slub quality.  I was determined on a paisley pattern and after trying for a week solid both by just picking up and knitting and by graphing first, I decided paisleys were not meant for this yarn.

As the weather turned cold, I was inspired by pillows and coziness.  Thus the pillows of comfort pattern was conceived.  At first I cast on thinking a diagonal would lend interest to the pattern held in my mind’s eye. 

However, the diagonal cast on fought with the weaved appearance of the back of the scarf.

Since I was wanting the scarf to be reversible, that would not do, so I ripped it out for the nth time.  After doing a boring long-tail cast on, my pattern started to take shape.  I was pleased to see that the i-cord edging gave an invisible horizon look to the sides which appeared wave like due to the moving of sts every 8 rows.  In no time the kinks were worked out, and the final “Pillows of Comfort Scarf” was completed!

Then it was on to my least favorite of all aspects of my business – the photo shoot.  I tried borrowing one of my mom’s turtlenecks and using the mannequin I purchased, but even with the added light from the lamps from the construction of our house, the color just was not representative of reality. 

So it was back to the old stand-by of a hanger on the back of the bathroom door.  This worked well for most of the shots, but I wanted to have a picture that showed the reverse side as well as the front at the same time.  However, when I placed the scarf so on the hanger, the hanger lopsided.  Necessity is the mother of all invention!  I tried several ways to counterweight the hanger so it would hang horizontally, and even broke some stuff I thought was “crash proof.”  Who knew the hard plastic cover of my staple remover wouldn’t stand up to being dropped on stone floors???

But finally with some fishing wire and organic honey, I achieved balance without further destruction!

So I thought ended the story of the Pillows of Comfort, but I was wrong…

Christmas was just 3 days away and I wanted to knit my Gramma a cowl for her present.  Talk about waiting to the last minute, it was unintentional.  So having the pillows of comfort pattern fresh in my mind and some soft organic cotton in my stash from Mary’s Yarns, I tried to adapt the pattern to make a wide, thick, luxurious cowl.  This also gave me opportunity to test the typed up version to check for mistakes!  I quickly washed and balled 1 ball of Estelle’s Organic Cotton Cloud,

And set to work. 

8 hours later,

After a rewarding jaunt into Unwound Yarns shop in Blowing Rock, I had a button my Gramma would like, sewed it on, and the piece was ready for pictures before being wrapped in a beautiful Christmas bag.  So ends the Pillows of Comfort pattern adapted for a scarf using slub organic cotton from Americo Yarns and organic Aran weight Cotton Cloud by Estelle.

A note of interest: three of my scarves have been picked up by a retailer!  The Pillows of Comfort Scarf along with the Fibonacci Squared Men’s Scarf and the unnamed tussah silk scarf pictured in my first blog are on route to Anami Organic Luxuries in Toronto – 87 Avenue Road, Toronto, Ontario.