My Mother in law knits and she is Norweign (that is like being american and liking apple pie. One follows the other). She has several norweign knit pillows but all of them were knit by others no later than sometime in the 1980's. I am sure you can picture what these must look like. Since she loves them so much, they are in great condition but I thought she could use something new and a bit more modern to add to her collection.
I found this pattern, Odin's Eagles, in Barbara Walker's 2nd Treasury of Knitting and knew it was for her. I had previously bought some Telemark in navy and white from Knit Picks to make some her a pair of leg warmers with a norweign pattern but I realized that she lives in South Georgia and it might get cold enough for leg warmers 1 day a year and that is a fluke day that the meteorologists will talk about for weeks past. So scrapping that idea, I needed a nowweign pattern and decided as soon as I saw this pattern to make a pillow. I cast on for 2 1/2 repeats and soon found more flaws in my new idea
- The pillow would not be big enough. Well maybe for one of those class pillows- you know the kind you keep in your bookbag so you can sleep in class.
- The pattern was tedious, slow and not as fun as I had hoped
- The originial idea to knit this pattern front and back would not give me the look I had intended. I wanted the pattern to be center stage and not blend in. If there was so much of the pattern, I thought from afar it would just look like a jumble.
Solution: keep knitting the size I had cast-on and bear threw it till it was about 10'' long and then frame it in some super soft, super bold red flannel I had lying around for who knows what. I stitched it one log cabin style. I overstuffed it a bit to stretch out the pattern (I had blocked it as well) and give it a smooth finish. I can't tell you how proud I am of how my original plan didn't work out. The finished product is 10 times better than I had first imagined. I can't wait for christmas!
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