March 7, 2020

I had started this project with acrylic. I had used Lion Brand’s Pound of Love in worsted weight. However, the number of stitches and rows for a 16-inch square pillow was too low to get enough detail and a clear view of the design.

I decided to frog and to start over with finer yarn ordered from Amazon, meaning more stitches and rows to the inch. When the yarn got here, I was happy to see that it was quite nice! Finer than the Pound of Love, with a very nice definition. However, they qualify it as worsted, which I find strange because it is decidedly finer than all the other worsted weight yarn in my stash. It looks more like DK to me, and the suggested needle size is 3 to 3.5 mm.

Anyhow, after redoing all my calculations with the new gauge I finally created a new chart and started over. I can’t wait to see how the ¾ will look because that was the part that didn’t come out clear enough with the thicker yarn.

April 8, 2020

I had to put this project aside for a while because I needed to work on knitted rabbits for the grandkids. I still tried to create the chart for Hogswart’s silhouette, but I soon realized that there were way too many details for such a small project, even if simplified to its barest version. That’s why I chose another design for the back and it seems to work. I picked the classic and very simple concept of Harry’s face with only his hair, glasses and scar showing, and I drew my own version.

April 22, 2020

I finally finished my pillow today. I had to put it aside for a while in order to finish knitting the grandkids Easter rabbits.

When I finished my second panel and started assembling the two pieces, I realized that the second was smaller than the first one. In fact, after counting the rows, my first panel was too large! I had knitted an extra 4-row section at both ends, for a total of 168 rows instead of 160. So I frogged the extra bit at both ends. I had to learn how to do that from the cast-on end, but it went quite well. I’m happy with the result.

I still need to sew a zipper on, but I have to wait for my order to come in because in this period of confinement, all stores are closed. The video doesn’t show the design as well as when we turn the pillow around in our hands, but we can still see the effect.

Both designs are mine, inspired by hundreds of popular and similar images found on the internet.

A pattern with text and chart will be available shortly.

See video here: https://youtu.be/ukgii9tdUV4