A sister-pattern to an Anchors Away cover (http://www.ravelry.com/projects/nnchum/anchors-away) that I did for another friend. Wach of them had a cherry stone pillow for Christmas! I figured it was safer to microwave than pour boiling water in the hot water bottles in case something went wrong!
This is obviously a girly version of the cover, both in the choice of color and patterns (serpentine cable with bobles from Kniting Stitches Visual Encyclopedia).
I cast on with toe-up seam-free cast-on and knit the pillow on circular needles.
Bottom 5 cm and top 5 cm of the central panel I did with alternating dot rib from the same book. The penel is flanked by the cable and ribbing on both sides. In the centre is a wider , 12-stitch version of the owl, idea for which I borrowed from the Owl Mitts but used Tuning fork cable from the same book to implement.
At the top fo the pillow I used a 3-stitch i-cord bind-off to bind off 1/2 stithces and carried on with the rest to knit the flap. I used the same cast-off with integrated button-holes for binding off the flap.
Adding the moon was an after-thought to balance the composition as it turned out that I started the owl too low down and there was an a big empty space above it. So I decided to add some embroidery in white wool and swed on the knit moon as well. I made “buttons” in knit bobbles on i-cord leg as I could not find suitable buttons.