Pretty much everyone I know (myself included) is absolutely in love with Welcome to Night Vale.

I’ve had this pattern bookmarked for a while now, waiting or the perfect opportunity to knit it, and when my friends and I decided that we would make the 4+ hour drive up to our friend’s college for her birthday, I had found my opportunity. She’s a huge fan of WTNV, and I knew that she would really love and appreciate a hand-knitted pillow.

The whole thing took about three weeks to complete. It was a long, tedious process, especially suffering from painful carpal tunnel in both wrists. I have to wear restrictive braces on both hands when I knit, making knitting both slow and frustrating, but I knew that I had to get this done.

The embroidering was, unsurprisingly, the difficult part. The chart was fairly simple, but because the creator suggested knitting it from side to side instead of bottom to top, the entire black section had to be added in on top of the purple, which took a very long time. The end result turned out very well, but I almost didn’t finish. The day before we left, I was nearly crying over my finished panel and the purple fabric I’d found to back it, as the knitted portion was curling badly and made hand sewing it impossible. Luckily, a dear friend (also going on the trip), took it home with her and she and her mother were able to sew it up. It came out better than I imagined and when Amber opened it on her birthday, she was really excited and happy with it.

Knitted with Hobby Lobby’s “I Love This Yarn”, backed with plum purple cotton, and stuffed with polyfill. The only change I made to the pattern was to add the telephone lines to the telephone pole.

Final picture “modeled” by the birthday girl herself. :)