Lovely penguin pillow, so cute.. It turned out very nice. I had a hard time with the yarn during washing and blocking, as the black colour bleeded and left me with a grey front side.. I had blocked a swatch before starting, but not of both colours together. So I had to wash out the dye from the white side several times, using chemical products sold at the grocery, careful not to decolour the black side, then immersed the white side in water tinted blue with a drop of ink. The result is fine, the white colour restored and the black unaffected. Next time I knit this project, or any other black-white combo, I will first wash and colour proof the black yarn before starting to knit, lesson learned.
My modifications to the pattern were not design-related, but rather technical. I made it a bit smaller, so 12x12”, as it was a gift for a one-year-old tiny guy..
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I started the front side with a black stripe of about 5cm, which is later folded to the back side once finished. This is to allow an opening to take out the pillow for washing.
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Knitting of the body is made using Intarsia in the round to avoid seams at the sides.
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Top of the body is closed using Kitchener stitch while stiches were still live on the needles, to avoid a seam at the top. Now the transition from front to back is completely unnoticeable.
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Wings are knit two-at-a-time, using Judy Becker’s Magic Cast-On, on a long circular needle.
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Feet are also started with Judy’s MCO method, two at a time, untill the toes are reached. I knit each toe one by one (an alternative would have been making 6 mini-skeins for each toe and knitting them all at the same time).
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I sew snaps on the bottom side to allow the cushion to be taken out easily. I flapped back the black strip I had started with and attached snaps. The result looks good and is very practical.
Photos coming up soon..