Pencil Pillow Redo

Welcome to the October Sustainable Pinterest Challenge! This month's theme is Zero Waste, and I thought this would be a great time to remake a pencil pillow that I made back in 2017. Since the theme is Zero Waste, I unraveled the yarn I used to make the original pillow and reused it and the bolster pillow form that was inside the pillow to create a new pillow. I usually would just throw the yarn away and totally start over, but it is best to reuse things when you can. I originally crocheted the pillow, and over the years it had some wear and a coffee stain (I washed it to remove the stain).  I saw a pin for a super cute knit Pencil Pillow on Pinterest, but since my knitting skills are very very basic, I decided to use my circular knitting machine.

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OCTOBER SUSTAINABLE PINTEREST CHALLENGE COHOSTS:

Julie | Sum of their Stories
Gail | Purple Hues and Me
Julie | Treasures Made From Yarn
T’onna | Sew Crafty Crochet
Niki | Life as a LEO Wife
Mel | Decor Craft Design
Christine | Christine’s Crafts
Vicky | Vicky Myers Creations

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My cat Maki enjoys sitting in MY chair resting against the original pencil pillow.

Here's a picture of the pencil pillow when it was first created in 2017. I enjoyed crocheting it, but I realized that I did not make a blog post about it. I did post a few pictures of it on Instagram, but no blog post. 

Since this is the Sustainable Pinterest Challenge with theme of Zero Waste, I unraveled the old pillow and reused the yarn to create the "new" pencil pillow.

As I unraveled the yarn, I rolled it into balls.

These yarn balls are ready to be used to recreate the pencil pillow. The yarns I used for this project are Red Heart Super Saver Grey Heather, Vanna's Choice Beige, Big Twist Chunky Nugget (Discontinued), Red Heart Super Saver Light Grey, and Big Twist Premium Salmon.

I'm not an expert on the knitting machine, so I ended up making this pillow 3 times and unraveling it and starting over. The original pillow was stuffed with a bolster pillow form and a little poly-fil to fill in the pencil point, so I wanted the new pillow to also use the bolster pillow form. With the first remake, I used my 40 needle Sentro machine, and I made a gorgeous pillow, but it was too thin. The bolster pillow form stretched it out too much. I use this pillow for back support in my chair, so it needs to be thicker. However, I may make another slim pencil pillow later. Next, I used my 46 needle Addi Express King Size machine... That thing.... ugh... It kept dropping stitches. I think it dropped the stitches because this recycled yarn had some lint balls and stuff. I don't think the machine liked that. So I unraveled that pillow and started over with my 48 needle Sentro machine.

I created the final pencil pillow with my 48 needle Sentro machine. I made it double layered because it didn't want the white pillow form to show through if it was single layered and a little stretched. 

INSTRUCTIONS:

pink - 30 rows

light grey - 20 rows

yellow - 45 rows

beige - 20 rows

grey heather -30 rows

beige - 20 rows

yellow - 45 rows

light grey - 20 rows

pink - 30 rows

For a total of 260 rows.

After removing the project from the knitting machine, I made sure the ends of the yarn that were tied together were secure, and I clipped the ends.

I turned the piece right side out and pulled one end inside to bring the pink ends together.

I cinched the ends together and secured them with a knot and weaved in the yarn.

With the other end, I stuffed the bolster pillow form inside. Then I weaved some grey yarn around the edge, so I can cinch this end to close it.

Keeping with the Zero Waste theme... I keep my yarn scraps in a Rae Dunn jar, and I used them to stuff the pencil point end of the pillow.

I pulled the pencil point closed. I weaved and snipped the yarn.

This is what the pencil pillow looked like, and I thought it was kinda plain.... So I added some embellishments.

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I added some gold Red Heart Boutique Sashay yarn.

I added some buttons from my button stash.

Then I added some silver Red Heart Boutique Sashay yarn.

I decided I wanted to add a black oval with the number 2. I wanted to make it fun and furry, so I found some black Lion Brand Fun Fur in my stash and added to the pencil pillow.

Then I crocheted a chain and glued it on in the shape of a 2.

And now I have a new pencil pillow. 

Thanks so much for stopping by and checking out my Pencil Pillow. I hope you'll scroll down to check out the Zero Waste projects of the other Sustainable Pinterest Challenge participants!

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OCTOBER SUSTAINABLE PINTEREST CHALLENGE PROJECTS:

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