Elmo Pillow

Elmo! You can click to see him bigger, of course. I submitted this on the Lion brand website. They published my pic, but not the corresponding pattern, and I've had numerous requests for it, so I'll submit it here.

Elmo Pillow
Materials:
14" Round Pillow Form
1 skein Homespun in Candy Apple
2 skeins Boa in Phoenix
Chunky weight yarns in white, black and orange -- scrap amounts work great!
Knifty Knitter X-Large loom
Crochet hook for facial features

Hold 1 strand of Homespun with 1 strand of Boa and cast on the loom. Continue holding both strands together while making the tube until you have used up both skeins of Boa. Bind off and gather the tube, and insert pillow form. Gathering will be on the edge of the pillow form. Gather and close the other end, as well. This will give the pillow a slightly oval appearance. (Of course, you could just stop here, and create fashion dorm-room type pillows in tons of shades, as well.)

Now you have to get creative. I used a K hook and various chunky yarns to make the facial features. The mouth was the hardest, the nose was the easiest. I didn't keep specific notes, but I'll do my best to give you an idea of what I did.

Mouth: I crocheted a chain that was about the length I wanted, from the "smile line" that extends past one side of the mouth, and along the bottom of the mouth. I then single-crocheted back and forth, and decreased a stitch here and there, until I ended with a more-or-less straight line across the top. I then chained a few more stitches to make the smile line on the opposite side of the mouth. When I sewed it on to the face, I also sewed the extra little lines at the top of the smile lines, to anchor the smile and finish the look.

Eyes: I crocheted a ring, and crocheted a few stitches (3? 4?) in the ring, in black. I switched to white, and continued around the ring, increasing as necessary to make it lay flat.

Nose: I crocheted an orange chain of 4 or 5 stitches, and then crocheted around it to make an oval, increasing at the ends as necessary.

Thanks for looking, and feel free to comment on what worked for you, or what you did differently!

Please do not post this pattern on other sites, but feel free to link to it. Make as many as you'd like for yourself, gifts, and for charity, but please do not use this pattern for profit.

KnitTwit

So, now you know about me and my family, and why I need a creative outlet.... :)

My mom taught me to crochet when I was a kid. I think I learned when I was about 7 or 8 and have done it ever since. However, I learned a few things about crocheting, and while I still prefer it for certain tasks, knitting has become preferable to me for a few reasons.

1. Prettier finished fabric. Okay, this is utterly subjective, and if you disagree, well, I don't care. When you're using a bulky fuzzy yarn, you can't even see the stitch, really, but when you are using a smoother yarn that shows the stitch, there's just something so satisfying about those perfect little "V"s in straight rows, nestled in their perfect little columns. Yes, I'm obsessed.

2. Takes longer. I see this as a huge plus, provided I'm not strapped for time on a deadline. I am not creating things to sell, where I need to churn out as much as I can in order to make money. No, for me, yarn purchases are solely money-out. So, if a project takes me longer to complete, that's longer before I have to buy more yarn. Voila, less money spent.

3. Less yarn. If you crochet a 10" x 10" square, and then knit a 10" x 10" square, you'll see the knitted version uses significantly less yarn. So, this is another facet of knitting being more cost-effective for me.

4. Brandon likes it. Let's see, it makes me happier to look at the WIP, the FO, and the receipts, and it keeps me happy for longer. Of course he likes it, even if he doesn't care one bit what I'm making. (And, well, he usually doesn't. ;) )

So, once in a while, I do still contribute a bit of crocheting to my little world of crafts, but mostly I'm a KnitTwit at this point.