I’m still excited about learning a new fiber art! However, I need your help, native English speakers – is it called handknotting or weaving or another term entirely? This is what you get for not blogging in your mother tongue. 😉 Anyway. I’m pleased with this pillow, and ever so glad I started small instead of going for the big project right from the start!

I ordered this kit from the Junghans Wolle online shop. You get a huge package including: several batches of pre-cut yarn, a piece of canvas, a chart, instructions for the Turkish knot and finishing techniques, the back fabric for the pillow with a zipper, and the filling. I managed to lose the instructions before I even started out, so I wrote Junghans an email asking if they’d sent me the PDF. They have A++ customer service because that PDF was in my inbox twenty minutes later. Thumbs up! Unfortunately, I don’t like the yarn used in this kit. For starters, it’s acrylic. I wonder if you need to use artificial fibres or if you could use natural ones as well? It’s also shedding. A lot. It’s almost shedding as much as my cat, which says something, because I could knit a pullover with the amount of fluff Oscar loses on a weekly basis. I hope the pillow will stop this nonsense at some point!

The Turkish knot was fairly easy once I’d done it a few times looking at the instructions. In fact, this was the perfect brainless crafting project for an evening curled up on the couch watching Netflix. Or rather, it would be if you didn’t have an incipient spinal disc herniation like me. It isn’t good for your back, is what I’m saying. I circumvented that problem by knotting one row each in-between other activities. That way, I could make good progress in a day and didn’t ruin my back further. Win-win!

I needed about two and a half weeks to work my way through the chart. Then you just have the sew on the back fabric by hand, which took maybe three hours. The canvas makes that very rough on your fingers, but the prospect of finishing my first handknotted pillow made me slog through that! I actually still need to level the strands of yarn … I just don’t trust myself to do it neatly, to be honest, so this will be put on the backburner until I’m feeling confident enough. It’s looks really pretty on our couch though, doesn’t it?

Honestly, while I enjoyed learning this technique, I definitely need a break from it now. It’s rather monotonous compared to sewing or knitting! I might still try to make a rug for our bedroom one day, as has been my plan originally, but not for a while. First, I’m going to tackle some of my knitting and sewing projects!