Languishing Project Repurposing Success

Hello on this barley and spinach stew Sunday!

You might recall when Neuro and I were contemplating what to do with a set of UFOs each of us had lurking about.  We had a show-and-tell over Zoom one day and helped each other determine whether to rip, finish, or repurpose these projects.  I've been making my way through my pile (it wasn't small!) and have the first of four (perhaps five?) to show you!

This was the first square I made for a pattern called The Great American Kids Afghan.  It was part of a series that Knitters Magazine was doing way back in the late 1990s and 2000s; having completed most of the original pattern, The Great American Afghan (and having since sent it off to Portland with a former co-worker) I thought this would be a smaller, fun project.

This may be the first and only time I've embroidered onto knitting.  I think it's a great effect, and I think it could be kind of fiddly - but I honestly don't remember!!

Anyway - I'd finished about 3.5 squares of the pattern and set it all aside.  I was using Red Heart Soft - a nice, shiny acrylic yarn - but I'd only started with a few of the colors and the yarn has since been discontinued, so I didn't have a ton of options.  Neuro suggested turning them into pillows instead - and this is the first one I've finished!  Here's the back:

Before I started down this path I sorted through all the colors and tried to eyeball how much of each color I'd need to bring the original square up to the size of the pillow form (this one is 18"), plus what I'd use for the giant granny square back.

I debated about how to finish these for a while. In the past I've covered pillow forms with nice fabric and then just sewed or crocheted the pillow right into the cover.  This time I got some inexpensive and neutral-colored pillow covers (with a zipper!) to cover the thin white fabric of the pillow form.  I figured if I took the time to get a removable pillow cover, this yarn one should be removable too.  I found some large, colorful plastic buttons on Amazon and sorted them according to each proto-pillow's color scheme.  Here are the buttons for this one:

I'm pretty excited that I now have a formula I can repeat for the remaining squares.  I've finished the backs for the next three, and the fronts for the next two; remaining yarn and buttons are at the ready, as are the pillow forms!  It's possible I might have enough yarn remaining to put together a 5th pillow, so this will be ongoing for a while.

As always, I have a ton of projects in the works - but I'm hoping to finish a couple of them this week (not these pillows though), so stay tuned!

Stay safe and well!