Knitting and the odd things it sometimes makes one do

I found a really cute pattern on my favorite knitting/crocheting site for a winter scarf.  It was done in a style called Illusion knitting.  It's knitted in a dark and a light color, and when you look at it straight on, it simply looks like it is striped.  But when you look at it from an angle, you can see the pattern that's been knit in.

So I started looking around for some yarn.  Since it was going to be a winter scarf, I wanted it to be washable, and I didn't want to spend a ton of money on it, so I picked up some yarn at JoAnn Fabrics.

I started the pattern - it was an 80 row repeat.  Yes, that's right -80! rows - each one a specific pattern, and you are supposed to repeat it 6 times for this scarf.  And although some of the rows are the same - each row that dictates the pattern is different, so you have to pay attention.  Definitely not a pattern you can do when you are doing anything else - or when anyone is talking to you.    But you know me - I'll try anything.  So I started to knit.  It was very tedious, and by the time I finished the first repeat I was wondering what I'd gotten myself into.  Also - the yarn that I chose - being acrylic, was not very soft and cushy - it was sort of stiff.  It didn't look like it was going to make a very nice scarf.  But I couldn't decide if I was just trying to convince myself of that (because I didn't want to do that 80 row repeat 5 more times) - or if it really wasn't going to make a nice scarf.

So I started Repeat Number 2.  Not loving it, but not wanting to just stop - and not liking what was going to be the end product.  As I was moving along, I decided that it might make a cute pillow.  So I knit the repeat 3 times (see - I didn't completely cave) - and it ended up being (amazingly) exactly a standard throw pillow size.

When you look at it 'straight on' or from above, this is what you see:

But when you look at it from an angle, this is what you see:

Pretty cute, huh.  It's not terribly obvious with these pictures, but it's got big cat prints going all the way up and down the pillow.  

Now I just have to decide who gets it for Christmas