A life-sized knitted body pillow in the shape of a man, with customizable accessories, aims to ease loneliness with constant cozy companionship. Designer Noortje de Keijzer had her mother and grandmother hand-knit Arthur the man-shaped pillow “because I felt like it was time for a man in my life,” she says. “I could say that’s a joke, but it is partly true.”

Arthur provides support and comfort in bed, watching movies, reading books or even going on outings together to lie on a blanket and stare at the stars. De Keijzer even designed a range of knitted accessories for her Knitted Boyfriend, including mustaches, bears, glasses, bow-ties and tattoos, and illustrated a book about their time together.

Not long after Arthur came Steve, a new Knitted Boyfriend, which was machine-fabricated. De Keijzer envisions making these boyfriend body pillows to be sold commercially in a variety of custom options chosen by the buyer. Both My Knitted Boyfriend prototypes have traveled through design events in Milan and the Netherlands, and have been on display at the Options! contemporary design store in Amsterdam.

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“You look just perfect, and you fit in my interior perfectly,” de Keijzer writes in the illustrated story of My Knitted Boyfriend. “My cat likes you, my friends like you too, and you will never leave me. You make me laugh every time I come home.”