Here is my heavily modified version of the Celtic Keyknot pillow using the beautiful Hebridean yarns. This experience taught me not to leave projects unfinished for years. Initially when I bought the kit I found the recommended needle size was a really tight gauge for me. Simultaneously the pillow was turning out large. Fast forward to this summer and I realized I had lost one of the colors.
I decide to add the turquoise Shetland; I know the turquoise is a bit gaudy but here in New Mexico you can get away with wilder color choices. I went up a needle size and reduced some stitches. This was fitting a 16" pillow form well. Then in the middle of the knitting I ran out of one of the other colors - I must have used it for another project. Look at the top row of the top thin green motif and you can see I switched to a different yarn. I did extra plain color knitting to get the right length. DH loves it and I'm trying to live with the asymmetry. I don't use Shetland yarns that often but I think they block out more beautifully than any other yarn I've tried. I am planning on buying the Hebridean hat kit soon.
I really liked that after a few rows of stockinette the pattern has you purling one row. Then you fold the edges under and seam - I like the way this looks and will use this on all my knit pillows.
Another pillow tip I've learned - buy a larger size pillow form than the original pillow. This is a pillow cover I bought from Pottery Barn Teen ($9.99 plus free shipping!). The cover was 16" and I bought a 16" pillow form from Joann. As you can see it is too small so I ended up filling it with an 18" pillow form. I think ribbon embroidery looks like such fun - I plan on getting a kit someday and trying it out.
Same goes for my snowflake candlewicking pillow - it needs a larger pillow form. I think maybe I'll get some ribbon and edge it as well.
As soon as I have time I plan to do a blog post showing you four different ways to deal with very long floats in stranded projects. First I have to knit the swatches.
