Heavily Modified Celtic Keynot Pillow

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.

My Summer of Pillows

The comedian Jim Gaffigan once talked about his wife's excessive love of pillows and wondered if she was stockpiling ammo for the global pillow fight. I can relate and will soon be ready for the Great Pillow War as I plan to spend this summer making knit and embroidered pillows.

Here's the first one with the embroidery finished - it is a simple snowflake candlewicking project from Janalynn. I'll get a better photo after blocking and assembly - I think I'm going to add either tassels or an I-cord edging if I can find a yarn color that looks good with the design.

I have also been purchasing pillows - I just ordered this fun ribbon embroidered pillow cover at Pottery Barn Teen on sale for $9.99.

I am not even that fond of needlepoint but I loved this medallion design so I have to make it as well.

Besides the Starmore Celtic Keynot pillow in progress, I have chosen a few colorful knit pillow designs I hope to make:

Here are three choices from the Interweave store. I like that the Fair Isle Pillows use buttons to close one end. The Origata Pillow download includes instructions to make a bolster pillow. And finally they have the lovely colorwork Paisley Pillow designs.

I love Kristin Nicholas' Sunflower Pillow design with the addition of embroidery. Her Turkish Motifs Pillow design includes embroidery and duplicate stitch for a complex colorwork design.

I like this October Fair Isle Pillow pattern for use with a multi-colored yarn (It specifies Noro Kureyon.)

The Snowy Sheep Pillow is really cute - it has sheep grazing in the woods on a snowy day.

I did find one free pillow knitting pattern I really like - the Classic Elite La Gran Fair Isle Pillow uses a zillion colors and would be a perfect way to use up stash yarns. I will re-work it to use my Cascade 220 stash and to yield a smaller pillow. If I feel like doing some intarsia, the La Gran Posies Pillow is also free and really pretty.