A Knitted Argyle Pillow Pattern

Thursday, September 2, 2010

A sweet, bold double-sided argyle pillow. I love its graphic design and how I can switch (slightly) its look just by flipping it over. The techniques involved are probably best described as 'intermediate': you need to be able to handle some hectic colorwork (either stranding or intarsia, or both!).

Please do not redistribute this pattern without author permission.

[Knitting] Double-sided Argyle Pillow

(See this pattern on Ravelry, here.)
Difficulty: Intermediate
Yarn: Worsted/Medium (I used some red & blue Caron Simply Soft, brown Vanna's Choice, and leftover, doubled cream Dalegarn Baby Ull)
Yardage: 170yds of the brown, about ~200 yds of the blue & red, 45-90yds of the white.
Needle: 32" size 5 circular knitting needles (or, less preferably, regular knitting needles)
Gauge: I used an assortment of yarns with a needle that is smaller than the recommended size (to get a tighter knit). You may need to adjust the number of pattern repeats, or the size of the pillow border to get your panels to be the correct size.

Large-Double Argyle Panel

First we make the brown argyle side, then we make the red argyle panel, and we sew them together.

So, starting with the brown: it's easiest to do all the colorwork with intarsia. The argyle block is framed by 9 columns and 4 rows of brown stockinette stitch, to give the panel a more square-like shape. The panel should be 14x14 inches at the finish (if you want to make a larger pillow, either add more rows/columns to the brown frame, or add another argyle repeat, or crochet a border around the panel after completion).

Large-Double Argyle Pattern:
CO 49 stitches.
R1, R3. P to end.
R2, R4. K to end.
R5. P9. Begin argyle pattern in St st with Row 1 from the color graph (below). P9.
R6-R36. Complete first argyle pattern in St st, remember to add 9 stockinette stitches to the beginning and ends of each row.
R37. P9. Begin repeat of argyle pattern in St st with ROW 2 from the color graph (below). P9.
R38-R68. Complete argyle repeat in St st, remember to add 9 stockinette stitches to the beginning and ends of each row.
R69, R71. P to end.
R70, R72. K to end.
Cast-off, loosely, in pattern (likely Purl-wise).
If the double argyle panel isn't the desired size:

1. Add a crochet border until panel is the correct size
2. Frog, and add the required number of brown/framing rows/columns
3. Frog, and add another argyle repeat

Small-Multiple Argyle Panel

Now that we have one panel done, let's do the second one to make our pillow double-sided. We can sew them together at the end. So, the red, I used a combined method for the colorwork on this pattern: the brown lines are done with intarsia while all the other colorwork is stranded fair isle. This makes for a very thick knit (thus affecting your gauge)! Be sure to keep your stranded yarn loose, and twist the non-working yarn with the working yarn every 5 stitches or so. The colorwork is extremely hectic to keep organized on this one, you've been warned!!

This small-multiple argyle block is framed by 4 rows and columns of red stockinette stitch, to give the panel a more square-like shape. The panel should be 14x14 inches at the finish (if you want to make a larger pillow, either add more rows/columns to the red frame, or add another argyle repeat, or crochet a border around the panel after completion).

Large-Double Argyle Pattern:
CO 69 stitches.
R1, R3. P to end.
R2, R4. K to end.
R5. P4. Begin argyle pattern in St st with Row 1 from the color chart (below). Knit the first stitch from the pattern, *(K the remainder of the first row from the chart starting with stitch 2 on the first row), repeat from * twice more. P4.
R6-R26. Continue following the color chart (below) in St st, beginning with the SECOND stitch in the chart for the second and third repeat. Remember to add 4 stockinette stitches to the beginning and ends of each row.
R36-R74. Repeat rows 6-26 twice more. Notice that we're skipping row 5, so that you skip the first row of the color chart for these two repeats. Just make sure to stay in St st wherever the purls/knits are mentioned.
R75, R77. P to end.
R76, R78. K to end.
Cast-off, loosely, in pattern (likely Purl-wise).
If the multiple argyle panel isn't the desired size:

1. Add a crochet border until panel is the correct size
2. Frog, and add the required number of red/framing rows/columns
3. Frog, and add additional argyle repeats

Assembly

1. Secure and sew-in all yarn ends.
2. If the two argyle pillow panels are not the same size, crochet a border as needed.
3. Block panels to square shape
4. With a scrap of yarn, place right-sides of the two panels together, and sew around the edge of three of the panels' sides.
5. Pull the pillow case right-sides out through the fourth, unsewn edge.
6. Place an appropriately-sized pillow form inside the pillow case
7. With remainder of scrap of yarn, sew the fourth edge shut.
8. ...and you're done!

Key: I use the common knitting abbreviations here.
CO: Cast-on
St st: Stockinette stitch
K: knit the given number
P: purl the given number

Enjoy!