At first glance, a round pillow featuring a coneflower motif knit with intarsia colorwork might seem pretty straightforward, but for folks looking to work on their intarsia and sweater knitting, the Intarsia Flower Pillow was designed to give you the chance to do a few things (besides make a cute pillow, of course). The Intarsia Flower pillow is a great way to practice intarsia colorwork on a project that’s perhaps less intimidating than a full sweater. Since we’re knitting a round-shaped pillow, the pattern features increases and decreases in some of the same rows as intarsia colorwork, which is essentially what it feels like to knit a seamed intarsia sweater front. Speaking of seaming, this round pillow is completed by seaming the front and back using mattress stitch, another incredibly useful sweater knitting skill. And finally, an intentional combination of stockinette, garter and seed stitch are used to add dimension to this cute pillow’s flower motif.

Find the pattern here in the Hands Occupied Shop, or here on Ravelry.

Why is this my first independent pattern release in 5 Years?

In addition to taking a bit of a design break, I have been busy in the last few years with writing & designing a latch hook crafting book, surviving a global pandi, and focusing on work for clients. But in the past year or so, I realized I wanted to get back to releasing patterns in the Hands Occupied Shop. My interest in intarsia knitting design only keeps growing, but intarsia isn’t suited to every single knitting design call for magazines, books, etc. For that reason, I want to ensure I have a place to release patterns on my own, and cultivating the Pattern Shop on this site seems like a good place to start.

I will I still make my patterns available on Ravelry because thousands of knitters and crocheters use it to find and organize patterns, but I realize not everyone finds it as accessible as it used to be. If there’s ever an issue with accessibility in the Shop, please email me so I can address it on the back end.

Why a round flower pillow?

Honestly, because I’ve always LOVED round throw pillows, and since this intarsia design doesn’t involve several sizes (like a sweater pattern, for example), I wanted to combine shaping stitches in the same rows as intarsia colorwork. It’s great practice for leveling up to knitting intarsia sweaters. Bonus: the pillow features mattress stitch seaming to join the front and back, which is another incredibly useful knitting skill to practice for knitting sweaters.

Why do you like to design intarsia patterns that aren’t just stockinette stitch?

There’s this almost myth in the knitting world that intarsia is knit ONLY with stockinette stitch. A former librarian with a love of craft books, I’ve run into more than a few beginner intarsia knitting books claiming this to be the case over the years. Surprise: it’s not particularly difficult to knit a purl stitch on a right side row just because you’re also changing colors using intarsia. Or a knit stitch on a wrong side row for that matter. I would love to see more intarsia patterns that combine stitch types. Intarsia isn’t a technique to fear, and when done with good technique, the results can be stunning.