‘Éirím inniu… / I arise today…’
Celebrating one of Ireland’s patron saints, the pillow takes words attributed to St. Patrick and makes them the focal point.
Often called the Breastplate of St. Patrick, this lorica prayer is said to have been invoked by the saint as a prayer of protection. In the hagiography, St. Patrick and his followers appeared as deer to those lying in ambush against them. It’s always been a personal favourite of mine. In particular, the references to nature, such as ‘light of sun/radiance of moon/splendour of fire/swiftness of wind/stability of earth/firmness of rock’. For a beautiful musical rendition, enjoy this performance of The Deer’s Cry by Rita Connolly (who also performed this piece at the inauguration of Uachtarán na hÉireann Michael D. Higgins): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkLzIeztC3c

In addition, St. Patrick is special to me, so this piece contains a fair bit of sentiment from me to you. I hope you enjoy making this piece and it brings luck and fortune to you and yours.

Pay What You Can I’ve introduced a permanent discount scheme that will help keep my designs accessible to a range of budgets while also pricing them in a way that reflects the investment put into my designs and craft.

Enter one of the following codes at checkout to purchase the pattern at the price point that works for you:

Use code CniotailLaimhe1 to save 15% off the full price.

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Materials

• Main Colour: 1 skein of Cascade Ecological Wool (sample knit in Platinum) or 478 yards/437 meters of bulky weight yarn
• Contrasting Colour: 100-120 yards/91-110 meters of Cascade Eco+(sample shown in Turtle) or another bulky weight yarn of similar composition to main colour
• US9/5.50mm circular knitting needles, at least 24”/60cm, or size needed to obtain gauge
• US10/6.00mm 16”/40cm circular knitting needles, or one size larger than size needed to obtain gauge
• Optional: Removable stitch markers
• Optional: Waste yarn for a provisional cast on
• Tapestry needle for grafting i-cord edges together 18x18”/45x45cm pillow form

Gauge
17 sts x 24 rows in stockinette stitch, knit flat on size US9/5.50mm needles and blocked = 4”/10cm
20 rows in i-cord, knit on US10/6.00mm needles and blocked = 4”/10cm

Pattern Notes and Tips
This pillow is knit flat. The front and back are knitted separately. They are then blocked, and the Éirím Inniu and shamrocks are added using duplicate stitch. An I-cord is used to join the front and back together and to encapsulate the pillow form.

The finished dimensions of the piece as written, if gauge is matched, are 17x17”/43x43cm. A little bit of negative ease helps create a full pillow when the 18x18”/45x45cm pillow form is added.

This design could easily be adapted to work a different size or shape pillow, and the knitter has the option to choose how many shamrocks they may want to add. Bear in mind that you’ll want to have some negative ease so that your pillow case is slightly smaller than your pillow form. Any changes to the pattern as written will also influence yardage required.

This pattern has been tech edited.