This summer pillow is a fun sampler of various knitting techniques, including seed stitch, stockinette, reverse stockinette, garter stitch, eyelets, and twisted traveling stitches. These techniques combine to create a sandcastle motif on the front of the cushion cover and a seashell motif bordered by wavy lines of eyelets and garter stitch on the back. The castle motif was inspired by “The Gingerbread Castle” from Barbara Walker’s A Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns, but it has been modified for this project to depict a beachy sandcastle instead. In addition to featuring a wide variety of textural stitches, this design is also a great opportunity to gain experience at working from charts, because the pattern is fully charted.

Time: 1 Week Project

Skill Level: Intermediate

Size: 11″ / 28 cm wide and 11″ / 28 cm tall
1″ / 2.5 cm negative ease recommended.

Gauge: 22 sts and 32 rnds = 4″ / 10 cm in St st

Yarn: Berroco Comfort Chunky (50% super fine acrylic, 50% super fine nylon; 150 yards (138 meters)/100 grams): 5703 Barley (2 skeins)

Needles: US size 7 (4.5 mm) 40″ (100 cm) or longer circular needles (for working in magic loop)

Notions: Cable needle, tapestry needle, seven 3/8″ (1 cm) buttons, 12″ (30 cm) square pillow insert