My throw pillows at home have mostly been of the plain square variety - since I’ve never been terribly good friends with my sewing machine, I had to come up with something different and fun to add a bright splash of color and uniqueness to my home - thus the Red Poppy Pillow was born! This pillow comes together quickly and in a pinch, you can even remodel your existing square pillows if you are of a mind to do so - do up a bunch in a variety of colors, and have a whole bouquet for your home!
Yarn:
Color #1 (Main Flower Color): Southwest Trading Co Gianna (91 yards / 3.5oz (83 m / 100g)), Fiber Content: 50% Soysilk, 50% Wool, Color: #046, American Red, 3 balls, bulky weight yarn
Color #2 (Contrasting Color for flower center): Southwest Trading Co Gianna (91 yards / 3.5oz (83 m / 100g)), Fiber Content: 50% Soysilk, 50% Wool, Color: #044, Treasure Chest, 1 ball, bulky weight yarn
Yarn Substitute: Any bulky weight yarn with even thickness - some that come to mind include:
Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Super Chunky (82 yards / 100g), Fiber content: Wool, Microfiber, Cashmere. The palette for this yarn is more muted and earthy, so bright eye-popping flowers may not be possible with this yarn -but the softness would be wonderful! Because it’s slightly more bulky, an extra ball or two of yarn may be in order.
Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride Bulky (110 yards / 100g), Fiber content: 100% Wool. Brown Sheep has a fantastic palette to choose from to customize your pillows to match your décor. Three balls of master color and one ball of contrasting color.
Knit Picks Sierra (110 yards / 100g), Fiber content: 70% wool, 30% superfine alpaca. A slightly limited palette, you could always opt to dye your own ;) Three balls of master color and one ball of contrasting color.
Lion Brand Wool Ease Chunky (153 yards / 5 oz (140 m / 140 g)), Fiber Content: 80% Acrylic, 20% Wool. Three balls master color, one ball of contrasting color.
Patons Shetland Chunky (148 yards / 3.5 oz (136 m / 100g)), Fiber Content: 75% Acrylic, 25% Wool. Paton’s Shetland has a wider color palette than Lion Wool Ease Chunky. Three balls of master color and one ball of contrasting color.
Knitting Needles and Crochet Hooks:
Crochet Hook: US # H8 / 5.0 mm*
*I prefer to use a smaller sized hook than recommended to create a tighter and firmer fabric - all the better to not see the pillow form through!
Notions and Accessories:
Pillow Form - I used a 14in x 14 in square pillow form, though a round one would have been preferred
Stitchmarker, for marking beginning of rounds
Tapestry Needle, for seaming
Long doll needle, optional to assist in finishing
Large Buttons, 2 (mine were 1.25” diameter), optional
Beginning each piece:
All pieces in this pattern are started using an adjustable ring - this allows you to pull the center of the ring tightly closed. To form an adjustable ring, wrap your yarn around two or three fingers twice, then pull a loop through the center of the ring using your crochet hook. Chain 1 into this loop, proceed to single crochet the appropriate number of times around the loop, join (by single crocheting and starting your next round), and pull the center loop tight by pulling on the free end of yarn.
There are some nicely illustrated online references for starting an adjustable ring. They can be found by googling: Adjustable Crochet Ring
Two such links are:
http://www.crochetme.com/amigurumi-double-ring
and
http://www.stitchdiva.com/custom.aspx?id=54
though the second uses dc for initiating the chain rather than sc.
Pillow Cover, make 2:
Round 1: With Color #1, Start by forming your adjustable loop. SC 6 around the loop
Round 2: SC into the first sc of the previous round to join. Place your stitch marker to note the beginning of the round. Pull the free tail of the adjustable loop to close and tighten it. Work an increase into each sc of previous round (including the one you just used to join your round). (12sc)
Round 3: Increase 6 stitches evenly across the round as follows: sc1, inc1 around. (18sc)
Round 4: Increase 6 stitches evenly across the round as follows: sc2, inc1 around. (24sc)
Round 5: Increase 6 stitches evenly across the round as follows: sc3, inc1 around. (30sc)
Round 6: Increase 6 stitches evenly across the round as follows: sc4, inc1 around. (36sc)
Round 6: Increase 6 stitches evenly across the round as follows: sc5, inc1 around. (42sc)
Round 7: Increase 6 stitches evenly across the round as follows: sc6, inc1 around. (48sc)
Round 8: Increase 6 stitches evenly across the round as follows: sc7, inc1 around. (54sc)
Round 9: Increase 6 stitches evenly across the round as follows: sc8, inc1 around. (60sc)
Round 10: Increase 6 stitches evenly across the round as follows: sc9, inc1 around. (66sc)
Round 11: Increase 6 stitches evenly across the round as follows: sc10, inc1 around. (72sc)
Round 12: Increase 6 stitches evenly across the round as follows: sc11, inc1 around. (78sc)
Round 13: Increase 6 stitches evenly across the round as follows: sc12, inc1 around. (84sc)
Round 14: Increase 6 stitches evenly across the round as follows: sc13, inc1 around. (90sc)
Round 15: Increase 6 stitches evenly across the round as follows: sc14, inc1 around. (96sc)
Round 16: Increase 6 stitches evenly across the round as follows: sc15, inc1 around. (102sc)
Round 17: Increase 6 stitches evenly across the round as follows: sc16, inc1 around. (108sc)
Round 18: Increase 6 stitches evenly across the round as follows: sc17, inc1 around. (114sc)
Round 19: Increase 6 stitches evenly across the round as follows: sc18, inc1 around. (120sc)
Round 20: Increase 6 stitches evenly across the round as follows: sc19, inc1 around. (126sc)
Check to make sure that the diameter is just slightly smaller than the width of your pillow form. If the diameter of you r cover is more than one-inch smaller than your pillow form, than increase continue increasing six stitches evenly across each round.
Round 21: SC evenly around (126sc)
With the second pillow cover, leave the yarn attached but temporarily secured through the last loop to facilitate joining the two pillow covers together.
Flower Center, make 2 (or not, depending on your preference for using buttons to finish the pillow):
Round 1: With Color #2, Start by forming your adjustable loop. SC 6 around the loop
Round 2: SC into the first sc of the previous round to join. Place your stitch marker to note the beginning of the round. Pull the free tail of the adjustable loop to close and tighten it. Work an increase into each sc of previous round (including the one you just used to join your round). (12sc)
Round 3: Increase 6 stitches evenly across the round as follows: sc1, inc1 around. (18sc)
Round 4: Increase 6 stitches evenly across the round as follows: sc2, inc1 around. (24sc)
Round 5: SC evenly around (24sc)
Round 6: Decrease 6 stitches evenly across the round as follows: sc2, dec1 around (18sc)
Leave a long enough tail to seam around the edge of the flower center and pull it through the last loop to fasten off.
Finishing:
At this point, you should have two hexagonal shaped pillow covers, two small and slightly puffy flower centers. In addition, you should have your pillow form (yes, it is possible to use a square pillow form, though I highly recommend using a round one) and your optional buttons.
Begin assembly by marking the center of your pillow form on both sides with a pen or other marking device. This will aid you in positioning the yarn that will form the petal segments on the pillow.
Once the pillow is marked, measure off six lengths of yarn that are long enough to wrap around the pillow while leaving long enough tails to knot the yarn securely. Be certain that your yarn is not prone to breaking while pulled on firmly or you may become frustrated during the finishing process. Yarn lengths of approximately twenty-five inches should more than suffice.
Prepare the pillow form by threading either a long doll needle or your tapestry needle with a pre-cut piece of yarn - you will want to pass the pieces of yarn through the pillow form while spacing them evenly around the center of the pillow as shown on the left.
Begin assembling the pillow covering by joining the two pillow covers together using your crochet hook and single crochet stitch or slip stitch, whichever you prefer. Once you have the cover seamed half way around, slip it over the pillow form by lining up a straight seamed edge of the pillow cover with one of the edges of the pillow form. Once the pillow form is tucked inside the pillow cover, carefully pull the pieces of yarn that will form the petal segments through the pillow cover by either using your crochet hook or tapestry needle.
Once the petal segment yarns are pulled through the pillow cover on both sides, finish seaming the pillow cover closed in the same manner in which you began - either with single crochet or slip stitches. Your pillow should now look similar to the photo on the right.
You’re almost there - now we transform this oddly shaped semi-round, semi-hexagonal pillow into a flower! Start with one piece of yarn - make sure you grab the same piece of yarn on both top and bottom or you may inadvertently yank one of the strands of yarn out in this process. You will want to pull the yarn tightly around the pillow by either bisecting the “straight” sections of the hexagon - or by aiming for the one of the corners of the hexagon - I opted for bisecting the straight sections, leaving the slightly pointy corners of the hexagon to stick out. You will want to pull the yarn tightly enough to indent the edge of the pillow - knot it securely close to the center of the pillow so that the knot will not be visible on the finished pillow. Work around the pillow securing each of the six strands of yarn in this fashion.
If you feel your yarn is too thin or perhaps too stressed once this step is complete, you may opt to reinforce it by chaining around the strands as I did. Once you get all the strands secured and reinforced, you may attach the optional buttons to assist in pulling the pillow down in the center - pass some of your tails of yarn through the buttons and then back through the pillow, being careful to keep the button centered. Pull tightly to secure and make a satisfying divot in the center of the pillow.
I personally did not like the pillow with just the button in the center, though if you have found a nice pair of buttons, it is perfectly appropriate to leave the pillow finished at this stage if you so wish. To complete the pillow, tuck the smaller flap of fabric on the flower center underneath to add some padding - the flower center should have a preferential location where it wishes to fold underneath due to the way it was constructed. While being careful to keep this portion centered on the pillow, secure the flower centers to the pillow by seaming them with your tapestry needle and the attached tail of yarn.
Finally, adjust the positions of the petal segment lines to where you like them, then secure them in place at the edges of the pillow to prevent them from shifting around. Give your pillow a good fluff and enjoy!
