The Nordic Tree Pillow

The Nordic Tree Pillow by Meghan Ballmer

Project Overview

The Nordic Tree Pillow is an advanced-level crochet cushion design featuring a striking fair isle pattern. This downloadable PDF pattern creates a finished pillow measuring 22 inches wide by 21 inches tall, designed to fit a standard 22" x 22" pillow form. The project combines colorwork techniques with continuous-round construction to produce a decorative home accent piece.

What Is Being Made

This pattern produces a single decorative pillow cover worked in the round using crochet. The pillow features a Nordic-inspired tree design created through fair isle colorwork, combining two contrasting colors to form the pattern on the finished piece. The completed pillow cover is constructed before inserting the pillow form.

Crochet Techniques Used

The Nordic Tree Pillow employs several intermediate to advanced crochet techniques:

• Continuous Round Construction: The entire pillow is worked in continuous rounds without joining at the end of each round, creating a seamless spiral effect.
• Fair Isle Crochet: Color work is executed using the fair isle crochet technique, a method that involves carrying the secondary color throughout the work while crocheting with the primary color.
• Float Technique: The secondary color is floated as you work, with the yarn caught every 5-6 stitches to maintain tension and prevent long loops on the back of the fabric.
• Graph Reading: The pattern includes both a written pattern and a graph that is read right to left for each round, allowing crocheters to follow the colorwork design visually.

Stitches Used

The Nordic Tree Pillow is constructed entirely using center single crochet stitches. This stitch choice creates a dense, structured fabric ideal for a pillow cover and provides the proper gauge and fabric stability needed for the fair isle colorwork technique.

Materials and Tools

This pattern requires worsted weight yarn in two colors. The yardage requirements are:

• Color A (Primary): 1,113 yards of worsted weight yarn in white (the pattern specifies Big Twist Value yarn, requiring 3 skeins)
• Color B (Secondary): 180 yards of worsted weight yarn in black (the pattern specifies Lion Brand Vanna's Choice, requiring 1 skein)

Additional materials include a size G (4.25mm) crochet hook, a tapestry needle for weaving in ends, a tape measure for checking dimensions, a stitch marker for tracking rounds, and a 22" x 22" pillow form for the finished insert.

Gauge and Difficulty

The pattern specifies a gauge of 15 stitches by 18 rows in center single crochet over a 4-inch square. This is an advanced-level project suitable for experienced crocheters comfortable with fair isle colorwork and managing multiple colors throughout a large project. The combination of continuous-round construction, fair isle technique, and the large yardage requirements makes this pattern best suited for intermediate to advanced skill levels.