Fall Fauna Pillow Cover in Main Street Yarns Shiny + Soft - Downloadable PDF

Fall Fauna Pillow Cover in Main Street Yarns Shiny + Soft – Knitting Pattern Summary

What You'll Make

This downloadable PDF knitting pattern produces a beautifully detailed Fall Fauna Pillow Cover, designed to fit an 18½" (47 cm) wide by 19½" (49.5 cm) tall pillow form. The finished piece is a decorative cushion cover featuring nature-inspired, autumnal motifs rendered in rich stranded colorwork. The design is rated intermediate in difficulty, making it an excellent project for knitters who are comfortable with basic techniques and ready to explore the visual impact of multi-color knitting. The pattern is available as a free downloadable PDF, making it an accessible addition to any knitter's seasonal project collection.

Techniques Used

The central technique in this pattern is stranded colorwork, sometimes called Fair Isle or two-color knitting. In stranded colorwork, two or more yarn colors are carried across each row or round, with the unused color forming a "float" along the wrong side of the fabric. This technique creates a dense, structured fabric with beautiful graphic motifs on the right side.

• Stranded colorwork: All charted sections of the pillow cover are worked using this method. Knitters are instructed to keep floats loose at the back of the work to preserve the natural elasticity of the fabric — a critical detail that prevents the finished piece from puckering or pulling.
• Float management: For any float spanning more than 5 stitches, the pattern instructs knitters to twist the yarns together on the wrong side of the work. This prevents long, loose floats that could snag or distort the fabric.
• Chart reading: The pattern is presented using knitting charts, requiring knitters to read and follow a visual grid to place colors correctly across each round or row.
• Buttonhole construction: The pillow cover features a button closure, with buttonholes worked into the back panel and buttons attached to correspond with each opening — a classic and practical finishing detail for pillow covers.
• Seaming and finishing: The bottom and top openings of the pillow are sewn closed after knitting is complete. Ends are woven in to the wrong side for a tidy finish.
• Blocking: The finished cover is pinned out to the stated measurements, covered with a clean damp cloth, and left to dry naturally. The pattern specifically advises not to steam press, which is especially important when working with yarn that contains a shiny or synthetic fiber component.

Stitches Used

• Stockinette stitch (St st): The primary stitch structure of the pillow cover. Gauge is measured over stockinette stitch worked in the charted colorwork pattern, as stranded knitting can work up tighter than plain stockinette.
• Buttonhole stitch: Worked into the back panel to create functional button openings for the pillow closure.

Gauge

Achieving accurate gauge is strongly emphasized in this pattern. The stated gauge is 19 stitches and 24 rounds to 4" (10 cm) measured over stockinette stitch using size 7 (4.5 mm) needles, or the needle size required to achieve the correct gauge. Because stranded colorwork has a tendency to knit up tighter than plain stockinette, the pattern recommends knitting a substantial swatch in the charted pattern — not just plain stockinette — before casting on. This step is essential both for achieving the correct finished dimensions and for estimating yarn usage accurately.

Materials – Yarn and Needles

This pattern is designed specifically for Main Street Yarns Shiny + Soft, a worsted weight yarn. As the name suggests, Shiny + Soft has a lustrous quality that adds a subtle sheen to the finished colorwork motifs, making the autumnal fauna design particularly striking. Worsted weight yarn is a versatile, widely available weight that works up relatively quickly on medium-sized needles, making this an achievable project for intermediate knitters.

• Yarn: Main Street Yarns Shiny + Soft, worsted weight — used in at least two colors to achieve the stranded colorwork design
• Needles: Size 7 (4.5 mm) knitting needles, or size required to achieve correct gauge