Lockhart Tartan Cushion Set in West Yorkshire Spinners - DPB0244 - Downloadable PDF

Lockhart Tartan Cushion Set Knitting Pattern by Jenny Watson – West Yorkshire Spinners

The Lockhart Tartan Cushion Set is a downloadable PDF knitting pattern designed by Jenny Watson and published by West Yorkshire Spinners. The pattern guides knitters through creating a set of decorative cushions featuring a striking tartan-inspired colourwork design, bringing a classic textile heritage motif into a cosy home accessory format. This is an intermediate-level knitting project, making it well suited to knitters who are comfortable with basic techniques and ready to explore more advanced colourwork methods.

What Is Being Made

The pattern produces a set of tartan-style cushions, worked flat in rows. The finished pieces are designed to replicate the structured grid and intersecting stripe pattern characteristic of traditional tartan cloth, translated beautifully into knitted fabric using multiple yarn colours. The cushion set makes an impressive home décor project and an excellent gift for those who appreciate both craft and heritage-inspired design.

Yarn and Materials

The pattern is designed specifically for West Yorkshire Spinners Aran and West Yorkshire Spinners Aran Roving weight yarns. These are both aran weight yarns, offering a satisfying, substantial fabric that works up relatively quickly and gives excellent stitch definition for colourwork. Each 100g hank provides approximately 182 yards (166 metres), which is a useful reference when calculating quantities for multiple colours across the cushion set.

• Yarn weight: Aran
• Yarn brand: West Yorkshire Spinners
• Yarn lines: Aran and Aran Roving
• Hank size: 100g per hank
• Yardage: 182 yards / 166 metres per hank

Needles required are 5mm (US size 8) knitting needles, which are the standard recommended size for aran weight yarn and will help achieve the correct tension for the project.

Tension

Achieving the correct tension is especially important in a colourwork cushion project where the finished dimensions need to match a cushion pad. The stated tension for this pattern is 18 stitches over 10cm / 4 inches squared, measured in stocking stitch on 5mm needles. Knitters are advised to work a tension swatch before beginning, as colourwork stranding can affect the natural gauge of a knitter's fabric.

Techniques Used

The Lockhart Tartan Cushion Set incorporates several key knitting techniques that place it firmly in the intermediate difficulty category. The colourwork is central to the tartan design and is worked using a combination of two classic methods:

Fair Isle Technique

Fair Isle is a traditional stranded colourwork method in which two or more colours are used across a single row. The yarn colours not currently in use are carried, or stranded, loosely across the back of the work. In this pattern, knitters are instructed to strand colours loosely across the wrong side of the fabric to maintain an even tension and prevent the finished piece from puckering. Keeping floats loose is essential when working tartan-style grids, as the yarn must travel across multiple stitches between colour changes.

Intarsia Technique

Intarsia is used when colour sections become large enough that stranding across the entire row would create long, unwieldy floats. In this case, a separate ball of yarn is used for each individual colour section. To prevent holes forming at the join between colour sections, the yarn about to be used is twisted around the colour just worked on the wrong side of the fabric. This links the two yarns together neatly and maintains a clean, continuous fabric on the right side.

Working from a Chart

The tartan design is presented as a knitting chart, which visually maps out the colourwork pattern row by row. Knitters read right side (RS) rows from right to left and wrong side (WS) rows from left to right, which is the standard convention for flat knitting charts. Chart reading is a valuable skill that allows complex colourwork patterns to be followed efficiently without lengthy written row