Owl Pillow

Owl Pillow by Whitney Webster

What is Being Made

The Owl Pillow is a knitted cushion toy designed by Whitney Webster. This project creates a decorative pillow featuring an owl design, suitable for use as both a decorative home accent and a soft toy. The finished piece is sized to fit a 14" X 14" pillow form, making it a substantial handmade craft project.

Craft and Primary Technique

This project is created using knitting as the primary craft method. The pattern is designed at an intermediate difficulty level, making it suitable for knitters with some experience beyond basic techniques. The knitting construction involves working in the round and flat sections to build the three-dimensional owl form.

Stitches and Knitting Techniques Used

The pattern employs a variety of fundamental and intermediate knitting stitches and techniques:

• Knit (K) and Purl (P) stitches form the basic fabric
• Cast On (CO) and Bind Off (BO) techniques to begin and finish sections
• M1L (Make 1 Left) increases, created by bringing the left-hand needle under the strand between stitches from front to back, then knitting through the back loop
• M1R (Make 1 Right) increases, worked by bringing the left-hand needle under the strand between stitches from back to front and knitting the loop
• KFB (Knit Front and Back) increases for adding stitches within a row or round
• K2tog (Knit Two Together) decreases for shaping the owl form
• Working in rounds using circular and double-pointed needles for seamless construction
• Working flat in rows using straight needles for specific sections

Materials Required

The Owl Pillow pattern calls for Aran weight yarn (also known as worsted weight), with specific yardage requirements in multiple colors:

• 238 yards in Color A (primary color)
• 128 yards in Color B (secondary color)
• 55 yards in yellow
• 26 yards in assorted colors for feather details

The sample project was knit using Lion Brand Vanna's Choice yarn. Knitting needles required include a set of 5 4mm (US 6) double-pointed needles, one 4mm (US 6) circular needle, and 4mm (US 6) straight knitting needles. Additional materials include a 14" X 14" pillow form and stuffing for filling.

Pattern Structure

The pattern uses standard knitting abbreviations and notation. Instructions include directional guidance such as WS (Wrong Side) references, and use bracket notation with repeat counts (indicated as [X] N, meaning repeat the sequence in brackets N times). The phrase "to end" indicates working to the end of the current row or round.