School Spirit pillow

School Spirit Pillow by MaryG Knits

Project Overview

The School Spirit pillow is a knitted cushion cover designed by Mary C. Gildersleeve, created as a celebratory accessory perfect for college students. This downloadable knitting pattern produces a finished pillow sized to fit a standard 12-inch square pillow form, making it an ideal gift to showcase school pride and personal affection.

What Is Being Made

This project creates a decorative knitted pillow cover that accommodates a 12-inch square pillow form. The design is specifically engineered as a colorwork project, allowing crafters to incorporate three distinct school colors into the finished piece. The pillow is constructed in the round as a single continuous piece, streamlining the construction process and minimizing seaming.

Knitting Techniques

Colorwork Knitting: The School Spirit pillow is designed as a colorwork project, meaning multiple yarn colors are worked simultaneously throughout the knitting process. This technique creates patterned designs directly into the fabric, allowing the three school colors to be prominently featured in the finished pillow.

Circular Knitting: The entire pillow is knit in the round using circular needles, which eliminates the need for seaming the sides together. This method produces a seamless, professional-looking finished product and allows for continuous rounds of knitting rather than working back and forth in rows.

Three-Needle Bind-Off (3-nbo): The pattern employs a three-needle bind-off technique to close the bottom opening of the pillow. This method joins two sets of live stitches together while simultaneously binding them off, creating a secure and neat closure.

Stitches Used

Stockinette Stitch: The primary stitch structure throughout the pillow is stockinette stitch worked in the colorwork pattern. This fundamental knitting stitch creates the smooth, classic fabric texture characteristic of most knitted garments and accessories.

Materials and Specifications

Yarn: The pattern calls for worsted-weight acrylic yarn, specifically Lion Brand Heartland in three coordinating school colors. The sample pillow uses "Grand Canyon," "King's Canyon," and "Bryce Canyon" colorways. Each color requires approximately 70 yards, and the pattern is designed so that three individual skeins of Lion Brand Heartland (each containing 142 grams and 251 yards of 100% acrylic fiber) will yield enough yarn to complete approximately three pillows total. The acrylic fiber content makes the finished pillow washable and easy to care for.

Needles and Tools: The pattern requires US #7 circular needles measuring 20 inches in length for the main knitting. An additional US #7 or smaller circular needle is needed to hold stitches during the three-needle bind-off process. One US #7 or smaller double-pointed needle is used to execute the three-needle bind-off closure. Two stitch markers are included to mark the side edges throughout the project. A US "E" crochet hook is specified for closing the bottom of the pillow.

Pillow Form: One 12-inch square pillow form is required to complete the project.

Gauge and Finished Dimensions

The pattern specifies a gauge of 17 stitches by 19 rounds over 4 inches when working colorwork stockinette stitch. The finished pillow is designed to fit a standard 12-inch square pillow form.

Pattern Characteristics

This is an excellent introductory colorwork project suitable for knitters looking to develop their skills with multi-color knitting techniques. The pattern knits up quickly due to the worsted-weight yarn and larger needle size, making it an achievable project for intermediate knitters. The use of a single continuous piece construction minimizes finishing work, and the three-needle bind-off provides a professional closure method that eliminates the need for additional seaming.