Who can resist these adorable penguins? Under snowy skies the penguins look after each other while the icy winter winds rage around them. Featuring stranded colourwork motifs of cute penguins, hearts and snowflakes on the front and a striped envelope back fastened with buttons, this cushion cover will make a beautiful and practical addition to your home décor.

Method:
Worked in one piece, with one row buttonholes, a steek, and mattress stitch to finish, it also provides knitters with a chance to practise many of the skills needed for a colourwork cardigan on a much smaller project.

Photo tutorials for mattress stitch and using a sewing machine to reinforce the steek are included with this pattern.

Please note the colorwork design in this pattern is charted not written out. You need to be prepared to read and work from charts in order to enjoy knitting this design.

Size:
This pattern is written in one size to fit an 18” (45 cm) square cushion pad.

Yarn:
This pattern was designed with Cygnet Pure Wool Superwash DK. You will need at least two contrasting colors of any DK yarn containing a high percentage of wool and with which you can get tension/ gauge. Woolly yarns are more suitable for steeking because the fibres naturally want to stick together.

Solid colors work best for this design (because you want to be able to see it clearly from across the room), but don’t be afraid to experiment! You could use just one background and one pattern color for the entire cushion, make each motif band with the same background and a different pattern color, or make each motif band with different background colors and the same pattern color (as in the cushion pictured).
Be creative, have fun, the steek means there are no ends to weave in! The amounts of each color required will depend on how many colors you pick and where you choose to use them. As a guide for the cushion pictured, I used the following quantities of Cygnet Pure Wool Superwash DK:

MC – 208 White approx. 95 metres (104 yards)
CC1 – 2134 Rose Pink approx. 185 metres (202 yards)
CC2 – 233 Lavender approx. 110 metres (120 yards)
CC3 – 2837 Kingfisher approx. 145 metres (159 yards)