I've been doing this thing lately where I force myself to try new knitting techniques that scare me...and it's working, in the last 6 months I've gone from not knowing how to knit anything but a solid rectangle to doing striped scarves, hats, cables, mitered corners, and now color work! I started with the stranded style of color work in the Bergen Cowl, and I realized that wasn't as hard as I imagined. but I was scared of intarsia...and when I had tried it without doing some research first, I ended up with holes in my work. then I found this tutorial on youtube and it helped a TON, if you're new to intarsia I really recommend it. I wanted to start with something simple so I made my own chart (also new for me) of a simple heart shape, and figured I'd let the lovely color changes of Lion Brand's Amazing do the rest for me. this colorway is Strawberry fields. (I have a lot of Amazing in my stash, I can't resist it when it's on sale!) The background is Fisherman's Wool in Oatmeal. I figured a pillow would be quick and easy, and it's the time of year when a knitted pillow makes sense. for the back, I just did a 2 row stripe, but then I really liked the reverse stockinette side, so I used that as the right side. I think it makes a nice contrast with the front. the pillow is 12"x12", and to join the front and back I used a row of single crochet, which gave it a nice crisp edge and corners. now that I've dived into intarsia and making my own charts, I'm getting all kinds of ideas for more designs...stay tuned! UPDATE: get the free pdf pattern by clicking "download now" below! download now