Plaid Baby Blanket

PLAID BABY BLANKET

I find that baby blankets make perfect gifts for baby showers, especially if parents are trying to make every effort to not tell you who they’re expecting. Although blankets are a bit tedious to make (I mean, you’re knitting a 3×3 feet piece of fabric rather than whipping up 2-inch little booties), I can’t think of a more versatile gift for a newborn. So here is another blanket for you to consider – I made it for my friends’ baby boy.

Yarn and Needles

You will need 3 different colors of yarn. I picked brown as the main color and green and yellow as matching colors for the stripes. I used Bernat Satin Sport in taupe, jade, and beige – this yarn is slightly shiny and is very soft to the touch.

·  3 skeins of brown (taupe) – 85g/3oz each

·  1 skein each of yellow (beige) and green (jade) – 85g/3oz each

·  Needles US size 6 (you can buy these here)

You will end up with a little bit of leftover yarn of every color, enough for smaller projects like baby booties or a baby hat.

Pattern

The entire blanket is worked in Stockinette stitch using the chart below, which makes it very easy to knit. The trick with this blanket, however, is keeping 18 separate strands of joined yarn (that make colored vertical stripes) tidy.

= brown

= yellow in horizontal stripes

= yellow in vertical stripes

= green in horizontal stripes

= green in vertical stripes
Gauge
24 stitches x 26 rows = 10 x 10 cm (4 x 4 inches)
The final size of the blanket is about 3 x 3 feet

Process
I added a small border to the blanket on all sides. If you don’t want to make the border or have one of your own in mind, please feel free to omit it and jump directly to the blanket body description.

Cast on 158 stitches (for other sizes, use the number of stitches divisible by 24 + 14)

Border (make slanted sides for corners)

·  Row 1: purl

·  Row 2: knit, increasing 1 st on each side with yarn overs after the first stitch and before the last stitch (160 st total)

·  Row 3: purl

·  Row 4: knit, increasing 1 st on each side with yarn overs after the first stitch and before the last stitch (162 st total)

·  Row 5: purl

·  Row 6: k1, *yo, k2tog* repeat from * to * to the end of the row

·  Row 7: purl

·  Row 8: knit, reducing 1 st on each side by knitting 2 stitches together after the first stitch and before the last stitch (160 st total)

·  Row 9: purl

·  Row 10: knit, reducing 1 st on each side by knitting 2 stitches together after the first stitch and before the last stitch (158 st total)

·  Row 11: purl

Blanket body

Prepare 12 lengths of green and 6 lengths of yellow yarn, each 4.5 meters (15 feet) long, for vertical stripes. Wind them into little bobbins and put a paper clip on each bobbin to keep the yarn from getting undone.

Work 2 rows in stockinette stitch in brown. Starting in row 3, follow the pattern in the chart joining 18 lengths of yarn as you get to them:

·  Row 1: knit

·  Row 2: purl

·  Row 3: *k15 with brown, k1 with green, k3 with brown, k1 with yellow, k3 with brown, k1 with green* repeat from * to * 6 times, k14 with brown

·  Row 4: follow the pattern on the wrong side, purling all stitches

·  Rows 5-8: repeat rows 3 and 4

·  Rows 9 -10: join yellow at the beginning of the row and work as shown in the chart

·  Rows 11-12: repeat rows 3 and 4

·  Rows 13-14: join green at the beginning of the row and work as shown in the chart

·  Rows 15-16: repeat rows 3 and 4

·  Rows 17-18: join yellow at the beginning of the row and work as shown in the chart

·  Rows 19-34: repeat rows 3 and 4

Repeat rows 9-34 6 times. Knit another section of horizontal stripes (rows 9-18) followed by 6 rows of the pattern (rows 3-4). Work 2 rows in stockinette stitch in brown (the vertical stripes are now finished). Repeat rows 2-11 of the border, binding all stitches off knitwise on the right side.

I made the border on the other 2 sides of the blanket green (because there was not quite enough brown yarn left to finish it). To make the border, pick up 150 stitches on each side and work rows 1-10 of the border pattern binding all stitches off of the wrong side. Sew the corners of the border together, fold the border at the yarn over rows and sew it to the blanket on the wrong side.

Apart from getting the border sewn, there isn’t much other finishing work to do. Simply weave in all yarn ends (there are quite a few of those) and you’re done! Fold the blanket nicely, wrap it in tissue paper, stick it in a gift box – your baby shower present is ready to go!