Letters
A Quick Stripey Baby Blanket
Dear Ann,
One thing about babies: they don’t care about your queue of knitting projects. They also don’t give a dang about the knitalong you’re doing.
Babies come along, and they need knitterly recognition, and they need it now. If you don’t get your baby blanket into that baby’s life right quick, you run the risk of losing Most Favored Blankie status to a lesser blanket. I always want to be in the running for Most Favored Blankie, so when a baby arrives in my family, I drop everything and GO.
Usually, my go-to baby blanket is a log cabin, or a combination of log cabin and miters, such as our beloved Ninepatch Blanket.
But a new baby happened to make his appearance at the same time as someone in my synagogue gals knitting circle was asking for a super simple baby blanket recipe. I remembered the basic formula of an old pattern that is even easier than log cabin—if you can imagine such a thing. As soon as I wrote it out for my knitting circle, I was dying to knit it myself. (A hazard of knitting circle, I’m finding, now that I have a knitting circle.)
Two weeks of zooms later, here’s my cotton blanket. I used a bunch of single skeins of Summerlite DK that Rowan kindly sent me to try out, but it would be excellent in Rowan Handknit Cotton, which has been my go-to baby blanket yarn for decades. Using the Handknit Cotton would get you a slightly larger blanket than the 34 inches (86 cm) by 36 inches (91 cm) I got with the Summerlite DK.
Update
We loved this blanket so much that we wrote up the pattern for MDK’s first yarn, Atlas, and had it professionally tech edited and photographed.
We are proud to present the Blanket of Joy:
The Blanket of Joy is available as a downloadable PDF pattern.
We’ve also made a very special Blanket of Joy Kit at a great savings, with 22 skeins of Atlas yarn, pattern, and free Baggu tote bag, here.
Great pattern! Perfect for new baby, perfect for cleaning out the ‘stash’ and perfect for group knitting activities! Love it!
So versatile. Baby blankets are just the beginning. I am thinking beach house.
Right? Big wide stripes would be so great for a beachy blanket, very Ralph Lauren to my eye.
Love this, thanks for sharing. I have a ton of DK odds and ends which will be perfect.
How much yarn would you need, say, for one stripe?
I believe I would get 3 stripes out of a ball of this yarn. I think in Handknit Cotton I’d get 2 stripes out of a ball. I did not weigh the skein or anything but I definitely knit 2 stripes in the light ecru color and had plenty left over for another stripe.
Inquiring minds want to know: what’s the little brown-green-white patch? For embroidering Baby’s Name or some such, maybe?
I’m thinking placemats, maybe with fewer colors. Maybe.
I was toying with intarsia patches and then I abandoned that idea later.
You’re a shoo-in for Most Favored Blankie!
It’s beautiful! Thanks for the pattern. I’m impressed that you see ping pong in this baby’s future.
And how does the ping pong paddle fit in with the blankie?
The child will be playing ping pong by the time I finish the blanket? It was just laying there.
It’s for scale, right? Compared to a ping pong paddle, this is how much blanket this is.
Thanks for posting the pattern. Can’t wait to get started. Should be a great Texas summer project!
Ooh, love all the Colors! Baby is 2 now and I am a s-l-o-w knitter. Maybe start collecting greens and browns and by 10 years of age she will have a Camp Blanket. Nah, I’m a rainbow person. She will just have adjust.
Approximately how many skeins of Rowan Handknit Cotton would it take to make one striped baby blanket in this pattern ? Thanks
I would say 12 or 13.
Thank you and thanks for sharing the idea and pattern
Full skeins or mini skeins as you used
I started with full skeins. Very safe to assume you’ll get two stripes out of each ball.
What a great stash-buster, and created in such a way that it shouldn’t curl. (It won’t, right?) This seems like just the thing for maternity-ward-knitting too. I frequently knit baby blankets and give a pile to the local maternity ward in the fall, because it’s tough being a baby in Northern Ontario.
Thanks, Ann!
It doesn’t curl at all due to the garter stitch edges on all four sides.
Will you be putting this up on Ravelry?
Such a wonderful idea! Such a beautiful act of kindness. Many blessings.
Definitely Most Favored Blankie. Made by the Blanket Queen! Kay, I think of you every time I look at the Buncha Squares Blanket hanging on my wall. Thanks for all the great inspiration 🙂
It’s bright and beautiful, Kay! Can you give us an estimate of how much yarn you used?
I used 21 colors in these 22 stripes. I only used one color, ecru, twice. I had all these single balls and wanted to use the most colors. If I’d been wanting to get the most stripes out of the yarn, I’d have budgeted 2 stripes per ball, so I’d have planned for 12 balls of yarn, but I think I could get 3 stripes out of a ball of the Summerlite DK. One nice thing is that if you run short and need another skein, dye lot is not an issue with so many stripes, so you can just wait and see if you need another ball or two.
Practical and beautiful. The colors are so cheerful!
It’s such a happy blankie! Casting on today for s Florida baby. The cotton will be perfect.
Mary
Wouldn’t machine drying do something baasad to the blank is if it was wool??
Absolutely. Machine washing and drying non-superwash wool makes it shrink in size and gives a felted texture. This is a cotton blanket, and I laundered it as I expect the family to launder it.
what length needle would you use to make this? I’ve never made a blankie or afghan but it seems like it would be awkward or tight.
I used a circular with a long enough cable to hold all the stitches comfortably. I think it was a 30-inch cable but might have been 24 inch. (Once they’re out of the envelopes they come in, I forget the measurement.)
What size needles did you use? And how many skeins did this blanket take? New grandson coming next month so this is my new project!
Plan to get two stripes out of each ball of yarn. I used US 3 needles because I am a very loose knitter, especially in cotton. If I were using Rowan Handknit Cotton, I’d use a size 5 needle.
Do you have any advice regarding sewing in all those ends? What’s your favorite way to do it? Do you knit them in as you go? Sometimes I find that knitting them in, while easier, is more visible. Sewing in ends is one reason I tend to avoid knitting with lots of colors – and both you and Ann seem to not mind, or at least you push through, and have made many lovely colorful projects. The blanket is very cute and thanks for the pattern!
I love to knit with lots of colors, and consider weaving in ends the price of the ticket. I don’t like knitting them in as I go; I agree that makes them more visible, especially in cotton. I tend to do them all at the end, in one go, and just sit there watching something. It helps if there is a deadline for the project! With cotton ends, I leave a half-inch sticking out when I trim them, and then when the blanket gets washed (and in this case, dried in the dryer), that little stub fluffs up, which I think helps it stay where it is and not come undone.
Then do you go back and trim that fluffy part? I don’t mind the weaving in that much, but I dislike the tail sticking out or if cut too short working to the front side.
Such a fabulous surprise. My question is after the details. You must be psychic. I just received 2 huge bags of someone’s stash. Some 100%wool. Others are blends. All DK and worsted. Lots of different colours. I hope Perfect for this project.
Does it matter if I don’t know the fiber content? A good many have no label.
I leave it as is, as a fluffy tuft. The fluffiness helps it stay anchored on the wrong side and not slip through to the front. It’s pick your poison: the tuft or cutting it short and having it slip through.
This is in my queue to be the next baby blanket I need to gift. Thank you, Kay, for all your helpful answers to the comments. This is right up my alley – simple, simple, simple. xoxo
I love this so much! A grandson is on the way and I’ve been looking for a fun but not fussy blanket that can be machine washed. I picked out some blues and greens to go along with some assorted blues and greens in my stash.
You’re Psychic! Just received 2 huge bags of someone’s stash. Many are 100% Wool and others blends. Your pattern is the Perfect project. Many colours and all dk & worsted.
Ques- many of the yarn have no label. What should I do not knowing the exact content?
Found this after abandoning the first pattern I chose for a baby gift because it was a taking too long. Flying through this one in bulky cotton and may just have it done before baby arrives. I do have one question: I’m ending up with a strip of two color stitches when I start a new color but I don’t see that in the photo, it looks like a smooth transition between colors. Am I doing something wrong? Thanks!
Blithe, I am noticing that also. I am using a circular needle as if it is a straight needle because of the # of sts. Kay, your suggestion?
I’m logged in; it shows my name at the top.
I cannot find the ‘bookmark’ button to save the article/pattern to my MDK account. Maybe it only works on real computers, not on an old iPhone SE?
Above where it says 45 comments is a line that says “ how to save article to MDK Account” cluck there.
Thanks for this pattern! I’m in the middle of making one myself, and I’m noticing that as I switch colors, I can see the old color in the bottom loops on sections that go from RS stockinette to WS stockinette. It makes sense to me that this would happen, but I don’t see that little running line of the old color in your photos, so I’m curious if I’m not doing it correctly! Thanks for your advice.
I found an answer https://www.studioknitsf.com/remove-purl-dash-lines/
Where can I find the baby blanket version of this pattern?
The above-mentioned website does solve the problem of striping when changing colors when there is a distinct right and wrong side. However, in this pattern, there are knits and purls on each side, thus no “wrong” side. So it still does not answer the question of how to avoid the striping when changing colors. Would love an answer, as I’ve started over on this blanket three times, trying to “solve” the problem, yet I’m still seeing a glaring color change. Is the above photo misleading, or is there a way to avoid??
Did anyone find out how to get rid of the purls/dashes
Yes, Kay, your technique on this? Thank yoy.
Oops I see Blithe above also just posted this same question! Sorry for the repeat, but glad to be following here when the answer comes through.
I just started mine and so would love the answer ASAP