Two more blankets made it off the knitting needles this past month. I am still working on a third blanket, but I am finally trying a new pattern on this third one. It is hard to find patterns that I really am in love with for baby blankets. If you have a fun pattern to share, please feel free to leave it in the comments! I am always looking for new patterns and it seems that I have plenty of opportunities to knit baby blankets in my circle of friends!
I know my regular readers have seen these patterns before, but I love the fresh new colors that have been out this season and couldn’t resist sharing the projects that I have been working on. As always, I will try to provide any tutorials you might need at the end of the post. I also highly recommend Knitting Help for beginning knitters!
Robin’s Egg Bon Bon Baby Blanket
Pattern: Sweet Bon Bon Blanket by Suzanne Middlebrooks (available as a free download for Ravelry members)
Needle Size: US 9 Needles
Yarn: Lion Brand Cotton Ease in Robin’s Egg Blue & discontinued (and not enough) furry yarn for textured rows.
Notes: This is one of my favorite blanket patterns and I loved doing this in the cotton yarn because it was so soft, but not so warm that summer knitting becomes uncomfortable.
I did learn an important lesson in jotting down how much yarn I would need for a project. I thought the four packages of furry yarn I bought would be just enough for my project. I quickly discovered how wrong I was as each row almost took over half the ball. I ended up doing three rows of texture on each end and leaving the center solid since I had more of my solid color. It all turned out, but I was doing some tight knitting to try and get enough for the edges of the blanket!
The furry yarn adds texture between the different pattern rows, but it was difficult to work with and stay on track for the kfbf combination when weaving back into the regular yarn. I still would do it again though because I love the texture that it brings to the blanket.
This pattern is still a great one for a beginning knitter and the only stitch I did not know was the kfbf combination, which I found how to do on You Tube. Because of the width of this blanket (a cast on of only 96 stitches) it comes together very quickly and it makes a beautiful chevron pattern with a garter edge.
Project Linus Security Blanket
Pattern: Project Linus Security Blanket Pattern found in, “Knitting for Peace”
Needle Size: US 9
Yarn: Loops & Threads Snuggly Wuggly Baby Yarn (in dark pink)
Notes: This pattern has been highlighted before, but I couldn’t resist sharing another blanket that I made from this pattern. This is my third blanket using this pattern, and I am still in love with it. I wanted to make this pretty deep pink one for a girlfriend who will be having a little girl any day now! I couldn’t wait to mail this off to her for the big day and hope that she will get lots of use out of it!
This is the world’s best pattern for a beginner in teaching how to do yarn overs. Although it looks complex, there is only one row of “pattern” and then it has a row of purling and a row of knitting. It adds a beautiful scalloped edge to the blanket and looks far more impressive than it really is. It is a larger blanket (with a cast on of 144 stitches for the smaller size) so this one does take a bit of time, but it is an easy pattern to do while watching television because of the two basic rows within it.