Knitted Baby Blanket

 

With one of my collegues expecting his first baby shortly (well not him but his other half but you get the idea) I decided to get knitting as part of the gifts we will give to them when the baby arrives.

I opted for a fairly basic patten but one with no eylets etc so little fingers can't get trapped in them.

The patten is known as 'honeycomb' despite not having any hexegons but it works well as a blanket and it is a nice easy 4 row repeat. If you can knit and purl then you can make this.

Patten:

Now I have added a 10 stitch boarder to the sides which is knit all and I did 14 rows of knit all at the start. With my tension this gave an even boarder. You may need to do more or fewer knit all rows depending on your personal tension.

I always slip the first stitch purl wise and knit the last as I find this gives a nicer edge.

The patten below excludes the boarder.

Row 1: knit 2 purl 4 

Row 2: knit all

Row 3: purl 3 *knit 2 purl 4* purl 3 (repeat between *s until 3 stitches are left).

Row 4: knit all

To make it I used Paintbox DK 100% acrylic yarn (colour 126 - slate green) and 4mm circular needles with the 100cm cable. I chose this colour as it will suit both a boy or girl. The DK means it is not too thick so can be used all year.

I love this yarn as it is easy to work with and it does not feel plasticy which some acrylic yarns can. For the blanket I used 3 skeins and it turned out to be an 80cm square. For a baby blanket this is a good size as much larger and it becomes a bit unwealdy. The fact it is acrylic means it is machine washable - always an advantage when it come to baby things. My needles were from my knitpics interchangeable circular needle set. These are metal and not too sharp. As metal needles don't tend to 'grip'the yarn it makes knitting a little faster but it does make dropping a stitch easier. I don't get along with bamboo needles but if that is your preference go for it.