Tilting at Windmills Baby Blanket Pattern

Tilting at Windmills Baby Blanket

Originally uploaded by fireflowerknits

This is a rough pattern for a fun baby blanket knitted in multidirectional garter stitch. I knitted the prototype as a gift for my baby nephew last spring.

Materials: 5 6oz skeins Caron Simply Soft in Lt. Country Blue, Country Blue, Dk. Country Blue, Sage, and Dk. Sage. (I used an unknown worsted acrylic in a deep green, but Dk. Sage will work nicely).

Notions: Size 9 (5.5mm) circular needles, at least 29″ long, blunt tapestry needle

Gauge: 16 sts x 32 rows = 4″ (10cm) in garter stitch (knit every row)

Finished Size: Approximately 34″ x 34″ (I didn’t measure the finished prototype.)

Section 1:
Using Dk. Sage and long-tail cast-on cast on 60 stitches.
Knit 23 rows. Break yarn. Knit 24 rows (12 garter ridges) with Sage and break yarn. Knit 24 rows with Lt. Country Blue and break yarn. Knit 24 rows with Country Blue and break yarn. Knit 24 rows with Dk. Country Blue and break yarn. Do not bind off.

Section 2 and subsequent sections:
Using Dk. Sage cast on 60 additional stitches on the needle which is still holding the stitches from Section 1. Knit in 12-ridge stripes as in Section 1, but ssk the last stitch of the first row with the adjacent stitch from Section 1. At the end of each alternate row ssk the last stitch of the row with the adjacent stitch from the previous section. What you are doing is joining the second section to the first as you are knitting the second.

Continue like this, knitting each section onto the previous one, until you have completed all four sections. On Section 4, stop one row short on the final 12-ridge stripe. Do not bind off.

(Note: If you do not want to graft live stitches you can bind off at this point and whipstitch a careful seam between the cast-off and the adjacent edge of section 1.)

Now you will join the live stitches of section 4 to the edge of section 1. Break yarn leaving a length about 50″ long (three times as long as the width of the live stitches plus some extra for weaving in ends later). Thread the end of yarn through a blunt tapestry needle, and graft the stitches to the adjacent garter ridges. Go through the first live stitch as if to purl, go through first the purl bump on the edge of section 1, then go back through the first live stitch as if to knit and drop the first stitch off the needle. Then go through the second stitch as if to purl, through the next purl bump at the edge of section 1, and back through the second live stitch as if to knit and drop it off the needle. Continue all the way to the end, keeping tension even, not too tight and not too loose, matching every live stitch to the adjacent garter ridge.

I wish I was a diagramming wizard, as a diagram would make this much clearer. It’s really fairly straightforward once you get into the rhythm.

The edging is slightly modified from the Sawtooth Edging from Nicky Epstein’s Knitted Embelishments.

Knitted-on Edging:
Using Dk Country Blue Cast on 6 stitches.
Row 1: K3, yo, k3–7 stitches
Rows 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10: knit to end of row, pick up and knit one stitch from edge of blanket. (match up each edging ridge to a garter-ridge purl bump at the edge of the blanket or to one cast-on stitch).
Row 3: Ssk, k2, yo, k4–8 stitches
Row 5: Ssk, k2, yo, k5–9 stitches
Row 7: Ssk, k2, yo, k6–10 stitches
Row 9: Ssk, k2, yo, k7–11 stitches
Row 11: Ssk, k2, yo, k8–12 stitches
Row 12: BO 6 sts, k 5–6 stitches

Repeat rows 1-12 working around the edge of the blanket. To turn corners, just knit 6 extra edging rows at each corner, picking up and knitting the last stitch from the same edge stitch (or just to either side of it) 3 times. I just eyeball the corners and sort it out as I go. When you reach the point where you started, graft the live stitches to the cast-on edge, just as you did with the stitches from section 4, only this time, you are grafting into the cast on. If you are more comfortable you can just bind off and whipstitch the bind-off to the cast-on.

Weave in ends.

Thoughts on colors: You could easily do this in more or fewer colors (4 or 6 colors would probably work best). 4 colors would need 15-ridge stripes, 6 colors would need 10-ridge stripes. For girls, you could use pinks and purples or pinks and yellows. For a gender-neutral version, try yellows and greens.

Whew! Writing this out seems way more involved than the actual knitting was. I am just learning to write patterns for my designs. Hopefully this makes sense. Please e-mail me at fireflowerknitsATgmailDOTcom with any questions or comments. Also, if anyone actually knits this, I would love to see pictures of work in progress or finished results.