Free Baby Blanket Knitting Pattern

You can make this baby blanket (or adult lap blanket) as simple or complex as you desire, and 36" square or larger. Just make a square any way you want, then another, then another. Knit it in strips to cut down on the sewing to put it all together.

This picture is of a blanket that was not knit in strips. It shows how the blanket would look if each square were knit and sewn together individually.

Materials: approximately 6 - 4oz. (113 grams) skeins of knitting worsted. This is a great project for using up odds and ends of wool. Suggested yarn:

One pair US 8 (5mm) knitting needles (or one circular needle)

Gauge: approximately 4 1/2 stitches per inch.

You will knit this blanket in strips. This makes it a manageable project to take on the road with you, if you like.

Take out your favorite book of knitting patterns, I like Barbara G. Walker's A Treasury of Knitting Patterns".

To make this blanket as easily as possible, choose patterns that all are created with the same number of stitches. To create a blanket 36" square, six strips that are each 6 inches wide will be about right. If your gauge is 4 1/2 stitches per inch, then each strip will have approximately 27 stitches. There are many patterns in Walker's Treasury that call for a multiple of 4 plus 3 stitches, but you can improvise if you're a few stitches too narrow simply by casting on and knitting extra stitches at the beginning and end of each row.

Babies learn to roll over, push themselves up, and crawl when they are placed on the floor on a blanket. You can truly have fun with making a blanket for them. They are captivated by color, texture and, of course, putting things in their mouths, so don't add something like buttons that could be pulled off and swallowed.

But do have fun with bobbles, cables, tassles, and even a pocket. Make a pocket by increasing one stitch in every stitch and then double knitting a square, cast off every other stitch when you're done. If you've ever wanted to own a Fisherman's Knit sweater, you can test some patterns by making a Fisherman's Knit blanket. You can knit a whole strip in one pattern: seed stitch, cables, zigzags, bobbles, diamonds...the cable section of the Walker book is my favorite. Give your little one lots to look at and touch.

Or you can knit each strip in squares or uneven-sized sections. Knitting a patchwork of colors is fun. Knitting your strips in sections means you can change the pattern whenever you get tired and want something different, or you can just knit every row (garter stitch) if you get tired of patterns. You can always go back and add a tassle to a plain part if it looks lonely and bare.

You can knit color patterns or go back and embroider a color design later.

Sew the strips together with a simple overcast stitch, or add some crochet around all the edges. If you knit the first and last 3 rows of every strip plain, that will make a small garter stitch border at the top and bottom of your blanket. You can add a garter stitch edge to the sides by casting on 4 stitches and knitting back and forth in garter stitch, knitting the last stitch of one side of it together with a stitch along the side of the blanket. The garter stitch border will help keep the edges of the blanket from curling.