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Bias Striped Knit Baby Blanket - Free Pattern

BIAS STRIPED KNIT BABY BLANKET
Super easy, fast, and fully customizable!

Recently, I was asked to knit a baby blanket for an upcoming baby shower. Naturally, I started scouring Ravelry and Pinterest and the Internet in general for ideas. I came across a lovely blanket at Rust & Sunshine and fell in love with the overall look. I thought I'd hit the jackpot when I saw a link to a pattern, but, as luck would have it, the pattern had been removed. "Oh, well," I thought, "I'll just write my own." And, because I like to share, the pattern below is for free. However, I ask that this only be used for *personal* use and not commercial use. This pattern is fully customizable to whatever yarn & size you desire. I used a bulky weight yarn and changed color every 4 rows - it knit up quite quickly! Gauge is unimportant, except for the binding - instructions for figuring out how to adjust the binding for your project are included. Enjoy!

Bias Striped Knit Baby Blanket

*PERSONAL USE ONLY*

Yarn: Knit Picks Biggo Yarn. I used 3 hanks each of Wonderland & Bare and 2 hanks of Dove, with plenty left over for a matching hat or two!

 

Needles: Size 11 circular needles (40 inches) & size 10.5 circular needles (32 inch)

 

Gauge: Unimportant

 

Finished Size: approx. 30x30, but you can make your as large as you'd like.

 

Abbreviations:

kfb - knit into the front and back of the stitch

k2tog - knit 2 stitches together

 

Instructions:

With size 11 circular needles, cast on 4 sts.

Rows 1-4: kfb of 1st st, k to end

Row 5: change color, kfb of 1st st, k to end

Rows 6-8: kfb, k to end

Repeat rows 5-8 until side measures your desired length, changing colors every 4 rows. Carry your alternate color yarn up the side of every odd row by twisting the two colors each time you begin an odd row.

 

Begin decreases:

Row 1: On next color change row, k2tog, k to end

Rows 2-4: k2tog, k to end

Repeat decrease rows 1-4 until you are back down to 4 sts, continuing to carry your alternate color yarn up the side.

Bind off purl-wise.

"Right" side without binding. You could stop here, but the sides where you carried the yarn look a little less than finished, so keep that in mind.

"Wrong" side, which I actually completely and totally love!

 

 

Binding:

Here is where you need to worry about gauge, but only to figure out how many stitches you'll need for the length of your blanket and your unique gauge.

 

Here's how: Knit a swatch in k2, p2 ribbing, using 10.5 circular needles.

Measure your gauge by counting how many stitches across = 4 inches. Its best to measure in 4 inch increments because gauge can vary a little depending on where you measure, so taking a 4 inch area helps average out the differences and will increase the likelihood you'll have an accurate measurement.

In my case, my gauge was 18 sts = 4 inches.

Now, divide that by 4 to find out how many sts per inch (4.5 sts per inch for me).

Now measure the length of the side of your blanket and multiply it by your gauge.

So, my blanket is 27" (it should be a square). 27x4.5 for my ribbing gauge per inch = 121.5 sts. Obviously, I can't knit 1/2 a stitch and because I'm doing a k2, p2 pattern, I want an even number so I'm going to round up to 122.

 

So, for the binding, I'm going to pick up 122 sts across one side of the blanket. (You pick up however many stitches you figured out above!). The best way to evenly space these picked up stitches is to put a marker at the 1/2 waypoint (I like to also put them at the 1/4 waypoints too) and then keep track of how many stitches should fill that space.

 

After you've picked up your necessary number of stitches:

Work 5 rows of k2, p2 ribbing.

Bind off in pattern (k the knit stitches and p the purl stitches)

 

Repeat on the opposite side.

Here it is with binding added to 2 opposite side.

Now, you'll have to do a teeny bit more math as your measurements for the remaining sides have changed with the addition of the binding. In my case, the binding added 3" onto the measurement. So, 30" x 4.5 gauge = 135 sts. Because I need an even number for the ribbing pattern, I picked up 136 sts evenly spaced across.

Just as before, work 5 rows of k2, p2 ribbing
Bind off in pattern
Repeat on opposite side.

Weave in all ends. Enjoy!

All finished. I absolutely love the way this yarn knit up. Its soft as a cloud, yet sturdy and "clean" looking!

Here's how the edges of the binding come together.