Baby Blanket

This is another excellent project to begin your knitting journey – the baby won’t notice if you’ve made a mistake. Neither will the exhausted parents – they’ll be so happy to have yet another spare blanket to wrap the baby when all the others are in the wash.

Starting Off

If you start off knitting this for one particular baby, it won’t matter if you don’t meet the deadline. You can buy another present and some other baby will be the lucky recipient of your efforts.

If you don’t have a particular baby in mind, there are plenty of charities who will be pleased to pass on your blanket to a baby who will be grateful.

This project requires the techniques of

• Measuring
• Casting On
• Plain Knitting (also known as Garter Stitch)
• Casting Off
• Glowing with Pride

Choose your irresistible yarn.

Buy at least 200 grams (8 ounces) at this point. You can use the extra for the next project and learn to judge amounts in the meantime.

Check the recommended needle size on the yarn label.

Finding the Right Needle/Yarn Relationship

Cast on 20 stitches, by the preferred method of your Granny/Grandpa, Auntie/Uncle mentor.

Knit enough rows to form a square.

(Ruler or tape measure will confirm this).

If you like the look and feel of this sample, then count the number of stitches per inch/centimetre.

If not, then knit another square on bigger/smaller needles until you find the right “feel”.

Don’t worry, all this experimentation will definitely come in handy in planning future projects.

Measuring

Decide how wide you would like your ideal Baby Blanket to be.

Refer to your sample calculations.

Multiply the number of stitches per inch/centimetre by your ideal width.

For Example

If your sample measures 3 stitches per inch and your ideal blanket size is 20 inches then you need 60 stitches. (Same mathematical process for centimetres).

Casting On

Cast on the required number of stitches.

Refer to your Granny/Grandpa, Auntie/Uncle Mentor if you haven’t already sussed casting on and basic knitting or garter stitch.

Knit until the blanket is as long as you want it to be.

Cast off.

To go with your new blanket I can highly recommend the book Baby Gami: Baby Wrapping for Beginners by Andrea Cornell Sarvady. This will keep parents and grandparents amused while the baby sleeps soundly snug in your blanket.

Buy ‘BabyGami: Baby Wrapping for Beginners’ from Amazon