One of my favorite things about
knitting is pairing colors together,
so the Toddler Blanket in two
colors of Red Heart’s Comfort
Sport immediately caught my
eye. The photo on the website
is done in two different tones
of blue, but I'm all over this
thinking in complementary and
contrasting colors.
This blanket appeals to me on so
many levels. Whenever I see a
baby blanket knit up in a single
color it looks very bland to me.
Even if there's a bit of a stitch
pattern, it seems plain. My mind
works in colors and the less color
there is to play around with, the
more complicated the stitch
pattern has to be.
I find color work very therapeutic;
it's something of a mantra to
me, and for some unknown
reason, I can’t fall into the same
head-space when working on
stitch patterns. I love color in this
blanket because you could do
two colors or three, four, five, you
could switch out colors as you
go and do a rainbow. Yes, the
pattern only calls for two, but
it's incredibly easy to adjust your
plan and simply start swapping
colors in and out as you please.
You could knit this blanket a
hundred times and make it look
completely different each time.
At first glance I thought it was
a slip stitch color-work pattern,
but this blanket actually mimics
crochet. The small dots are
made from working two rows
in the same color. One row
is a purl row and the other is
essentially a yo, k3, pass the
first knit stitch over.
When I was reading the
instructions I was a little bit
confused. I thought it was
almost a bind off, but then
I realized, that's where the
shapes are made. In the photo
they look like circles, but that
shape is obviously perfected
through blocking.
The Toddler Blanket swatch
made from Lilac and Turquoise
Light Pink and Denim would be
cute together as well. It makes
me think 'cowgirl'.
Aside from getting the stitch
pattern right the only thing
slightly different about this
blanket is the fact that it has a
crochet edge.
If crochet really isn’t a skill
you possess it's easy enough
to pick up stitches along the
edges, you could do a simple
rib stitch or a seed stitch. Don’t
pick up the whole way around,
but pick up one edge, knit your
chosen stitch, bind off, pick up
stitches along the opposite
edge and do the same. Then
you can choose whichever
side of the last two and pick
up stitches along the blanket
and the other two edges you
previously knit.
I really can’t say enough about
Red Heart’s Toddler Blanket
pattern; it’s definitely going to be
my new go-to for baby blankets.
Easy enough to knit, but has a
lot of interest generated through
the perfect balance of colors and
interesting stitch pattern. It’s also
got nice clean lines, which really
appeals to my sense of aesthetics.
Red Heart's Toddler Blanket Pattern
http://www.redheart.com/free-patterns/toddler-blanket
Photos this page by Michelle Nguyen
KNITmuch | issue 2
49