Hooked on Needles

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Diagonal Knit Basketweave Baby Blanket

Not long after I learned how to knit, a good friend of mine announced the wonderful news that she was expecting her first child. I was excited for lots of reasons, not the least of which was that it would be a great excuse to go out and buy more yarn! My friend has always had a thing for purple and as I recall, I allowed her to pick out the yarn I would use. She chose a soft variegated worsted weight in purple of course, along with pink, yellow and white. So Baby!

I was feeling adventurous so I skipped over the looking-through-patterns part of the creative process, and jumped right into knitting. I had in mind what I wanted to do, so I just starting doing it! Consequently, I have no pattern to share with you, but here are a few pictures and my best guess as to what I did.

Diagonal Knit Basketweave Baby BlanketI know I started at the point by casting on 3 and knitting the first 6 or 8 rows increasing one stitch at the beginning of each, using the yarn over increase method which forms that neat little rope looking edge. Then I started working stockinette stitch in the middle, keeping the first and last 4 or 5 stitches of each row in garter stitch to form the border. After about 10 rows, I started adding stockinette to the sides and switched the middle to garter stitch creating a basketweave look on the front. I am pretty sure I used stitch markers to indicate where the sections changed because I would be knitting every row on the front, but on the back where I could not see the change in stitches I would be knitting the garter stitch sections and purling the stockinette sections. Using stitch markers for something like this is the only smart way to do it!


Diagonal Knit Basketweave Baby BlanketHere is a close-up of the corner where you can see how the garter stitch edge nicely frames the basketweave in the middle.


Diagonal Knit Basketweave Baby BlanketAnd here's an edge of the blanket where you can see that the stockinette sections along the sides sort of look like steps going up the sides.


Diagonal Knit Basketweave Baby BlanketThis is the back of the blanket, which is nice enough, but doesn't really look as interesting as the front. Since making this blanket, I have altered how I do basketweave in knitting so that the front and the back both look like basketweave. I do this by using reverse stockinette stitch instead of garter stitch in the basketweave area of the design to make it reversible.

So once I got to the point where the width of the blanket was what I wanted, I simply started decreasing one stitch at the beginning of each row while keeping the basketweave pattern as established until I had only 3 stitches left on my needle. I bound off those 3 stitches and after weaving in the tail, the blanket was complete.

The decrease method I used on this blanket is something I am not at all sure about. I don't think I just did a Knit 2 Together decrease because that would not have continued the nice rope-like border design on the edge. I may have done something like this: K2tog, YO, K2tog. This would have left a little bit of a hole inside the edge and made the second half of the blanket edging look similar to the first half. But I cannot be sure. It was quite a long time ago you know!

Anyway, I don't usually knit baby blankets but my friend asked for a knitted one so I put away my crochet hooks and got out the knitting needles. I thought that blanket was so pretty and soft and cuddly and I really liked the basketweave design with the garter stitch border worked on the diagonal. Another nice thing about working a blanket on the diagonal is that you can knit until you have used up half of your yarn and then start to decrease to use up the other half and you should not run short.

If you have an idea for a project, just go for it and see how it comes out. You'll learn lots of good lessons along the way!

Don't forget to enter my fall giveaway by October 14th for a chance to win a very nice pincushion bag and other fall goodies. Good luck!

Happy Stitching!


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10 Comments:

  • What a beautiful baby blanket! I know many cozy nights were spent under that blanket. And the colors are still my favorite today. Thanks, my friend!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At October 8, 2008 at 7:59 PM  

  • That baby blanket is just lovely!! Once again makes me wish that my fingers were compatible with yarn. :-) Your little package with the blue basket in it is ready to mail as soon as I receive your address. I am "playing in my rick rack" choosing some colors for a project and that reminded me of you and the basket.

    By Blogger Sandi Linn Andersen, At October 9, 2008 at 6:22 PM  

  • would just LOVE the pattern please!~!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At December 3, 2011 at 8:39 AM  

  • please send me how to get the pattern for Emily's Blanket-I have been looking for hrs!!!nancy.kilian@att.net

    By Blogger Unknown, At March 28, 2013 at 8:34 PM  

  • so very pretty!! i had a question as to is the stockinette stitch always done on the beginning and end of the pattern before the garter stitch? Looking at the photos doesn't answer my question.I am trying to make mine look like yours but it's not .I would do the yo and garter for 5 stitches then wondered if i start stockinette or do the garter stitch. Very confused here

    By Blogger Rebecca, At April 10, 2014 at 6:52 PM  

  • Hi Rebecca, thanks for writing! It's been a very long time since I wrote this post, and a very long time before that when I actually made this blanket, so it's a bit fuzzy in my brain. But I think what I did was begin each row with K1,yo,K4(or 5). Then on the front I would knit the remainder of the row, and on the back I would knit the garter stitch section and purl the stockinette stitch sections. If you read the paragraph after the first picture, you'll see my recollection of how I did that using stitch markers.

    After some number of rows, I would change the stockinette to garter and the new sections at the beginning and end of the rows would be stockinette. That is what makes the basketweave look to the front.

    One of these days when I have time to actually sit down and work with this, I would love to write out the pattern and make it available. But for the foreseeable future, my time is spoken for with nursing school, work, kids, home and such.

    I hope this helps a little anyway. Good luck with it!

    MGM

    But you have

    By Blogger Mary Grace McNamara, At April 10, 2014 at 8:55 PM  

  • Beautiful blanket too bad there is no pattern

    By Blogger Unknown, At May 11, 2014 at 11:59 AM  

  • please send me how to get the pattern for Emily's Blanket

    By Anonymous Wendy Berry, At April 12, 2016 at 10:18 AM  

  • Hi Wendy, as you can read in the text of the post and in the previous comments above, I have no pattern to share. If you are familiar with knitting and purling, and you take some time to read through the post, you can probably figure out how to do something very similar on your own.

    Hope this helps!
    MGM

    By Blogger Mary Grace McNamara, At April 12, 2016 at 10:58 PM  

  • I absolutely love this blanket and I'm very impressed that as a brand new knitter back then you were just able to do this off the cuff. I am an advanced knitter, but unfortunately I have to patience for 'figuring stuff out'. I need a pattern so I can just sit and knit and keep track of the stitches on paper. I f you ever have time to make another one, please write it down and make it into a pattern. I'd gladly pay for it!

    By Blogger Unknown, At March 4, 2018 at 1:34 PM  

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