Knitting

Free Patterns, Tutorials and Project Ideas

Knit a Blanket with a Fun Ripple Pattern

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I feel like I’ve been seeing feather and fan and similar stitch patterns a lot lately. Maybe it’s just because I knit a feather and fan scarf earlier this year so now I’m paying attention to it. But this stitch pattern and its variations are a fun introduction to lace knitting, so it makes sense that they would be popular. 

Studio Knit used a feather and fan (also known as old shale) variation to make her Mavericks Ripple Wave Blanket. This one has a garter stitch border and uses garter stitch ridges and an eight-row repeat (the feather and fan pattern I used is a four-row repeat) that’s easy to memorize. 

The pattern calls for sport weight yarn, and she used four colors in a repeating stripe pattern to evoke ripples in the water and sand on a beach (Mavericks Beach, to be specific). You could of course work yours in a solid color or a multicolored yarn, or make it a stash busting project and change colors whenever you need to.

There’s a chart included to show you when she changed colors, or you could make your own for the colors you are using if you want to change it up. The instructions are both written and charted. 

There are six size options given in the pattern, including a baby blanket, stroller size, receiving blanket, lapghan, throw and bedspread size. The sample shown is the throw blanket size, which is about 42 by 64 inches, or 107 by 163 cm, and uses around 2,026 yards (1,853 meters) of yarn total. 

You can grab the free pattern for this great blanket from Studio Knit, and if you want to learn more about feather and fan, and why it should really be called old shale, check out my post all about feather and fan over at Our Daily Craft.

[Photo: Studio Knit]

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Patchwork Blanket Knitting Patterns

Any time of year is a good time for stash busting, but if you can combine it with knitting a blanket that will keep you warm when it (finally!) gets cooler that’s even better. Let’s take a look at some fun patchwork blanket knitting patterns. 

If you want to keep it super simple, you can just make blocks of garter stitch and sew them together, like the beginner’s patchwork baby blanket from Mini Baa Baa or the color block blanket from Make and Do Crew. Both projects are worked in strips and sew together, with the baby version calling for two strands of DK or light worsted weight yarn held together and the larger one using bulky yarn. 

Add a little more texture with the mixed blocks of the cottage quilt throw from Mama in a Stitch. This one combines garter stitch and seed stitch and uses worsted weight yarn. She used a crochet join to make the chains on top of the blocks, but you can join them however you like. It calls for eight colors but you can use what you have, and there are three size options. 

Get a real sampler style patchwork blanket with this design from Knit Sew Make. It calls for worsted weight yarn and has four size options. All of the patterns just use knit and purl stitches so this one is still pretty easy for beginners. 

If you want a more complex colorwork project that will keep you entertained all season, try the Peace by Piece blanket pattern from Needle and Feather. This one is made up of two color colorwork blocks and calls for worsted weight yarn. You can choose to use just a few of the blocks and repeat them more often, or make multiples of the whole set. 

The knitted patchwork recipe from Martine Ellis (free on Ravelry) uses mitered squares in fingering weight yarn, so it’s perfect for using up all your leftover sock yarn and mini skeins. This one is a tutorial more than a pattern so you can make your blanket as big as you like or keep going until you run out of yarn. 

Susan B. Anderson’s 100 Squares blanket (find it on Ravelry) has a lot of mitered squares, too, but they’re arranged in fun ways and includes some quilt inspired designs as well. This one also is a bit of method more than pattern but it sure looks like a lot of fun for using all the leftovers. 

Of course you can totally improvise a patchwork blanket using the yarn and stitches you like, but I hope these patterns inspire you to look at your leftover yarn in a new way.