Knit a Simple Striped Blanket

It takes a pretty special person to be worthy of a knit blanket as a gift. Other than babies, my daughter is the only one to have gotten one from me. But with a simple and relatively fast pattern like the Easy Caron Long and Striping Road Blanket, you can lower your standards a bit and gift a blanket more often.

This project is made with Caron cakes yarn, specifically the Anniversary Holiday Cakes colorways that were exclusive to Michael’s. I didn’t see them when I went to my “local” Michaels (an hour away from home) but as I write this they were available online. They’re a super bulky yarn, so any striping super bulky would work for this project.

The pattern is perfect TV knitting because it is all garter stitch worked in strips of alternating wider and narrower widths. That makes for a lot of sewing when the blanket is done (or you can join the strips as you go, which I have been doing on a similar garter stitch blanket I’ve been working on for most of my teenager’s life).

Using two different colorways and working the strips to different widths gives the stripes different looks throughout and makes for a really fun and colorful throw. It probably wouldn’t shock you if I suggested you could also use scrap yarn (either super bulky or two strands of worsted weight held together) to make it even more colorful.

The project comes in one size, which is about 55.5 by 60 inches, or 141 by 152.5 cm, depending on your gauge. You can of course add more strips to make the blanket wider, or even knit strips the same width as the assembled blanket and stitch them on the top or bottom (or both) to make the blanket longer. There’s so much you can do with garter stitch!

You can grab the free pattern for this colorful blanket from Yarnspirations.

[Photo: Yarnspirations]

Adding a bit of knitting to your fall decor is a lot of fun, whether it’s knit pumpkins or a bunch of adorable knit ghosts like these.

Knit ghosts can be super simple like this free ghost knitting pattern from Trixie Zynch on Ravelry. Using about 50 yards of worsted weight yarn, they’re worked from the bottom up and are super cute as a pair.

This fuzzy little ghost from Forest Knitting Toys is holding a pumpkin and wearing a witch hat, though of course the accessories are optional, as is the fuzzy yarn. The main yarn is chunky and the ghost measures about 10 cm/4 inches tall. It’s worked in the round.

Another fuzzy ghost in more of a Pacman style is this ghost plushie form South Stitch Girls. It’s worked in the round with bulky yarn and includes a sweet little bow you can make in whatever color you like.

The ghost doll from Edith Grace Designs has little arms and a curl at the top of its head. The body is worked flat using DK weight yarn and you could also work it in glow in the dark yarn for extra fun. The body and head are worked in one piece with the arms knit separately.

The Grim Grinning Ghosts from Susan Claudino are super cute and you can knit them in any yarn and gauge you like to make ghosts of different sizes. These are worked in the round with the body done in one piece and the arms are knit separately. The ghosts shown were knit in sock yarn, DK and worsted weight yarn. You can find the pattern on Ravelry.

Make a ghost with funny striped legs with this ghost shelf sitter design from Claire Fairall Designs. It’s worked in three colors of DK weight yarn, and the letters spelling out boo are made with strips of garter stitch sewn into shape.

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