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]

As we get into the part of the year with a lot of food-forward holidays, it might be time to start thinking about knitting some new things for your table. While a few of these are more fall/Thanksgiving focused, just changing up the colors would make others work for Christmas, or keep it neutral and use them all year long.

What got me started thinking about this was the lovely and simple Fresh Bread Dishtowel, a free pattern from Purl Soho. Worked in a lovely cotton and linen blend, the towel is mostly stockinette stitch with a bit of texture on the borders.

You could use this same kind of pattern to make anything from placemats to a table runner, but let’s look at some specific patterns for those kinds of projects as well.

The easy moss stitch table runner from Glass Bird Knits is beginner friendly can can easily be modified to fit your table (or, again, to make placemats instead of or in addition to a runner). This version is worked in macrame cord, but you could also use bulky yarn.

Emielle Design has a garter stitch runner pattern that’s made with braided cotton cord for a lot of texture without a lot of work. But be sure to take a lot of breaks when knitting with cord because it can be rough on your hands!

I also love the diamond pattern on the Hamilton Table Runner from Wyndlestraw Designs. It calls for a DK weight cotton and linen blend yarn and comes in three sizes with different widths and lengths. The pattern has both written and charted instructions.

Amy Marie’s Table Pumpkins (on Ravelry) is a fun mosaic knitting pattern that would be great to use as a table runner through the fall and for Thanksgiving. It uses a worsted weight cotton yarn in two colors, and you can make it as long as you like for your table.

The no cable knit placemats from Yarn Culture Studio have a fun faux cable look that would be great for the table through the fall and winter.

Or here’s another pattern from Wyndlestraw Designs, this time for an easy knit and purl stitch placemat pattern that looks different but still good on both sides. It calls for worsted weight cotton and comes in two sizes for placemats, but also has instructions for coasters, a hot pad and a table pad all using the same stitch.

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