Block Stitch Baby Blanket

BLOCK STITCH BABY BLANKET

I saw this pattern floating around the internet and thought it looked amazing. I was looking for just the right pattern to make my new niece or nephew a baby blanket. That's right, I am about to become an aunt for the 5th time! I have faithfully made a blanket for each of the other babies and I was not going to balk on tradition just because my life has become rather crazy. After all, it is things like this that I will be remembered for, not my clean house or my mad web design skills.

After a quick search, I found out this is called the block stitch. Guys, this is incredibly easy. It is two repeating rows that you do ad nauseam until you are satisfied with the size of your blanket. There really is no 'end' to it, since the DC portion (the white part in my blanket) creates a nice edge on its own.

This pattern is unique (to me) because you only turn your work every other row (only turn when you begin the DC row.) So, you work right to left with white, add a stitch holder to keep your work from unraveling and then instead of turning, you slide your work across your lap and begin again on the right side, adding a colored row. There are all kinds of ways you can join yarns to ensure you have a clean color change, but as you are not adding to a stitch (like when you add a color as you turn your work) this is very different. If you just follow the instructions as presented in the video below, you will have a nice looking blanket, but the tails will be floating on top of the blanket and it will be confusing to weave in your ends. This was the only thing I found difficult about the project.

I did come up with a good method of changing rows so that I set myself up later for easy and seamless weaving.

A sample of what your work will

look like with your foundation row

and one DC row complete. 

After completing the first alternate row

(the rainbow colors in my blanket)and you

have turned your work and are ready to begin your

second DC row, you should hold your work like

this so that your tail goes through the edge stitch.

You do the same thing on the other side of the blanket

when you are working with the other tail.

Just make sure your tail is between your working yarn

and the loop. 

What your work should look like
after you have completed your 2nd
DC row (with tails done as above.) 

A side view of what the tail should
look like if done as shown above.

         

Weaving in the tails is now easy!

Simply go into the next gap above 

where your tail comes out and weave

until you are satisfied it will hold.

This is what your edge will look like
after your tail is woven in. It is clean
and neat. 

The edging I chose to do on this blanket is SUPER simple. The first and last rows of DC serve as the first round of edging for the top and bottom of the blanket. All I did was repeat that same stitch on the sides, doing 3 DC in every space between rainbow colors (see image to left.) On the corners, I did add a ch3 and then join it with a slip stitch to the next side. After all edges had a 3DC pattern, I simply added a sc border to the entire project to give it a seamless look, joining with a slip stitch to finish it off. For the corners on this round, I did 3SC in the corner stitch to give it a nice, sharp edge. 

Here is the video I followed to learn the basic stitch. She explains things really well and I got the hang of it quickly. I didn't finish the video because I forgot to go back to it once I was confident in the stitch.

This entire project took me about three days, but I am a work at home mom of a two year old and there were a lot of distractions. If you have more time to concentrate on your work, I'm sure it would work up a lot faster than that. Below is a picture of my completed project.

I hope this helped you with the block stitch. This is my first instructional post, so I'm quite sure I left something important out. Comment below with questions or tips!