Tide Pools Knitted Baby Blanket Pattern

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Tide Pools Knitted Baby Blankets - designed by Kind Of Knit

I love knitted baby blankets because they are so much fun! They are cute and small, they are quicker to make and they take way less yarn then large, full-sized blankets. Knit baby blankets are also a great way to test out an idea for a bigger blanket without going into time and money expense of a large project. And, of course, knitted blankies are so fun to give to friends and family with little ones. My nephew was having a baby and that’s how Tide Pools Knitted Baby Blanket came to be.

The Inspiration

My nephew, who lives in the state of Washington, was having his second baby. When his first son was born, I knitted him a cute blanket, soft and cuddly, perfect for a little bundle of joy. I had so much fun making it that when I heard that there was another baby on the way, I knew I wanted to knit another adorable baby blanket for the newest addition to our family.

As always, I was trying to figure out the best yarn for this project. I have a ton of yarn in my stash, but I wanted something soft and baby-friendly, as well as pretty and easy to work with. Naturally, headed over to my local Michael’s store. At the time, we didn’t know the baby’s gender so I wanted to go with colors that will look cute no matter if they had a boy or a girl.

Of course, my eyes are always open for some beachy colors, so when I saw the mints and whites and beiges and browns, I stopped right away. And, when I saw that it was Caron (my fave brand) and they were Baby Cakes, I knew that was it.

The color combo was so reminiscent of the beach, it reminded me of the time when my daughter and my nephew were little and I took them to Malibu tide pools. It was such a fun trip! We collected shells, found tiny hermit crabs, anemone and even a giant slimy sea slug. I thought that Tide Pools was a perfect name for this new knitting project.

The Stitch

I wanted this baby blanket to be simple and timeless. I also wanted it to be easy to make and be a beginner-friendly for those who wanted to try to make this cute knitted blanket themselves, so I went for the tried and true knit and purl stitches. Of course, I also wanted this blanket design to be fun and not boring, so I combined the stitches in different ways to give this baby afghan a bit of a character.

I combined the knits and purls in a few different ways. For the edges of the blanket, I used them in a seed stitch to prevent edges from curling up and simply cause it’s such a cute stitch.

I used the seed stitch throughout the body of the blanket as well, but, to add more visual interest, I broke them up with the rows of garter stitch. They have created horizontal lines that are evenly spread throughout the blanket.

Each seed stitch section of the blanket is followed by garter stitch section and after a while, you get real hang of this rhythm and making the blanket becomes even more fun.

Tide Pools Knitted Baby Blanket - Kind Of Knit

The Yarn

The real star of this knitted baby afghan is the yarn. The color combination and a wonderful way these colors flow into each other is gorgeous.

To make the most of the pretty beachy colors in this blanket, I used 2 different types of yarn, The main star is Caron Baby Cakes in Dreamy Mint. It comes with totally delicious combination of colors: creamy white flows into latte then into yummy coffee, then into scrumptious chocolate that then turns into gorgeous mint. All of these colors are so perfectly paired together, any project with them would look good.

But, I do love the mint and I wished there were more of it in the yarn. So, I added some more of it. While at the store, I found another pretty yarn from Caron – a totally beautiful Caron Simply Soft in Soft Green.

Both Caron Baby Cakes and Caron Simply Soft are Worsted weight yarns, so I knew they will play nicely together. The mints in both of the Caron yarns paired together perfectly. Both yarns are soft and light, I knew I had my yarns for the project.

Yarn for Tide Pools Knitted Baby Blanket - KindOfKnit

The Needles

I love working with circular needles, especially for the bigger projects like blankets. I actually don’t remember the last time I used straight needles. For me, circular needles are just so much more practical. They are easy to use around the house (especially when knitting while cuddling with the hubby on the couch), they are easier to handle with a large project and lighter on the wrists. They are small enough to carry in any bag and to take your work on the go.

For this project, I used I used 6mm circular needles by Loops & Threads (from Michaels Store). Another great choice would be 6mm ChiaoGoo Red Lace Circular 36-inch needles (with this small blanket, you can use the cord that’s even shorter). Knitter’s Pride needles are excellent as well.

While the label for the worsted weight yarns usually suggests 5.5mm needles, I tent to go with a slightly larger needles, like 6mm needles, because then the knitted fabric comes out softer and fluffier and what can be more perfect for a baby blanket!

The Design

I wanted this baby afghan to be clean-lines, timeless and easy to make, but also adorable and fun. I wanted it to be soft and cuddly. So, to make this blanket all of this and more, two things came together – pretty yarn and classic knit stitches.

While the blanket is made using just knit and purl stitches, it plays around with them to give the blanket texture and visual interest. The stitches are combined into patterns of seed stitch and garter stitches, taking turns to give Tide Pools Baby Blanket its fun look.

The seed stitch is used for the borders and throughout the blanket. Seed stitch is great because it gives knitted fabric a flat structure, preventing it from curling up. Garter stitch used to embellish the blanket, with stripes of this stitch breaking up the seed stitch in horizontal lines running edge to edge.

And of course, the best visual feature of this blanket is created by the self-striping Caron Baby Cakes yar. The yarn is made of 5 main colors that are perfectly paired together and flow seamlessly into each other. At certain width of the blanket, this variegated yarn begins to self-stripe, the way it did in Tide Pools blanket, creating distinct lines of every yarn. But, even if it didn’t stripe, it would have been a pretty blanket nonetheless.

An extra amount of mint yarn is added to the design to really help it stand out. Caron Simply Soft yarn lends itself to bring wider, more prominent mint bands to this baby blanket.

Tide Pools Knitted Baby Blanket from Kind Of Knit

The Pattern

The pattern for Tide Pools Knitted Baby Blanket is designed to give you a baby-sized blanket (35”x36”), but it has tips for making the blanket longer or wider.

The pattern also suggests other choices of the yarn to create similar effect if the original yarn used in this design isn’t available.

The pattern comes with detailed, close-up photos, gives instructions on yarn changes and links to a playlist of knitting videos for every stitch used in the blanket.