Rose Preemie Blanket

Good morning lovelies!

Woohoo, first blanket pattern of 2018! Today's blanket is actually really simple. It's based off of the Rose gown from the start of the month and is super easy to adjust. The stitch repeat is so easy that after a few rows, you likely won't even need to look at the pattern anymore!

I've used 2 strands of yarn for this blanket. The results are a super soft squishy blanket, without too much bulk.

I'm making mine to suit CCP's blanket sizing chart, and making it large enough for a 28 week preemie. It's about 46cm square. But you can make it larger or smaller very easily. The stitch is a multiple of 3 repeat, with a +1 chain on the starting chain for turning. Simples! To make one like mine, follow the directions below!

You Will Need:
6mm hook
1 ball of DK/Light Worsted/8ply yarn in a main colour
1 ball of DK/Light Worsted/8ply yarn in a contrasting colour
1 part ball of whatever colour you want to do the edge in (I used white)
1 ball of 2ply/Lace Weight yarn in a white or cream, or another colour that compliments the other 2 balls you picked.

This blanket is stitched holding 2 strands of yarn together throughout. It creates a squishy texture, and softens the colours.

NOTE: I won't make a note of the colour changes in the pattern, otherwise it's going to be a page long, with the same instructions each line and "Change colour" before it.

I went with stripes, and did 3 rows of pink, 2 of brown, repeated for the entire blanket, and ending on 3 rows of pink.  You could do a solid blanket, alternate the stripes each row, every second row or even just do a stripe for the second and 33rd row! Or, a different colopur for EVERY row! Have fun with it!

1: Holding a strand of 8ply and 2ply together, chain 52

2: In the first stitch (slst, ch3, 2dc), shell made *skip 2 stitches, (slst, ch3, 2dc) in the next stitch*, repeat across, sc in the last stitch.

3:  Ch1, turn, (slst, ch3, 2dc) in the first sc, *in the ch3 space of the next shell (slst, ch3, 2dc)*, repeat across, when you reach the last shell, sc in the ch3 space.

4-33: Repeat row 3, changing colours as indicated in the note above.

34: Ch1, turn, dc into the first sc, hdc into the next 2 stitches, *Skip the ch3, dc into the slst, hdc in the next 2 stitches*, repeat across for a total of 51 stitches, slst into the top of the last ch3 and end off. Weave in all tails.

Using your edging colour, held doubled with your 2ply yarn, join to any stitch on the top of the blanket, and ch2. hdc along the top of the blanket, then hdc evenly down the side, working in the edges, hdc along the starting chain, back up the other side and then across what remains of the top, joining to the ch2. In all corners, make 2-3 hdc's to make the corners sit flat and even (the number will depend on your tension, I did 2) End off and weave in tails.

I finished here, but if you wanted a larger edge, you could just do a few more rounds of hdc.

You can block this one if you like, but I find after the round of hdc it tends to sit pretty well.