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The Ozark Tweed baby blanket knitting pattern uses three colors to make the tweed pattern on the body and a contrasting color for the applied I-cord border. It’s a quick and easy blanket that can easily be modified to whatever size you like.
The pattern is the three-color tweed from Barbara G. Walker’s A Treasury of Knitting Patterns, and it’s a great way to learn about slip stitch patterns and reading your knitting.
Supplies for the Ozark Tweed Baby Blanket Knitting Pattern
As I knit it, I used a little more than one skein each of three different colors of Lion Brand Heartland yarn. My colors were Congaree (A) Carlsbad Caverns (B) and Voyageurs (C) and part of one skein of Gateway Arch for the border. If you want to make a similar size but use a different yarn, probably about 300 yards of each of the main colors and about 25 yards for the border. If you use this yarn one skein of each color will make a blanket that’s a little smaller, or two skeins can make a blanket that is much larger.
You’ll also need:
- Size 9 US/5.5 mm circular knitting needle with a long cable for ease of working with all the stitches
- 2 size 9 US/5.5 mm double pointed knitting needles (or size 8 US/5 mm, which is all I could find)
- Scissors and yarn needle
Check out this pattern on Ravelry.
Gauge
Gauge isn’t critical but I got about 16 stitches per 4 inches/10 cm or 4 stitches per inch/2.5 cm in the pattern stitch after blocking.
Size
My Ozark Tweed Baby Blanket came out to about 38 by 35 inches, or 96.5 by 90 cm. I was shooting for 36 inches square (91.5 cm) but I didn’t quite make it. If you want 36 by 36, cast on 143 stitches instead of 153.
Other common sizes for baby blankets (credit to Marly Bird for these measurements) and their cast on needs (given my gauge) include:
- small baby blanket: 30 by 30 or 35 inches (76.2 to 90 cm) cast on 121
- receiving blanket: 40 by 40 inches (101.6 cm) cast on 161
- toddler blanket: 42 by 52 inches (107 by 132 cm) cast on 169
- crib blanket 45 by 60 inches (114 by 152 cm) cast on 181
Of course you can make it any size you like, just bear in mind the pattern stitch needs an odd number to work.
Ozark Tweed Baby Blanket Knitting Pattern
Using color C, cast on 153, or your desired number of stitches.
Row 1: (right/front side) with color B, knit 1, *slip 1 with yarn in front, knit 1. Repeat from * across.
Row 2: with color B, purl.
Row 3: with color A, knit 1, *slip 1 with yarn in back, knit 1. Repeat from * across.
Row 4: with color A, purl.
Row 5: with color C, knit 1, *slip 1 with yarn in front, knit 1. Repeat from * across.
Row 6: with color C, purl.
Rows 7 and 8: with color B, repeat rows 3 and 4.
Rows 9 and 10: with color A, repeat rows 1 and 2.
Rows 11 and 12: with color C, repeat rows 3 and 4.
Repeat to desired length and bind off in color C.
Add this pattern to your Ravelry queue.
Reading Your Knitting
Once you have the basic pattern down it’s really easy to follow along on this tweed baby blanket pattern. You’ll never cut your yarn, so the yarn that is on the bottom is always the next one you want to knit with.
If you see the dashes from a row of stitches slipped with the yarn in front on the previous right side row, that means this row you slip with the yarn in back. Or vice versa as the case may be.
The wrong/back side row is always a purl, and always worked in the same color you just used on the right/front side.
Applied I-Cord Border
My border is in a contrasting color because my daughter picked the colors based on the baby-to-be’s room decor, which included lots of blues and greens, but also hints of orange. I wasn’t sure I would like it but it changes the whole look in the best way.
You can make an I-cord border of just about any width you like, from 3 stitches on. Mine is 5 stitches, and you can get all the details on how to do it in my post on applied I-cord.
The short version is, using a double-pointed knitting needle the same size or a size smaller than you used for the blanket, do a provisional cast on of 5 stitches using waste yarn.
Knit across the stitches with your chosen border yarn. Slide the stitches back to the beginning of the needle, pull the yarn gently back to the top across the back of the work and knit to the last stitch. Slip that stitch as if to purl, yarn over, then pick up and knit a stitch on the edge of the blanket.
Slip the slipped stitch and yarn over off the needle over the top, like you would to bind off. Repeat those steps all the way along the sides of the blanket.
When you get back to the beginning, unpick the cast on and graft the stitches you’ve been knitting to the original stitches.
This baby blanket knitting pattern is based on stockinette stitch, so blocking or washing after knitting helps to straighten out the edges.
