The years 2019 and 2020 have turned out to be major baby boom years in these regions and as a serial knitter, a whole new baby blanket era!

I’ve always been an avid defendor of handmade presents, and made it a number one priority to celebrate the arrival of a new baby in my circle of friends or family with a handknit item. This obsession turned out to be quite time-consuming when I expanded this to entire baby blankets… Whereas a small sweater of even miniature dress will take you a few hours, sure, a baby blanket, is a whole different story.

The idea for the Victoria blanket (named after the baby who is now cuddled up in it) was born when I had had my share of Chevron baby blankets (still a number one hit and absolute go-to pattern) and thought I would need to come up with something new. I love the idea of brightness and happyness in knits for babies and children, combined with utter softness and of course, practicality.

Rainbow colours

To get the right colour combination, I chose a mix between Cashmerino from Lang Yarns and Baby Cashmerino from Debbie Bliss, but you might find your perfect colour shades in one of them only. The Cashmerino blend is incredibly soft, making not only the knitting process quitte a pleasure, but also – most importantly – the result is a very soft blanket to cuddle in. Last but not least, it is machine washable, an absolute MUST for me me when it comes to baby presents. You really don’t want to give a new mother or father the poisoned gift of hand washed clothing or accessories. It might be beautiful, but not what you need when you won’t get a good night’s rest for the next 2 to 5 years (yes, experience talking here!)

Now to the tricky part: the intarsia technique. Yes, it is extremely time-consuming and it gives you about 100 ends to weave in, but – the result is just perfect! Other arguments to convince you: it allows you to limit the usage of each yarn and also avoids there being any loops on the backside, where the small baby fingers might get stuck .

Convinced? Head over to my shop to get the pattern!

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11 Responses

  1. Hello, can you offer some help with the pattern?
    Cast on 152

    yet the main body of the pattern is 160 stitches (i think)
    10 at the beginning, 10 at the end, and 20 per section (13 diamond and 7 knit) 7 sections

    Am i going wrong somewhere?

    1. Dear Samantha,
      Thank you for your question, and you are absolutely right about your remarks! I’ve adapted the pattern so now it works out with the stitch count. Just download the pattern again, and you will have the right version at hand. Thank you for reaching out and please don’t hesitate to message me in case of any other Question. Wishing you a great knitting time, Astrid

  2. amazing, thank you! Can’t wait for my wool to turn up so i can get started 🙂

  3. I’ve just downloaded this pattern and it is still reading cast on 152 stitches.
    It’s my first time on this site so I’m not sure if I’m doing something wrong.

    1. Dear Sue,

      Yes, you are correct. The cast on is 152 stitches. What did change is that on the first row when you start working the coloured diamonds, you add 1 stitch (M1R), so that you end up with 153 total sts. You then start with 10 sts white, 1 diamond pattern, 7 sts white in between, and so on until the last diamond, after which you k 10 sts white. That way you always have 10 sts white in the beginning and end of the row and 7 diamonds in between, which each of them 7 sts white in between. The total st count is then : 10 + 13 + 7 + 13 + 7 + 13 + 7 + 13 + 7 + 13 + 7 + 13 + 7 +13 + 10 = 153 sts. Does that make sense? Please let me know if you have any further issues, that’s what I’m there for 🙂

  4. Could you show the backside of this blanket? Often, the front side looks great, but the backside not so much. Thank you-

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