As I’m wont to do whenever a someone has a baby, when my friends announced they were pregnant, I made a blanket for the little-one-to-be. They’re having a little girl, but since they are not pink people, I decided to go with a light purple and green. But I wanted to do something a little more intricate than my go-to chevron or tunisian checkerboard.
After looking through numerous stitches and patterns, I settled on the knit star stitch. A simple repeat of four rows, creating texture that gives great visual interest in a single color, as well as a nice star-like look when using two colors. The stitch also creates loft, for a thicker blanket, which is perfect since Kaylee will be making her appearance in December.
I used Red Heart Soft: Baby Steps in Green and Lavender and size 8 circular needles. The border is crochet camel stitch (a knit look-alike) with size I9 hook.
Star Stitch
Multiple of 4 + 1 stitches
Make Star: purl 3 together, leaving stitches on left needle, yo, purl same 3 stitches together again, then slip stitches off left needle
Row 1 (right side): Knit
Row 2: P1, *make star, P1; repeat from * to end.
Row 3: Knit
Row 4: P3, *make star, P1; repeat from * to last 6 stitches, make star, P3.
Camel Stitch*
This knit-look-alike stitch is worked in the round and created by crocheting into the loop on the backside of the stitch, leaving the “V” formed by the top loops exposed on the front side of the work.
Blanket
With Color A, CO 185 stitches. Work Rows 1 and 2 of Star Stitch in Color A.
With Color B, work Rows 3 and 4 of Star Stitch.
Continue alternating colors every two rows until blanket is desired length.
Break yarn and weave in all ends.
Boarder
Using boarder color, join yarn about 1/2 inch in from edge of blanket and ch 1.
Round 1: Continuing to work into stitches 1/2 inch from edge, sc around blanket, making sure to work 3 sc for corners, join to starting ch 1 – you will have a round of sc on top of your blanket with a margin of blanket extending beyond it.*
Round 2: Ch1, work in Camel Stitch around, working 3 stitches into corners. Join to ch 1.
Round 3: Ch 1, work Camel Stitch into previous round as well as very edge of blanket. (After inserting hook into back of stitch, insert into a stitch along the edge of the blanket as well, then continue to work stitch as normal, treating the 2 loops as one. This secures the edge of the blanket to the boarder.) Again, work 3 stitches into the corners. Join to ch 1.
Round 4*: Ch 1, work Camel Stitch around. Join to ch 1.
Break yarn and weave in ends.
*Camel Stitch is traditionally made using half-double crochet, but I found that it lay better on my blanket using single crochet.
*For my blanket and gauge, I found that 3 crochet stitches to every 4 knit along the top and bottom edge of the blanket, and 3 crochet to every 4 rows along the sides worked best. I strongly suggest crocheting a practice swatch of camel stitch in the round to check your gauge and do the math to figure out how many st/in you have in both the blanket and camel stitch. I did not the first time, and I had a very wavy blanket edge because I crocheted into every stitch with a larger hook.
*I found I did not need to work 3 stitches into the corners for Round 4.
When I started working the body of the blanket, I did know that the star stitch fabric would curl, and by the time I realized it, there was no going back. That is why I chose to work the boarder on top/over the sides of the blanket; to fight the curl. This was definitely one of the trickier boarders I’ve done, so if you’re not sure it’s for you, I would suggest playing around with a boarder that is worked at the same time as the rest of the blanket, like a seed stitch or garter stitch boarder.
As always, questions and comments welcome! Hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend!
yarn over and bake 