My desire to knit the garter rib baby blanket came as a request from a friend. My friend got married when she was 28. She and her husband wanted to have children. She loves on other people’s kids all of the time. Though, they both desired to have their own children. However, due to medical issues, they were not able to have their own children. They did not feel that adoption was right for them.  

Exciting News

Having had some fertility issues of my own, I empathized with her. I believe in the power of prayer. I knew how much it was a desire of their hearts to have children. All I knew to do to help them was to put it in God’s hands. I began praying intently for that. I continued to pray for almost 3 years. Then, one evening, I was told some fabulous news. Her husband told me to go ask her if she was pregnant. Without giving it much thought, I told him that it was not polite to ask women if they are pregnant. (Though, if I had thought about it for just one moment, I would have concluded that she is his wife. He loves her and would not intentionally want to bring any grief or pain to her.) He shrugged his shoulders and commented that she knew every time I was pregnant.

It was such a blessing to hear their wonderful news. She was so excited and he wanted to tell the world. I told her that I had been praying, and showed her the place in my prayer journal when I began to pray for her sweet baby. It was about two and a half years from the time I began to pray for them to when I heard they were going to have a baby.  

Choosing the Baby Blanket Pattern

That evening, when I got home, I started to look through some baby blankets that I would like to make. I chose 10 patterns that I thought were nice. A couple of the patterns I had made before, or something similar. After saving a photo of the 10 blankets to my phone, I sent them to her, asking which she liked the best. Out of the 10 I sent, she decided that the Garter Rib Baby Blanket was perfect, in a cream color.   

Requirements for the Garter Rib Baby Blanket

The garter rib baby blanket is simple enough for a beginner to make. There are only knit and purl stitches. The instructions include the amount of stitches required for the repeat. Therefore, it is easy to increase the width of the blanket, if that is desired. As written, the pattern calls for a DK (double knit) or a light worsted weight yarn. Size US 7 needles are suggested to create a finished blanket that is 30”x32,” using about 680 yards of yarn.

I went to Joann’s to find some yarn that would work with this pattern. Many of the brands and types of yarns that they had available I have used before for baby items. Most of the options on the shelf I have used several times and would use again. However, there were some that I won’t use again for baby items. The roving-type yarn did not work well for some projects I had worked on. Also, they were not fun for me to work with.

Selecting the Yarn

As my eyes scanned the baby yarn I noticed one that I had never used or noticed before. Bernat’s ‘bundle up’ yarn caught my eyes. I picked up a skein from the wire rack. The texture was so soft. Sometimes really soft yarns tend to get caught on my fingers. The fine fibers that create the soft texture cling to my dry hands. Bernat ‘bundle up,’ even as soft as it was, did not adhere to my skin. I do like to use Bernat brand for baby items. For instance, I have knitted baby blankets and many baby hats from Bernat’s ‘softee baby,’ ‘softee baby sparkle’ and ‘softee baby ombre’ yarns.  Therefore, I quickly decided on Bernat ‘bundle up’ yarn.

As I mentioned before, the yarn that the garter rib baby blanket pattern suggests is a DK yarn. Though ‘bundle up’ is a baby yarn, it felt a little thicker and was labeled as a size 4 yarn. For the DK yarn the ball band suggests a size US 4-US 6 needle. However, to achieve the right tightness, or drape, the pattern suggests a size US 7 or US 8 needle. The ‘bundle up’ yarn, on the other hand, suggests using a size US 8 needle. Therefore, I should have went up to a size US 9 needle. That would have given the project a slightly different feel. However, I decided to use size US 8 needles. The blanket is so soft. Additionally, it will be very cozy and keep any baby warm.

Deciding a Size

The pattern calls for a cast on amount to be 123 stitches. However, that amount did not seem like enough stitches. I did not think the finished blanket was going to be wide enough. To increase the width, start with the 123 stitches, then add stitches in multiples of 6. For example, the next amount of cast on stitches would be 123 + 6. The cast on amount would be 129. Then, the next size up would be 135. You get that by adding either 123 + 12 or 129 + 6. The increases continue in that pattern. For instance, the next amount of stitches would be 141, then 147, followed by 153 and so forth. Because I used a size US 8 needle and did not size up to the size US 9, the blanket is not as wide as I would have liked. Even though I increased the amount of cast on stitches, the blanket width is about one inch to an inch and a half smaller than I would have hoped.