Rowan Bambino Blanket Knitting Pattern

Rowan Bambino Blanket by Martin Storey

What is Being Made

The Rowan Bambino is a knitted blanket designed by Martin Storey. This finished piece measures approximately 87 cm (34½ inches) wide and 126 cm (49½ inches) long, making it a substantial throw blanket suitable for layering on beds, sofas, or chairs. The blanket combines a classic moss stitch border with a patterned center, creating visual interest through color blocking and texture.

Techniques Used

This blanket is constructed using several key knitting techniques that create its distinctive appearance:

• Moss Stitch Border: The edges are worked in moss stitch, a fundamental textured stitch created by alternating knit and purl stitches. This provides a neat, reversible edge finish that frames the central pattern.
• Stranded Colorwork: The pattern utilizes fair isle techniques, where multiple colors are carried across rows to create intricate designs. This method involves managing yarn tension across color changes to maintain even fabric.
• Intarsia Method: Selected areas employ intarsia colorwork, a technique where separate bobbins of yarn are used for different colored sections, allowing for larger blocks of color without carrying yarn across the back of the work.
• Stockinette Stitch: The main patterned section is worked in stockinette stitch (alternating knit and purl rows), which provides a smooth, classic canvas for the colorwork design.
• Worked Flat: The blanket is constructed flat on circular needles rather than in the round, allowing for straightforward row-by-row construction from bottom to top.
• Bottom-Up Construction: The blanket is worked from the cast-on edge upward, making it easy to adjust length if desired before the final cast-off.

Stitches Used

The pattern employs a limited but effective stitch vocabulary:

• Moss Stitch (K1, P1 ribbing variation): Created by alternating knit and purl stitches within each row and maintaining the offset pattern on subsequent rows. This creates a textured, bumpy fabric that is identical on both sides.
• Stockinette Stitch: The foundation stitch for the patterned center, created by knitting all stitches on right-side rows and purling all stitches on wrong-side rows, producing the smooth, flat surface characteristic of classic knitted fabric.

Pattern Structure and Repeat

The blanket features a 52-stitch pattern repeat that is worked three times across the width of the 165 center stitches. The pattern chart contains 100 rows of colorwork, and this 100-row sequence is repeated three times throughout the blanket's length, creating a cohesive, rhythmic design. The moss stitch border is maintained on both sides (5 stitches on each edge) throughout the entire piece, providing structural stability and a finished appearance.

Materials: Yarn

The Rowan Bambino is worked in Rowan Pure Wool Superwash Worsted, a durable and practical yarn choice for blankets. The yarn composition includes:

• Yarn A (Soft Cream 102): 7 x 100g balls, serving as the primary color and background for the colorwork pattern
• Yarn B (Black 109): 2 x 100g balls, used as the contrasting color in the stranded and intarsia sections

Pure Wool Superwash Worsted is a worsted-weight yarn, meaning it has a medium thickness that knits at a reasonable gauge, allowing the blanket to be completed in a reasonable timeframe while maintaining good stitch definition for the colorwork pattern. The superwash treatment makes this blanket practical for regular washing and care.

Materials: Needles and Tools

The blanket is worked on a single 4½mm (US size 7) circular needle measuring at least 80 cm long. Circular needles are used here not for working in the round, but rather as a practical tool for holding the large number of stitches (175 cast-on stitches) required for the blanket's width. The 4½mm needle size is matched to the yarn weight to achieve the correct tension.

Gauge and Tension

The pattern specifies a tension of 20 stitches and 25 rows to 10 cm (approximately 4 inches) measured over the patterned stockin