Valley Yarns Star Ruby Knitting Pattern

Valley Yarns Star Ruby Knit Blanket

What is Being Made

The Star Ruby is a machine-washable baby blanket and playmat designed by Marykate Fleming. This knit project measures 44 ½" x 33" when finished and features a playful puppy paw pattern that repeats across the design. The blanket is ideal for cozy couch use or as a durable floor mat for babies, combining functionality with an engaging visual pattern that helps introduce young children to counting.

Techniques Used

This advanced beginner knitting project employs several key techniques to achieve its distinctive design:

• Bias knitting: The blanket is worked on the bias, which creates a diagonal orientation that adds visual interest and allows the paw pattern to develop organically as you knit.
• Bottom-up construction: The project begins with a small cast-on and increases gradually, building the blanket from the bottom edge upward.
• Seamless, flat knitting: Worked flat in a single continuous piece on circular needles, eliminating the need for seaming and creating a unified fabric.
• Increases and decreases: Strategic increases appear on right-side rows throughout the first half of the pattern, with decreases mirroring these increases in the second half to create the centered paw motif.
• Make-one increases (M1R and M1L): Right-leaning and left-leaning make-one stitches are used to add stitches symmetrically on either side of the work, maintaining clean edges.
• Slip-stitch edge treatment: Each row begins with a slipped stitch, creating a neat, finished selvage along the edges.

Stitches Used

The Star Ruby pattern utilizes fundamental knitting stitches appropriate for an advanced beginner level:

• Stockinette stitch: The primary stitch throughout most of the blanket, created by alternating knit rows on the right side with purl rows on the wrong side, producing a smooth, classic fabric.
• Garter stitch: Used selectively within the paw pattern sections, created by knitting every row to produce a textured, bumpy appearance that defines the puppy paw motifs.
• Long-tail cast-on: The project begins with this foundational cast-on method, which creates a sturdy, elastic edge suitable for blanket work.
• Make-one right (M1R) and make-one left (M1L): These invisible increase techniques add stitches without creating visible holes, maintaining the integrity of the stockinette background.

Materials and Specifications

The Star Ruby is designed to showcase the qualities of premium yarn and appropriately sized needles:

• Yarn: Valley Yarns Valley Superwash Super Bulky in colorway 202 Moontower Mustard. This yarn is composed of 100% Extra Fine Superwash Merino wool, offering both softness and durability. The super bulky weight (100 g / 55 yards per skein) creates a quick-to-knit, cozy fabric ideal for blankets. The superwash treatment makes the finished blanket machine-washable, a practical feature for baby items.
• Yarn quantity: 12 skeins are required to complete the full blanket.
• Needles: US size 13 (9.0 mm) 40" circular needles are used to work the blanket flat. Circular needles accommodate the large number of stitches without crowding, even though the work remains flat rather than in the round.
• Gauge: 9 stitches and 20 rows = 4" in stockinette stitch when blocked, establishing the scale and finished dimensions of the project.
• Additional materials: A tapestry needle is needed for weaving in yarn ends.

Pattern Structure and Difficulty

Rated as advanced beginner, the Star Ruby balances accessibility with engaging complexity. The pattern begins with a minimal three-stitch cast-on and systematically increases by two stitches every right-side row, building toward a center point featuring five puppy paws. After reaching the widest section, the pattern mirrors itself with decreases, returning to three stitches at the completion