Valley Yarns Cloister Crib Blanket Knitting Pattern

Valley Yarns Cloister Crib Blanket

What Is Being Made

The Cloister Crib Blanket is a knitted crib-sized throw measuring approximately 35 inches by 37 inches. This is a finished blanket project designed for use as a crib covering, combining a lace-patterned main body with decorative ruffled edging on all sides.

Craft and Project Type

This is a knitting project created by Valley Yarns. The blanket is worked as a single seamless piece, meaning it is constructed without seams that need to be joined together after completion. The blanket is worked flat on circular needles rather than in the round, allowing the knitter to work back and forth in rows across the full width of the piece.

Techniques Used

The Cloister Crib Blanket employs several intermediate knitting techniques:

• Lace knitting: The main body features an open lace pattern created through strategic yarn overs and decreases that form decorative holes and texture throughout the blanket
• Seamless construction: The blanket is worked as one continuous piece with no seaming required, maintaining structural integrity and a polished finished appearance
• Worked flat: Rather than working in circular rounds, the blanket is knitted flat using back-and-forth rows on a circular needle, which accommodates the large stitch count
• Ruffle edging: Decorative ruffles are added after the main body is complete by picking up stitches along the edges and working additional rows with strategic increases to create fullness and a picot bind-off detail
• Picot edging: The ruffles finish with a decorative picot edge created by binding off with a specific technique that produces small decorative loops along the outer edge

Stitches Used

The pattern employs a range of fundamental and intermediate knitting stitches to create both the lace pattern and structural elements:

• Stockinette stitch (St st): The foundational stitch used for gauge measurement and portions of the blanket
• Garter stitch: Created by alternating knit and purl rows to produce texture and definition in the pattern repeats
• Yarn overs (yo): Used to create the open lace holes that are characteristic of the lace pattern
• Decreases: Including knit 2 together (k2tog), slip-slip-knit (ssk), and slip-1-knit-2-together-pass-slipped-stitch-over (sl1-k2tog-psso) to balance yarn overs and shape the lace
• Increase stitches: Including knit increases (kinc) and purl increases (pinc) used extensively in the ruffle sections to create the fullness and volume of the edging
• Make 1 (m1): An invisible increase used strategically within pattern rows

Materials and Yarn

The Cloister Crib Blanket is made using Valley Yarns Superwash DK, a yarn composed of 100% Extrafine Merino Wool. This yarn is machine-washable, making it practical for a crib blanket that will require frequent laundering. The yardage is 137 yards per 50-gram skein.

The pattern calls for a two-color design:

• Main color (MC): 9 skeins in color 10 Soft Yellow, which forms the primary body of the blanket
• Contrast color (CC): 3 skeins in color 11 Spring Leaf, used for the decorative ruffled edging

Needles and Gauge

The blanket is worked on US size 7 circular needles, or whatever needle size is necessary to achieve the specified gauge. The required gauge is 21 stitches and 24 rows equal 4 inches in stockinette stitch. Achieving proper gauge is essential for the blanket to reach its intended finished dimensions of approximately 35 inches by 37 inches, and the finished blanket will have a slight amount of stretch due to the lace pattern and yarn fiber content.

Pattern Structure