Valley Yarns Tilting Lace Blanket Knitting Pattern

Valley Yarns Tilting Lace Blanket

What Is Being Made

The Valley Yarns Tilting Lace Blanket is a sophisticated throw blanket featuring an elegant lace pattern that creates a distinctive tilting visual effect. This project is available in three finished sizes: 32" x 32", 40" x 48", and 48" x 54", making it suitable for various spaces from accent throws to larger bed coverings. The blanket is worked in a light, breathable cotton-microfiber blend yarn that makes it ideal for year-round use.

Techniques Used

This blanket employs several key knitting techniques to achieve its refined appearance. The lace technique is central to the design, created through strategic yarn overs and decreases that form openwork patterns throughout the fabric. The blanket is worked flat on straight needles rather than in the round, allowing for straightforward row-by-row construction. The seamless construction means the entire blanket is knitted as one continuous piece with no seaming required, resulting in a polished, uninterrupted finish. An optional crocheted edge adds decorative detailing around the perimeter, featuring chain stitches and slip stitches worked into the garter stitch valleys and cast-on stitches for a refined border treatment.

Stitches Used

The pattern incorporates fundamental knitting stitches combined in strategic ways to create the lace effect:

• Knit (k) and purl (p) stitches form the base fabric structure
• Yarn over (yo) creates the openwork holes characteristic of lace knitting
• Knit 2 together (k2tog) decreases stitches and pairs with yarn overs to form balanced lace motifs
• Slip, slip, knit (ssk) provides a left-leaning decrease that balances the right-leaning k2tog decreases
• Garter stitch (knit every row) forms the structured borders at top and bottom

The main body pattern alternates between rows featuring yarn overs paired with k2tog decreases and rows with ssk paired with yarn overs, creating the tilting directional pattern. The combination of these decreases and yarn overs maintains stitch count while forming the lace design.

Materials and Tools

The blanket is crafted using Valley Yarns Longmeadow, a practical blend of 60% cotton and 40% microfiber. This fiber composition provides breathability and durability, with each skein offering 117 yards at a 50-gram weight. The project requires 8 skeins for the smallest size, 12 skeins for the medium size, and 16 skeins for the largest size, all in color 07 Melon. Construction uses US size 7 (4.5 mm) knitting needles to achieve the specified gauge of approximately 20 stitches and 35 rows over 4 inches in the main body pattern stitch. For the optional crocheted edge, a US size F5 (3.75 mm) crochet hook is needed.

Difficulty Level

This pattern is rated as intermediate, making it suitable for knitters with foundational skills who are ready to tackle lace techniques. The repeating pattern sequences and the combination of basic decreases with yarn overs require attention to stitch counts and pattern reading, but the straightforward flat construction and clear stitch abbreviations make it accessible to advancing knitters.