UPDATE: This Knit-Along is now finished. Click here to get all the patterns for this blanket for free.

Who’s ready for a knit-along?

As I announced in my last video, I’m pregnant with my second child. I’m going to be making my baby a blanket and I thought it’d be fun to share my pattern with you week by week.

And today, I’m going to share the first square with you. It’s not really a square, as you can see, but it’s this simple intarsia heart.

A few notes

The picture squares are all knit in intarsia, which is a type of colour knitting. It is also sometimes called picture knitting.

 The solid colour squares are going to be different stitch patterns which will add some texture and a bit of a challenge for newer knitters.

Yarn

The yarn I am using is called Gradients by Value Ball (100% acrylic). It comes in tubes of five 50g balls, and I bought 4 tubes, or 1kg in total.

Tension

Your tension or gauge for this project is 19sts and 26 rows to 10cm ² in stocking stitch using 4mm needles.

Blanket Specs

The blanket itself as you can see is rectangular and is going to be about cm 74cm by 102cm.

The background colour for all the picture rectangles is the lightest shade which I’ve called colour 1, and the contrast colour for each of the rows starts with the darkest shade in the top row, going down to the lightest shade in the bottom, and the textures squares in between are going to primarily be in the same contrast colour, although some of them will be two colour stitch patterns just to add some interest.

If you’re a newer knitter and need some info on some of the terms I’m using, here are some links that might be helpful:

☼How to do the knit stitch: https://bit.ly/2VDFI03
☼How to do the purl stitch: https://bit.ly/2Fi4xuw
☼How to cast off/bind off: https://bit.ly/2Wl5vhQ
☼How to cast on (easy): https://bit.ly/2VTl0yk
☼How to cast on (SUPER easy): https://bit.ly/30Bl30f
☼How to do stocking/stockinette stitch: https://bit.ly/2JxQWl2
☼UK vs. US knitting terms: https://bit.ly/2VP2ozk
☼How to do a tension/gauge swatch: https://bit.ly/2HGNvp6
☼Yarn weight explained: https://bit.ly/2YHgLCR
☼How to weave in ends: https://bit.ly/2WUi5BO
☼How to steam block (note: this example actually puts the iron in contact with the piece – I instead held the iron slightly above the piece): https://bit.ly/2HNCoui

Some notes on intarsia

In true intarsia, every time you change colours, you switch to a new ball of yarn. This is different to other colour work like stranded knitting where you carry the previous colours behind the work to use again further along the row.

The balls of yarn can of course travel with you upwards (from one row to the next).

Knitting colour work like this can mean you end up with a lot of balls of yarn on the go! It can get hard to manage, but there are a few things you can do to help make it easier. Here are some options:

-Instead of using a whole ball of yarn, just use a long strand. This is only practical when you have a pretty small section in one colour.

-Make yourself some small centre-pull balls for each colour change.

-Make some butterflies (see pics above). These are basically really loose centre-pull balls. Here’s how you make one: Grab a length of yarn and wrap it around 3 fingers. Once you’ve rolled most of the yarn you’ll be needing in this way, take it off your fingers then wrap the yarn around the centre of the loop you have created a few times. Then cut the yarn and tuck this tail under the last wrap around that you just did. You knit from the tail which is coming out of the middle of the butterfly so it unwinds nicely as you knit, from the inside of the butterfly out.

When you change yarns, it’s really important that you lay the working yarn from the old colour over the top of the new colour, so that the two strands are entwined. This means you won’t have big gaps where the colours change.

Get the pattern

Download the pattern for this heart square here (including chart): Knit-along Heart Square

Thanks so much for reading and following along with this project! I’ll be trying to post videos and patterns for this knit-along project every week at least. If you don’t want to miss a new rectangle to knit, remember to subscribe to my YouTube channel and tap the bell icon so you get notified when a new video is up. You can also add me as a friend on Ravelry.