Blankets in King Cole Cottonsoft Baby Crush DK - 5101pdf - Downloadable PDF

Blankets Knitted in King Cole Cottonsoft Baby Crush DK – Pattern 5101

This beginner-friendly knitting pattern from King Cole (Leaflet 5101) features two distinct baby blanket designs, both worked in the soft and popular King Cole Cottonsoft Baby Crush DK yarn. The pattern is available as a downloadable PDF and is ideal for knitters who are new to the craft or looking for a straightforward, satisfying make. Both blankets are beautifully textured, practical, and perfectly sized for a baby or as a cosy throw.

Design One: Garter Stitch Blanket

The first design is a classic Garter Stitch Blanket, making it one of the simplest and most rewarding knitting projects available. Garter stitch is created by knitting every single row, producing a squishy, reversible fabric with a distinctive ridged texture that lies flat without curling at the edges — a particularly desirable quality in blanket making.

Construction and Techniques

The blanket is cast on using the thumb method, a beginner-friendly cast-on technique that creates a neat, elastic edge well suited to baby items. The fabric is worked entirely in garter stitch throughout, making this an excellent project for those building confidence with knitting needles. The finished blanket measures 76 cm (30 inches) in length, providing a generous size for a baby blanket.

Stitches Used

• Garter stitch – every row knitted, forming the main fabric
• Cast off knitways – worked on the wrong side for a clean finish

Tension and Needles

The tension for this blanket is 20 stitches and 40 rows to 10 cm (4 inches) over garter stitch. The blanket begins with a border section worked on 3¼ mm needles, casting on 132 stitches using the thumb method, before changing to 4 mm needles for the main body of the blanket. Achieving the correct tension is essential, and the pattern advises using thinner needles if you have too many stitches, or thicker needles if you have too few.

Materials

• Yarn: King Cole Cottonsoft Baby Crush DK
• Needles: 3¼ mm and 4 mm knitting needles

Design Two: Stocking Stitch Blanket

The second design is a Stocking Stitch Blanket featuring a more structured, textured appearance created by combining knit and purl stitches in a repeating block pattern. This design introduces a classic basketweave-style arrangement of knit and purl blocks, giving the blanket a beautiful, tactile surface with visual depth and interest. The alternating blocks of knit and purl stitches create a reversible-looking geometric pattern that is both modern and timeless.

Construction and Techniques

Like the first blanket, this design is cast on using the thumb method, this time casting on 146 stitches. The blanket begins with a garter stitch border of 8 rows worked on 3¼ mm needles, providing a neat, non-curling edge. The main body is then worked on 4 mm needles in a structured pattern of alternating knit and purl blocks, with a consistent 5-stitch garter stitch border maintained on each side throughout the blanket to keep the edges tidy and flat.

The pattern is worked in a sequence of 28-row repeating blocks: the first set of rows places knit columns over knit stitches and purl columns over purl stitches, before the arrangement is reversed to swap the texture placement. This creates the characteristic checkerboard or basketweave effect associated with this type of stocking stitch block pattern. The technique requires knitters to be comfortable reading a two-row repeat and understanding the difference between right-side and wrong-side rows.

Stitches Used

• Garter stitch (g-st) – used for the border rows and side edges throughout
• Knit stitch (k)