Seeded Rib Blanket in Valley Yarns Haydenville - 802 - Downloadable PDF

Seeded Rib Blanket in Valley Yarns Haydenville – Pattern #802 by Elizabeth Decker

This Seeded Rib Blanket, pattern #802 designed by Elizabeth Decker, is a beautifully textured baby blanket worked in a classic seeded rib stitch pattern. Sweet, simple, and highly approachable, this design is ideal for knitters of all experience levels, including beginners, and makes a treasured handmade gift for any new arrival. The finished blanket is available in three sizes — 29" x 29", 32" x 32", and 36" x 36" — offering flexibility depending on how generous a wrap you'd like to create.

What Is Being Made

The project is a square baby blanket featuring a central field of seeded rib texture framed by a coordinating border. The blanket is worked in two colors — a main color (MC) and a contrast color (CC) — which creates subtle stripe detailing at the cast-on edge and at the transition into the border. The result is a classic, heirloom-quality piece that is soft enough for delicate baby skin while being durable enough for everyday use.

Techniques Used

• Worked flat: The entire blanket is knitted back and forth in rows, making it accessible to knitters who are not yet comfortable with working in the round.
• Stripes: A contrast color is introduced at the cast-on edge and again at the border transition, creating clean, simple stripe accents without complex colorwork.
• Long Tail Cast On: The pattern specifically calls for the Long Tail Cast On method, which produces a neat, elastic, and professional-looking foundation edge — particularly well-suited to a blanket that will be blocked and stretched to gauge.
• Blocking: Gauge is measured after blocking, which is an important finishing step that opens up the stitches and evens out the texture of the seeded rib pattern.

Stitches Used

The blanket features two distinct stitch patterns that work together to create a polished, structured fabric:

• Seeded Rib (Main Pattern Stitch): This is the primary texture of the blanket body. It combines knit and purl stitches in a specific arrangement across right-side and wrong-side rows to produce a subtle, raised ribbed texture with a seeded, slightly broken quality. On the right side (RS), the row is worked as: K5, *p1, k5; repeat from *. On the wrong side (WS), the row is worked as: P4, *k1, p1, k1, p3; repeat from * to last stitch, p1. These two rows are repeated throughout the body of the blanket.
• Border Pattern: A separate border stitch pattern frames the blanket. After completing the main body, the contrast color is introduced and the border rows are repeated four times before binding off, creating a tidy, decorative edge.
• Knit (k) and Purl (p): All stitch patterns in this design rely solely on the two most fundamental knitting stitches, making this an excellent pattern for building confidence and technique.

Materials: Yarn and Needles

The pattern is written specifically for Valley Yarns Haydenville, a worsted weight yarn with a fiber composition of 60% Superwash Merino / 40% Acrylic Microfiber, coming in 220 yards per 100g skein. The Superwash Merino content provides softness and warmth ideal for a baby blanket, while the Acrylic Microfiber adds durability and ease of care — an important practical consideration for baby items that will need frequent washing. The pattern calls for:

• 3 (3, 4) skeins of Valley Yarns Haydenville in color 25 as the Main Color (MC)
• 1 skein of Valley Yarns Haydenville in color 02 as the Contrast Color (CC)

The recommended needles are US size 7 (4.50mm)