Aster Flower Throw in Loopy Mango Merino No. 5 - Downloadable PDF

Aster Flower Throw in Loopy Mango Merino No. 5 – Pattern Summary

The Aster Flower Throw is a stunning, large-scale knitted blanket designed by Loopy Mango and worked in their signature Merino No. 5 super chunky yarn. The finished throw measures approximately 40 inches (100 cm) wide by 65 inches (165 cm) long, making it a generous, couch-ready blanket with serious visual impact. Despite its impressive size, the pattern is rated Intermediate in difficulty and can be completed in just 8 to 12 hours, thanks to the oversized needles and thick yarn that work up quickly.

What makes this throw truly eye-catching is its bold, dimensional Aster Flower stitch — a textured floral motif that creates raised, petal-like clusters across the surface of the fabric. The two-color design separates the flowers from the background, giving the finished piece a graphic, almost sculptural quality that looks far more complex than it actually is to knit.

What Is Being Made

This pattern produces a single knitted throw blanket in a two-color Aster Flower stitch layout. The design features repeating floral motifs worked in one color (Color B, the Flower Color) set against a contrasting background and border worked in a second color (Color A, the Border Color). The result is a cozy, textured blanket suitable for home décor, gifting, or personal use.

Materials Required

• Yarn: Loopy Mango Merino No. 5 — 9 balls total, each ball containing 74 yards (68 m) / 150 g (5.3 oz), in 100% merino wool
• Color breakdown: 5 balls in the Flower Color (Color B) and 4 balls in the Border Color (Color A)
• Needles: US Size 50 (25 mm) circular needles, 32 inches (80 cm) in length

Merino No. 5 is a super chunky, 100% merino wool yarn, known for its exceptional softness, warmth, and beautiful stitch definition — qualities that make it particularly well-suited to textured stitch patterns like the Aster Flower. The large 25 mm circular needles allow the bulky yarn to move freely and create the open, loopy stitches that are essential to forming the flower motifs.

Techniques Used

This pattern uses a combination of classic knitting techniques alongside the signature Aster Flower stitch, which is unique to this design. Knitters working this pattern should be comfortable with two-color knitting, yarn overs, and slip stitches before beginning.

• Aster Flower Stitch: The centerpiece technique of this pattern. It involves knitting 5 stitches with the yarn wrapped twice around the needle to create elongated loops, slipping those 5 stitches back to the left-hand needle, then working Purl 1, Yarn Over, Purl 1, Yarn Over, Purl 1 through all 5 stitches together without removing them from the needle — resulting in a gathered, petal-like cluster of 5 stitches on the right needle. This technique creates the raised, three-dimensional flower shape that defines the throw's appearance.
• Two-Color Knitting: The pattern alternates between Color A and Color B across specific rows, creating the contrast between the flower motifs and the surrounding fabric. Knitters carry and drop colors as directed rather than cutting yarn between color changes.
• Slip Stitch (purlwise): Stitches are slipped purlwise at key points in the pattern to maintain the structure of the flower motifs and create clean color separation between rows.
• Yarn Over (yo): Used within the Aster Flower stitch itself to add the extra loops that form the petals of each flower cluster.
• Working with Loose Strands: Certain rows require knitting a stitch together with a loose strand held in the back, a technique that anchors the elongated loops created in earlier rows and helps the flower motifs hold their shape.

Stitches Used

• Knit (K) — used extensively in border and background