Playmat in Schachenmayr Merino Extrafine 120 - 6743

Playmat in Schachenmayr Merino Extrafine 120 – Pattern 6743

This free downloadable PDF pattern from Schachenmayr guides knitters through the creation of a beautifully textured square playmat or baby blanket, measuring approximately 82 cm wide by 82 cm long (roughly 32 inches square). The finished piece is generously sized, making it equally suitable as a decorative throw, a tummy-time mat, or a cosy lap blanket. The design is worked flat in a single piece and combines several distinct stitch sections to create a structured, visually interesting surface with a neat, polished border.

What Is Being Made

The project is a square knitted blanket or playmat, approximately 82 × 82 cm in finished dimensions. Its overall construction is straightforward — cast on, work the body in a combination of stitch patterns, then finish with a crocheted edging — making it an accessible project for confident beginner and intermediate knitters who are comfortable reading a stitch chart and working a simple crochet border.

Materials Used

• Yarn: Schachenmayr Merino Extrafine 120, a DK-weight pure merino wool, in shade 00121 Maracuja (a warm, vibrant orange tone). A total of 275 g is required.
• Needles: A Prym circular knitting needle, 80 cm long, in size 3.5–4.5 mm. The circular needle is used to accommodate the full width of 159 stitches comfortably, though the piece is worked back and forth in rows rather than in the round.
• Crochet Hook: A 3–3.5 mm crochet hook is needed for the finishing border rounds.

Tension / Gauge

The stated tension is 20 stitches and 28 rows to 10 × 10 cm, measured over both stocking stitch and the textured pattern using needles in the 3.5–4.5 mm range. Achieving the correct gauge is important for hitting the target finished dimensions of approximately 82 cm square.

Stitches and Techniques Used

• Small Seed Stitch (Kleines Perlmuster): An alternating knit-one, purl-one rib pattern with the sequence offset on every row, creating a classic seed or moss stitch texture. This stitch is used for the first 7 cm and final 7 cm of the blanket, forming a stable, non-curling border at the cast-on and cast-off edges.
• Stocking Stitch (Glatt rechts): The standard knit-on-right-side, purl-on-wrong-side fabric that forms the smooth background sections of the blanket. Large panels of stocking stitch — 51 stitches on each side of the central motif — provide a calm contrast to the textured areas.
• Textured / Structural Pattern (Strukturmuster): A charted stitch pattern worked from a knitting chart over 33 stitches in the centre of the blanket, with additional smaller sections (referred to as Parts A, B, and C) placed symmetrically to the left and right. The chart is read in the conventional way — right-side rows from right to left, wrong-side rows from left to right — and a 16-row repeat is worked throughout the central body section of approximately 66.5 cm (186 rows). This structural pattern introduces surface interest and a tactile quality to the centre panel.
• Cast On and Cast Off: 159 stitches are cast on for the approximately 80 cm width. A standard cast-off is worked after the final seed stitch border section.
• Crochet Edging (Ausarbeiten): Once knitting is complete, the entire blanket is finished with a two-round crochet border worked in the round using the crochet hook. The first round works double crochet (UK) / single crochet (US) evenly around all four edges, with three double crochets into each corner stitch to keep the corners flat and square. The round is closed with a slip stitch. The second round creates a decorative picot