Starboard Throw in Lion Brand Vanna's Choice

Starboard Throw in Lion Brand Vanna's Choice – Free Knitting Pattern Summary

About This Pattern

The Starboard Throw (Pattern Number L40071) is a free downloadable knitting pattern designed by Teresa Chorzepa for Lion Brand Yarn. It produces a finished square throw measuring approximately 29 x 29 inches (73.5 x 73.5 cm), making it an ideal accent piece for a sofa, chair, or bed. The pattern is rated Easy (Skill Level 2), making it accessible to confident beginners and relaxing for more experienced knitters looking for a straightforward, satisfying project.

Design Overview

The Starboard Throw is a single-piece, square blanket worked entirely in a diagonal construction — a clever technique that gives the finished fabric a dynamic, on-point orientation. Rather than working from one straight edge to another, the knitter begins at a single corner point and increases one stitch on every row to build the throw outward. Once the midpoint is reached, stitches are decreased one per row until the opposite corner is complete. This diagonal approach creates a visually interesting structure and means there are no seams to sew at the end.

The throw features a bold multi-color stripe sequence worked in four colors: White (860-100), Mustard (860-158), Aqua (860-102), and Colonial Blue (860-109), all in Lion Brand Vanna's Choice yarn. The combination of crisp white with warm mustard and cool aqua and blue tones gives the throw a nautical, coastal feel — perfectly in keeping with its Starboard name.

Techniques Used

• Diagonal construction: The throw is worked from corner to corner in a single piece, eliminating the need for seaming and creating a unique fabric orientation.
• Stripe sequence: Colors are changed at regular intervals following a specific stripe sequence, producing the throw's characteristic multi-color banding.
• Increasing and decreasing: The shaping relies entirely on adding and removing one stitch per row — increases for the first half, decreases for the second half — to form the square shape.
• Finishing: A large-eye blunt needle is used for weaving in ends after the color changes, keeping the wrong side tidy.

Stitches Used

• Garter stitch (k every row): The entire throw is worked in garter stitch, meaning every row is simply knitted — no purling required. Garter stitch creates a squishy, reversible fabric with horizontal ridges on both sides, making the finished throw look polished from either face.
• kfb (knit in front and back): This is the increase stitch used throughout the first half of the throw. The knitter works into the front of the next stitch without removing it from the left needle, then knits through the back loop of the same stitch, resulting in one stitch increased. It is a simple, beginner-friendly increase that blends neatly into garter stitch fabric.
• Standard bind-off / decrease rows: The second half of the throw uses single decreases on each row to taper the fabric back to a corner point.

Materials

• Yarn: Lion Brand Vanna's Choice (Article #860), a 100% Premium Acrylic yarn (select colorways are 92% Acrylic / 8% Rayon or 96% Acrylic / 4% Rayon). Solid colorways come in 3.5 oz (100 g) / 170 yards (156 m) skeins. Four colors are required: White (860-100), Mustard (860-158), Aqua (860-102), and Colonial Blue (860-109) — one ball of each.
• Needles: Boye Aluminum Circular Knitting Needles, 29 inches, Size 9 (5.5 mm). A circular needle is used not because the project is worked in the round, but because the long cable comfortably holds the large number of stitches at the widest point of the diagonal construction.
• Notions: