I love the look of cable knits. They make such gorgeous hats and sweaters. I think cable knitting scares a lot of people, but it’s one of those things you just have to sit down and…do…and you realize after you try it once or twice that the concept is really pretty simple.
It is not, however, terribly fast. You’ve gotta keep track of that extra needle, and no matter how many times I follow the same pattern, I always have to go back and look up what all the abbreviations stand for and when to put my cable needle in the front and when to move it to the back.
I find that I love to cable knit smaller pieces like hats and sweaters – and even this gorgeous skirt I made my daughter – but I lose the patience to knit something as big as a blanket. It takes me foreverrrrr, and I usually knit two or three other things in-between when I start and when I finally finish it.
So, in this case, I’m a fan of cheating. Short-cutting. Faking it. Pulling a fast one. We knitters can be a sneaky bunch when we want.
All this to say – this blanket looks cable knit BUT IT IS NOT! Hahaha! It’s an easy knitting pattern, knit on two plain ol’ needles (or one set of circular needles. That’s how I always do it.) The main pattern is just four rows, and it’s pretty easy to remember once you get started. So it’s the perfect project to take along to kids’ soccer games or to knit while you’re watching TV or to click along on while you’re listening to an audiobook or a podcast.
Find the Mock Cable Baby Blanket Pattern here
It’s also worth noting that you knit the pattern the long way this time, so when you measure how big your blanket is getting, you’re actually measuring the width rather than the length. You could knit it longer if you’d like, but it will be larger than crib sized in that case.
You can find the Mock Cable Baby Blanket Pattern right here!
Like I said, it’s an easy knitting pattern to remember so it goes pretty quickly once you get started. One tip I have for blanket patterns with long repeats like this one has – sometimes it’s helpful to put a stitch marker at the beginning of each repeat. It’s easier to keep track of how many repeats you’ve done when you can just count your stitch markers. It’s also nice to mark the start of your border stitches when the blanket has a larger border like this one. It’s not essential, but I find it helps me better follow my pattern.
You do need to know a few knitting terms – psso (pass slipped stitch over), which this YouTube video explains well:
As for yarn, I got Caron Simply Soft at Michael’s, but Craftsy has some gorgeous ones (some of them for cheap!) if you want to browse.
If you make this, let me know how it works out for you! I love seeing photos of people’s completed projects and blankets and hearing who they’re being knitted for. I think one of these days I’m going to do a post where I just share everyone’s blanket pictures and stories and we can all admire each other’s work!
In case you missed it, you can find the Mock Cable Baby Blanket pattern here.
Laura, I would like to make this closer to a stroller sized blanket since babies shouldn’t have blankets in their cribs until they are older. How would I adjust the pattern?
Love the design. Can do the stitches. Picked up the correction to cast on 170 and not 179 stitches. And, I understand that the pattern is built along the long size. But, I have a couple of questions
Question 1: Row 1 of Pattern is a reduction row – going from 170 to 162 stitches. Is that correct?
Question 2: Each pattern row starts with 15 stitches of Moss stitch followed by a K or P 7 and the pattern (6x the stitches between the *s). The next series of stitches is where I’m confused. The ending of K, P for 15 stitches is simply the repeat of the Moss at the beginning. However, the stitches before the Moss confuses me. Example – Pattern Row 3 ends with “…p2, k3, p2, k7, P, K, P, K for 15 stitches, ending a P stitch.
with a purl stitch …” In total, these are more than 15 stitches. Do you do “…p2, k3, p2, k7,…” once and then do the P, K, P, K etc for 15 stitches? Or, do you start with “…p2, k3…”and end with the first P of the P, K, P sequence which would be 15 stitches (but not the Moss stitch pattern).
Help.
I downloaded the mock cable pattern and I have followed the directions , Row 1 of the Pattern , does not come out correctly, I have taken it out twice now, counted the stitches to make sure I had 179 and there is not enough stitches on the needle to do the knit 8 then p k 15 stitches at the end of row 1-Is there a misprint in the pattern? It is a very pretty blanket , I hope that you can help me figure this out, thank you for the pattern. I have a baby shower to go to soon and I would like to knit this for a gift, Thankyou,
Carol
THANK YOU for letting me know! I corrected the pattern, so if you click on the link to it above, it will take you to the revised (correct) pattern. There was, in fact, a misprint – you cast on 170 NOT 179 (oh, goodness – even in typing that I hit the wrong number again and had to correct myself!)
I hope you like the pattern – I reknit it last night and everything should work out now
Hi Laura,
I was looking for your previous pattern (pink blanket)
Thanks!
this one? https://peacebutnotquiet.com/dropstitch-blanket-free-baby-blanket-knitting-pattern/