I made this rainbow baby blanket last year for some friends of mine with a new baby girl. The idea behind this style of blanket is that the yarn is held double, combining two colors at once for each square. This creates a very nifty blending of colors that appeals to the eye.
I based this blanket off of the Double Vision pattern, though I didn’t use the pattern directly. Each row and column uses the same color throughout, only changing the second color. So, for example, a single row would have squares made of pink/pink, pink/yellow, pink/green, pink/blue, etc. If you look at it up close you can see the separate colors, but from farther away, each set combines to form a new color.
The technique I used to create the squares is called “mitered squares”. Basically, each square is knit in an L shape, which forms an interesting diagonal line down the middle. I hate seaming, so for each square and its border, I picked up and knit the stitches directly onto the existing squares instead of knitting them all separately.
The yarn is Caron Simply Soft Light. It’s a DK weight, acrylic yarn, that lives up to its name of softness. As a machine washable yarn, it’s great for babies since their things often need cleaning.
When I showed this blanket to my mom before giving it as a gift, she loved it so much that she wanted me to create a second one exactly the same just for her!