Eternal Knot Baby Blanket

I’m super psyched to announce that the pattern for the Eternal Knot baby blanket is now available! This rich and sumptuous knit features a beautiful all-over cable pattern and a tricky looped edging for little hands to grab onto, creating the illusion of a woven knot without beginning or end.  This is a scaled-up, knitted version of the ancient Buddhist symbol of “Shrivasta, ” or the Eternal Knot, which can signify both eternity and the twists and turns of life.*  For this knitted version, we’ll use cabling, increases, decreases, and loops of i-cord to simulate the weave.

Close-up of the loopy edges

A while ago, my friend Emily turned me on to cables in a big way.  Working on a sweater, she realized what the cables were doing there.  For one, they broke up the monotony of stockinette stitch and kept you from getting bored.  And for two, they kept your place for you – now you could count your rows by fours or sixes instead of onesie twosies.  In this design, the increases and decreases that form the in-and-out weave of the borders also do double duty as placeholders – you’ll always know which row you’re on by counting your selvedge stitches.

I know I always say this, but for as tricky as it looks this is a pretty simple and intuitive design. You seldom need to count higher than six, and after a few repeats, your hands will remember the territory.  Don’t get me wrong, though – this is a pattern that keeps you on your toes.  I learned the hard way at my Stitch n Bitch that it’s not the kind of knitting that goes well with a Margarita and boisterous conversation (if you want to learn how to fix a mis-crossed cable without frogging the whole way back, check out this post from last year for a link).

Ok, if feels really good to be releasing this one into the wild.  I hope you like it!  The pattern is here in the shop.

*Okay, in Buddhist terms, “the endless cycle of birth, death, and rebirth,” but you know what I mean.