Halifax

Halifax is a rhombus-shaped baby blanket with a diamond

brocade pattern. It is made with incredibly soft bulky weight cotton,
and the bumpy texture is showcased beautifully on such a simple
fabric. The colourway of Sprout I chose is called Summer Rain and
when I saw that it immediately reminded me of my blustery home. I
think the Sprout creates the perfect amount of coziness and drape, but
the pattern is highly adaptable if you have another preference.

Glossary
CO Cast On (I used a longtail, but any method is fine)
K Knit
P Purl
YO Yarn Over
Garter Garter Stitch: Knit on both sides. The border of this blanket
is knit in garter stitch.

Materials
5 skeins (545 yards) of Sprout by Classic Elite Yarns I used the
colourway 4375 Summer Rain.
US 10 (6.0 mm) circular needle at least 36
Tapestry Needle

RS Right Side
WS Wrong Side
K2tog Knit Two Together
P2tog Purl Two Together
SSP Slip Slip Purl: Also called a left leaning purl decrease, this stitch
is slightly more complicated than its knit cousin. A good tutorial can
be found here: http://techknitting.blogspot.ca/2009/10/purldecreases-p2tog-p2tbl-ssp.html

Copyright Hannah Paton 2014

Pattern

Some Notes on Increases

CO 4 st.
Setup Row: K4

Begin Increase Chart.

Continue in this manner until you have increased to 132 stitches. (Or,
if youre modifying the pattern, until you have used half or slightly less
than half of your yarn, ending on a row where you have just purled
two stitches next to each other for the second time.)
/

(this row)

In order to keep it legible, the increase chart shows only the

first 48 rows of increases. However, it is very easy to
extrapolate from its really just a matter of following the
pattern as set.
On RS rows, the yarnovers take the place of the first purls that
would otherwise be on that row. That is why your first purl
stitch is at the end of row 16, but it doesnt have a
corresponding purl stitch at the beginning of the row.
At the widest, there are 14 stitches between two purl stitches.
Keeping count of how far apart your purl stitches are is the
best way to keep track of where you are in the pattern.
You add a new purl stripe every 16th row. Remember that this
will happen on the left side of your blanket (the end of a RS
row) two rows before it will happen on the right side (the
beginning of a RS row). If you want to keep track of row
numbers, this is every multiple of 16 on the left, and every
multiple of 16 + 2 on the right.
Another (less mathy) way of looking at the above is that you
add a new /-leaning stripe at the end of the second row with
two purls right next to each other, and a new \-leaning stripe
on the next RS row.

Copyright Hannah Paton 2014

Decreases
Begin decrease chart.
Once you have only four stitches remaining on your needle, bind off
and weave in ends. You may want to lightly block the corners of the
blanket. I did this by hovering a steamy iron an inch or so over the
corners until they relaxed and then weighing them down with heavy
books.

Some Notes on Decreases:

-

The decreases are easier than the increases because you no

longer have to remember to add new purl ridges; you are
simply finishing off the ones you have already started.
Like the increase chart, the decrease chart shows only 48 rows
of decreases so that the chart would remain legible. However
the method is exactly the same you just have more stitches
between your borders at first.
The last 3 increase rows are shown in red at the beginning of
the decrease chart to show where in the brocade pattern it
begins. You can start decreasing your blanket at whichever size
you prefer, but the decreases must start at this point in the
brocade or your edge diamonds will be misshapen.
Just like with increasing, the best method of keeping track of
where you are is by keeping count of how far apart your purl
stitches are.
Because of the decrease, the right-leaning (or /-leaning) stripes
are finished off with a p2tog

Copyright Hannah Paton 2014

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Copyright Hannah Paton 2014

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Copyright Hannah Paton 2014