Ravelry Project Page - Mermaid BlanketThis project was a request from my granddaughter Natalie for a mermaid blanket (a blanket that when you are wrapped in it makes you look like a mermaid). The project began with the search for a pattern (why reinvent the wheel?) and ended with what almost always happens — not finding a pattern that matched the picture in my head and having to develop one of my own.
Here are the notes on how I made my mermaid blanket. Hopefully these notes are detailed enough because I'm not going to write up a formal pattern and there may be errors. If you do make a blanket from these directions and find something which can be corrected please let me know and I'll update this post.
Yarn: The blanket needed to be washable so an acrylic or superwash wool was necessary and I couldn't believe my luck when I found a "Dusty Teal" color of Red Heart Super Saver in my yarn stash — the perfect mermaid color! A total of 3 skeins were used (with NO extra).
Crochet or Knit? I didn't really care. I would have preferred crochet because it's faster but finding the right stitch pattern was more important. I found a knitting stitch pattern that would make a good texture for a blanket and also looked like fish scales, so knitting it was.
Stitch pattern:
A Treasury of Knitting Patterns by Barbara G. Walker
Purl-Twist Fabric (p125)
Even number of sts.
Rows 1 and 3 (Right side)—Knit.
Row 2—* P2 tog, but do not sl from needle; then purl 1st st again, and sl both sts from needle together; rep from #.
Row 4—P1, * rep from * of Row 2 across to last st, end p1.
Repeat Rows 1-4.
Size: The finished size is approximately 36" x 40" (excluding the tail)
Blanket instructions:
1. Cast on 170 stitches with size 10 needles
2. K1, P1 ribbing for 1.5"
3. Work the above 4 rows of the Purl-Twist until blanket measures 24" ending with Row 4.
Notes: I added three stitches of a seed stitch border to each side for this version, and while it worked, I wasn't completely happy with it. If I were to make this again I would try the English Slip Stitch Selvedge Edge instead.4. Continue working in pattern and begin decreasing two stitches on the knit rows (rows 1 and 3) by knitting two together(k2tog); work one k2tog at the beginning of the row and one k2tog at the end.
Watch the tension with the purl-twist stitch.
It's very easy to work it too loose.
5. Keep decreasing until there are 96 stitches. The blanket should now be approximately 40" in length.
6. Divide the stitches onto two needles with the center 48 stitches on one needle and the 24 stitches from the two ends on another needle. I actually did this with a circular needle and two double pointed needles (see above picture).
7. K1 from front needle, k1 from back needle, (k2tog from front needle, k2tog from back needle)across (50 stitches)
8. (K1, p1, k2tog, p1, k1, p2tog) across, end k1, p1 38 stitches.
9. To make a cocoon at the bottom of the blanket, seam the two edges of the blanket together for about 12".
Fin
Note: I did NOT design the fin. I really liked this mermaid fin pattern and only made small tweaks for my yarn and design.
