When both of my sisters-in-law announced they were pregnant within months of each other, my Mom and I knew there’d be lots of knitting to do! Mom brought each of them to the store to pick colors for our Wave Blanket.
After finishing both blankets, Mom realized she liked the blanket so much that she wanted to do it again. So here’s number 3 -
I love the bright rainbow colors!
Mom says it’s the combination of the easy-to-memorize feather and fan pattern and the softness of Blue Sky Alpaca’s Dyed Cotton yarn that makes this blanket so much fun to knit. We stock all of the colors, so you can make dozens of color combinations.
Here’s the pattern if you’d like to knit one yourself!
WAVE BLANKET (download pdf file)
SIZE
approximately 33” by 39”
MATERIALS
6 hanks of Blue Sky Alpaca’s Organic Cotton or Dyed Cotton
40 inch US 9 circular needle
GAUGE
16 sts = 4 inches in stockinette stitch, but gauge is not critical for this project
ABBREVIATIONS
K – knit
P – purl
K2tog – knit the next 2 stitches together as one stitch.
STITCH PATTERN
Row 1 (right side) – knit
Row 2 – purl
Row 3 – *(K2tog) 3 times, (yo, k1) 6 times, (k2tog) 3 times; repeat from * to end.
Row 4 – knit.
Repeat Rows 1 to 4.
BLANKET PATTERN
CO 144 stitches. Repeat pattern. Change to new color after finishing Row 4 of pattern.
Bind off loosely and weave in ends.
Enjoy!






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This is stunning!
Hi – I LOVE this. I’ve been trying to crochet a wave blanket for a while, but it’s just too hard to keep up. I’m a knitter at heart! Thanks so much for sharing such a great and accessible pattern.
Can I just check – are your measuremnts for the blanket in centimetres or inches?
Thanks!
Beth (UK)
Thank you for sharing this pattern. This is so pretty, I like it in these colors too. The first afghan I ever made was in bright colors like these.
oooh!!! how pretty! thanks for the pattern.
Love the blanket! Gorgeous pattern, not to mention the choice of colours!
Thank you all for your comments! I’m so glad you like the blanket!
Beth, the measurements are in inches. I don’t think gauge matters too much, though, if you’re happy with the fabric.
Please send photos of your blankets – it’s fun to see how the different colors look!
This is gorgeous. Will make a beautiful baby blanket and also a nice laprobe for the retirees in the veterans home. Our knitting group is doing the latter and loves a variety of patterns. The one in your photo is gorgeous! Thank you so much for sharing the pattern and idea.
Wowsa! This is stunning! I found it via craftzine’s blog. What’s most amazing is how simple the pattern is. I need to free up some time and make me one of these beautiful blankets!
Beautiful blanket, and thank you so much for sharing the pattern. I’m currently knitting one for my nephew to match his stroller. I will be sure to share pics when it is finished.
Thanks so much for the lovely pattern! I was fixing to learn to crochet just to make a wave blanket, but this will save me the trouble! I’m going to modify it a bit to make a shawl as well.
I’m new to knitting so sorry if this seems like a dumb question but when you say to repeat from * it appears to me that you k2together, yok1 (6 times), k2tog and then *kn2tog again. Or do I just do the k2tog, yok1 (6 times) all the way across alternating? It just seemed that the way the directions showed the * after the 2nd k2tog it was supposed to be done twice in a row. Help!?
great pattern; thank you!
Great pattern! I just made this as a throw for my couch using fall colors. Fantastic!!
Just found out I’m going to be a grandmother (yikes!) so this beautiful blanket will be on my needles very soon. Will post a pic when done. Thanks so much for sharing the pattern.
Congratulations Jeannie! If my sisters-in-law are any indication, your kids are going to love it!
This really is a lovely pattern. I’ve already used it to make a lap blanket for Gram. She mentions it every time we talk.
Jan..
The pattern may look a little funny because there are three k2togs at the beginning of the repeated block AND at the end of the repeated block. This is to set up the block in a nice place. After you knit the first three k2togs on the first repeat, you alternate six (yo,k1)s and six k2togs across the whole piece until the end, where you end with the left-over three k2togs.
— +++ +++ — — +++ +++ — — +++ +++ —
Get it? Hope that helps.
I am working on this right now. This pattern is simple and fun, and is a great way to work with color. Since all my friends are starting to have babies, I might just make a bunch and stockpile them for future baby shower gifts!
lots of thanks for this lovely pattern. the craft world is growing because of generous people. anyway thanks again, malligashivaram
Have you experimented with making this larger? Would you suggest repeating each color once, maybe – using twice the yarn?
Hi Beth, there are lots of ways you can make the blanket larger, including doubling the length and amount of yarn. The pattern has an 18 stitch repeat, so you can keep adding 18 stitches to get the width you want.
i am TRYING to make the same blanket but….. for some reason i keep getting extra stitches on
how can i fix this?
If you’re getting extra stitches, then I’d guess that you’re skipping some of the k2tog’s. They are the decreases that balance the yo’s, which are the increases. After you finish that row, just go back and count to see that all the decreases are there. Hope that helps!
i started with 216 stitches and ended up with over 300
i rip it all out and start over and end up with extras again
i am trying to make a blanket for a double or queen size bed
Tammy, I’ve knitted this pattern in scarves and I use stitch markers for each repeat of the pattern. Try that. It should help you keep track of the pattern so you can avoid adding on the extra stitches.
Craig, never thought of the pattern for a blanket. My brother is demanding I make one for him! Thanks for sharing. Can’t wait to try out the yarn — cotton will be perfect for our west coast climate.
Hi Yes I have read many note and seems like I’m not the only one who ends up with extra stitches…YO from right to left or left to right??? I was doing yarn forward is that the same? Still get extra stitches Thanks PLEASE help
Hey! This pattern is fantastic; thank you SO much. I just have one question. In the pattern Row 3, you write “yo, k1.” What is “yo” an abbreviation for?
“yo” stands for yarn over. Just wrap the yarn around the right hand needle before knitting the next stitch.
Oh! Okay. Thanks so much.
I’ve started this pattern but I’ve noticed that my rows don’t look as wide as the ones listed. I do have the wave started but it looks weird. Do you really only repeat the rows twice before switching colors?
Thank you in advance for any help provided.
Thank you for publishing this pattern. I had started a baby afghan with this pattern a few years ago but for various reasons did not finish it. Recently I decided to try to finish the afghan but had misplaced the pattern and was so glad to find it online. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Hi Craig – I am on my second wave blanket. The first one I made last year for my Godson was an absolute hit – if I get more technologically advanced I’ll send pictures! Before I start blanket #2 (for my bubba #3) I wanted to make it bigger (more cot size) – is there an easy way to do this or work this out? Thanks a million
Hi Gabrielle, yes, to make the Wave Blanket wider, add multiples of 18 stitches. If you measure 18 stitches on your first blanket, you’ll know how many inches each multiple will add.
As you blanket gets wider, your stripes will get narrower. You could knit 2 balls of each color, one after the other, to keep the stripes wide; or you could just repeat or add more colors.
Hope that helps!
I’ve been pulling my hair out! I, too, have more stitches than I started with. Tammy and Jean Marie I’m glad I’m not the only one.
On rereading the pattern listed….and then the message to Jan, tomorrow I’m going to try:
*(K2tog) 3 times, (yo,kl) 6 times, (k2 tog) “6″ times* – not 3 times; and will repeat * to * across in hopes that at the end I will (k2tog) 3 times and will have the same number of stitches I started with.
Hope this is the answer to the puzzle.
It’s tomorrow. I tried what I wrote above and it works perfectly! I think it’s just in the interpretation of the original instructions. It confused me (novice knitter). But, now that I have done it, and still have the correct number of stitches, I know now that the original instructions are indeed correct! Sorry for any of my confusion. It was Craig’s ‘diagram’ to Jan that clinched it.
Hi, I’m thinking of trying this blanket out and was wondering what colors it was that you used for yours? Thanks.
Hi Jasmine. Our blanket was knit with Ladybug (629), Lotus (617), Pumpkin (622), Pickle (633), Caribbean (630), and Mediterranean (632).
DO you have the wave / feather and fan afghan pattern in crochet? I gave up knitting and would love to make this in crochet.
Thanks.
We don’t have a crochet version, Marilynne, but that’s a good idea.
just copied the pattern…will try to make one for my husband to bring to Germany…’course the colors will be different (smiles)…let u know when am through…i’ll try to take a picture of it when’s done so u could see…thanks!
My cast on row and the next row always curl up. I’ve tried casting on loosely and tried 3 different methods of casting on. Which method of casting on do you recommend? (I’ve been experimenting with 36 stitches cast on and 2 pattern repeats). Also I’m going to double the width of the pattern. How many pattern repeats do you recommend for that much width? Thanks!
The top and bottom of the blanket will always curl because this stitch pattern is stockinette based. I don’t think there’s a cast on that would change that. As far as how many repeats, I would swatch and then calculate based on the width you want. I’d probably use an odd number of repeats, but it’s not critical.
Thanks, I didn’t know that about the stockinette stitch and curling. The last cast on method I tried, Italian method using one needle, is better than the others I tried, and now I know it’s OK! I’m not sure what you mean about the calculating. In the picture it looks like there are 7 pattern repeats creating the stripe width and 18 repeats creating the length of each stripe (and the width of the afghan overall) but the pattern says to cast on 144 stitches which would be only 8 repeats.My sample knitting is 36 stitches. I’m confused. Also, is a hank the same as a skein? Thanks again, Bunny
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