Baby Afghan

One of my friends is having a baby so of course i thought the perfect present would be a beautiful baby blanket.

Wanting to try a stich I haven't used before I pulled out my Reader's Digest "The Ultimate Sourcebook of Knitting and Crochet Stitches" that my mother had given me for Christmas a few years ago. After browsing through all the stiches I decided to go with the Ridged Chevron Stitch which is an easy quick stitch to do.

Starting chain must be multiple of 12 sts + 3.

The pattern for the Ridged Chevron Stitch is 2 rows repeated for the length desired, rows as follows:

Row 1: Skip 3ch (count as 1 dc), 1dc into next ch, *1dc into each of next 3ch, [over next 2ch work dc2tog] twice, 1dc into each of next 3ch, [2dc into next ch] twice; rep from* ending last rep with 2dc once only into last ch, turn.

Row 2: 3ch (count as 1dc), 1dc into 1st st, always inserting hook into back loop only of each st *1dc into each of next 3 sts, [over next 2 sts work dc2tog] twice, 1dc into each of next 3 sts, [2dc into next st] twice; rep from *ending last rep with 2 dc once only into top of tch, turn. Rep 2nd row.

For this Afghan I used the Caron Simply Soft yarn in colors Strawberry, Soft Pink, and Heather Grey, and Size H/8 hook. I did 10 chevrons/per row with 7 rows of Strawberry, 3 rows of Heather Grey, 7 rows of Soft Pink, 3 rows of Heather Grey, repeating that pattern ending with the Strawberry. Final Afghan size measured 36x50 which is a little larger for a baby afghan but should be perfect for the toddler to childhood years.