New pattern: The Knitbots

So finally here it is, my The Knitbots baby blanket. I knitted this blanket earlier in the year for my friend Sam for her new baby. Sam said she wanted something boyish, but otherwise I had free-rein. I decided I wanted to base my design around bright colours and robots, so had a hunt through my Hayfield Bonus DK stash to see if I could find enough yarn to make a rainbow-based blanket (I was on a yarn-purchasing ban at the time). I then set about sketching an assortment of robots based on basic geometric shapes, using a google image search as inspiration.
 

Designing the robots was really satisfying. I limited myself to a six-colour pallette, plus black and white, and used only three colours per robot. I thought this might feel a bit limiting, but I think it made the blanket nicely balanced in the end. I almost made the whole blanket out of stash yarn too, but ran out of yellow before I had cast on a yellow robot, so had to order another ball.

This blanket is great for beginners, as the intarsia is pretty straightforward, and you can make the whole thing using oddments of yarn if you like, so it's a great stashbuster. My test knitters did a great job at reinventing the design, with different stripe sequences and altered expressions. I really like the two-colour stripe approach - it's a great way of toning the whole design down.

Canuckeh's colourful robots knitted in Manos del Uruguay Cotton Stria, a cotton yarn. Image copyright Canuckeh.

SaniDolphin's two-colour stripe version, with modified eyes. Image copyright SandiDolphin.

Slmwhr's bright two-colour striped blanket; only two of these robots have smiles. Can you spot them? Image copyright Slmwhr.

Another way to use the pattern is to select a chart and knit it into something other than a blanket - maybe a washcloth, or a motif for a jumper or pullover.

The pattern is available now on Ravelry, and when you buy it you can get my intarsia tutorial Ronnie the Robot for free, just add them both to your basket and the discount will come off automatically. And remember, I love to see people's finished projects, so if you knit any of my patterns, send a photo my way, I'd love to see.