I spent a lot of time looking at the clouds for this square! The early May bank holiday Monday was pretty wild, and had exactly the cloud structure I’d been thinking of - long straight bases at the bottom of the clouds, then increasing in size as you go up the sky.
There’s two rows of clouds left to complete the blanket, so this is the lower row with long, vertically overlapping clouds.
The right upper & middle photos in this post are more to represent the colour of the sky rather than the texture...
I made the patterns in a spreadsheet before knitting up a test swatch. The bottom left photo in the collage above shows the trial patterns I went through before deciding which I liked.
General principles for square patterns:
Repeat pattern horizontally and vertically & simple to knit pattern.
36 stitches x 48 rows for main pattern as these are very divisible numbers.
An 'x' means purl on a knit row, and knit on a purl row to create the texture.
This lower chart is the format I found to be most useful to me:
White = knit row (right side), grey = purl row (wrong side).
An 'x' = purl on a knit row, and knit on a purl row
The numbers are just a handy guide to the number of stitches in each knit or purl block.
*Note* this one is not symmetrical - purl rows read from the left!
This square, in particular, benefits from blocking to stop it scrunching up so much.
Written pattern:
See blanket pattern for required needles & yarn.
(k = knit, p=purl)
Cast on 36 stitches
Row 1: k4, p28, k4
Row 2: p3, k30, p3
Row 3: k2, p32, k2
Row 4: p2, k32, p2
Row 5: k3, p30, k3
Row 6: p5, k5, p2, k12, p2, k5, p5
Row 7: k13, p10, k13
Row 8: p15, k6, p15
Row 9-12: st stitch
Row 13: p23, k8, p5
Row 14: k6, p6, k24
Row 15: p25, k4, p7
Row 16: k7, p4, k25
Row 17: p24, k6, p6
Row 18: k4, p10, k5, p2, k12, p2, k1
Row 19: k4, p10, k22
Row 20: p24, k6, p6
Rows 21-24: st stitch
Row 25: p5, k8, p23
Row 26: k24, p6, k6
Row 27: p7, k4, p25
Row 28: k25, p4, k7
Row 29: p6, k6, p24
Row 30: k1, p2, k12, p2, k5, p10, k4
Row 31: k22, p10, k4
Row 32: p6, k6, p24
Rows 33-36: st stich
Row 37: p14, k8, p14
Row 38: k15, p6, k15
Row 39: k16, p4, k16
Row 40: p16, k4, p16
Row 41: p15, k6, p15
Row 42: k6, p2, k5, p10, k5, p2, k6
Row 43: p5, k26, p5
Row 44: k3, p30, k3
Rows 45-48: st stitch
Cast off
I have made these patterns available for free but they are ©Blanketscapes, the patterns are not to be copied or resold. I'm happy for you to make and sell finished blankets using these patterns for charitable, non-commercial, purposes only. Please credit @blanketscapes on Instagram or Facebook for your final creations, I'd love to see what you make.