I wrote up this pattern while knitting it as a present for my nephew, who was due in October 2012. Unfortunately complications arose and he was born awfully early, and passed away after only a very short time. So in his honour I’ll be donating 50% of the sales of this pattern to Angel Babies Foundation, an Australian charity which provides counselling for parents experiencing perinatal loss. They also donate small receiving blankets to families to wrap their baby in - my sis-in-law received one such blanket and it was so moving to see.

This is a versatile baby blanket, great for tucking around baby in the stroller or car seat as the points don’t get in the way of the harness. It’s also good for nap time or tummy time, or for swaddling to get to sleep. Choose a machine washable yarn for the least bother for the new parents!

The pattern is written to make a 70cm inner diameter / 100cm outer diameter blanket from DK weight yarn. The pattern can easily be used as a recipe for other yarn weights and blanket sizes, as once the set-up is done the blanket is made from just two easily remembered rows. Have plenty of yarn available as the outer rows just eat up the yarn.

Stella is knit in the round from the centre outwards, so have on hand a few different length circular needles as the stitches will quickly become cramped on the shorter needle. This pattern is also ideal for those knitters who dislike purling: there are only 4 rounds of purl on the garter stitch edge (admittedly, they’re long rounds though).

The pattern is also written for three colours of yarn:
• MC (blue) – 350m/400yds
• CC1 (grey) – 175m/200yds
• CC2 (cream) – 175m/200yds
However any combination of stripes and colours will work well!

I am very happy for any of my patterns to be knitted for charities.

4Nov13: Often on patterns I find the caveat that knitters may not sell items made with the pattern. After a lot of thought and research I have decided that I don’t agree with this statement. I don’t believe that the designer has any rights over the finished product, so, if you’re handknitting and you want to sell items made from my patterns - Best of Luck, and Go For It! I think handknitting for a living must be quite a challenge, so you need all the luck I can give you. Of course, my rights DO cover the patterns themselves, so you mustn’t copy or distribute them.