The Knitbots is a baby blanket featuring six baby-friendly brightly-coloured robots interspersed with some rainbow-striped squares.

This blanket is larger than the average baby blanket, allowing it to be used for many years: folded in half as a blanket for a Moses basket or crib; thrown on the floor to be used as a play mat or picnic blanket; used in a cot or cot bed; or can be snuggled up in for stories on the sofa. The high contrast colours used in the blanket are designed to appeal to babies, and the blanket is perfect for using up leftovers, with only small amounts of each colour needed.

All the squares included in the design are 10 inches (25 cm) in size and are knitted in stocking stitch. The whole blanket then has a garter stitch border that is picked up and knitted at the end.

The blanket is worked from clear, numbered charts, both coloured and symbols.

Other craft(s) required: Sewing the squares together; optional Swiss darning

Tools: 4 mm (US 6) straight, single-pointed needles; one or two 3.5 mm (US 4) 80-100 cm (31-39 in) long circular needles for the border; Tapestry needle; Bobbins for holding the different yarn colours during intarsia knitting; Chart row marker (optional)

Materials: The sample uses Hayfield Bonus DK (100% acrylic, 280 m/305 yds per 100 g): Cream (410 m/450 yds), Red (130 m/140 yds), Orange (130 m/140 yds), Yellow (130 m/145 yds), Green (130 m/140 yds), Pale Blue (120 m/130 yds), Purple (120 m/130 yds), Black (20 m/20 yds), Royal Blue (230 m/250 yds).

Difficulty: Intermediate (knit, purl, simple intarsia)

Pattern Style: Charted with written instructions for the border