Whit's Knits: Hudson's Bay Inspired Crib Blanket
We love the Hudson's Bay Blanket for its classic simplicity and beauty. And maybe more, we love the underlying belief that, even in the midst of the great Canadian wilderness with its arduous cold and haunting vastness, the Hudson's Bay Blanket will protect us.
Originally, the Hudson's Bay Blanket's lightweight warmth and insulation made it common barter for Native American goods, like beaver pelts, buffalo robes and moccasins. But in the last three hundred years the Hudson Bay Blanket has come a long way. Now it is practically a national symbol to many Canadians, and to the rest of the world, an unmistakable design icon.
I love the idea of a handknit version, borrowing the iconography of the original and lending it a little homemade twist! Sized for a baby's crib, I'm also tickled by the notion of a small child wrapped in the gear of a rugged adult. No baby in sight? Use it as a gorgeous throw over your favorite chair, in front of a roaring fireplace. It may not be an open fire deep in a white pine forest, but, hey, you're probably not a fur trapper either!
For this special project we turned to Anzula's absolutely gorgeous For Better or Worsted. A merino, cashmere, nylon blend, it is the perfect blanket yarn with its machine washable durability and cuddly soft coziness. And its quirky hand dyed colors give the Hudson's Bay Blanket a fresh look, warm and bright!
So, for a great barter idea this holiday season, give a handknit Hudson's Bay Crib Blanket. In exchange, you'll get a whole lot of love!
The Materials
- Anzula's For Better Or Worsted, 80% Superwash Merino Wool , !0% Cashmere and 10% Nylon. You'll need:
- 6 skeins of Au Natural
- 1 skein of Teal
- 1 skein of Ducky
- 1 skein of Candied Apple
- 1 skein of Juniper
- A US #7, 24 or 32 inch circular needle.
The Pattern
Gauge
19 stitches = 4 inches in garter stitch
Finished Size
34 inches wide and 39 inches long (Note: Garter stitch has a tendency to stretch, so your blanket will "grow" beyond these dimensions.)
Notes
- When this pattern refers to "ridges", it means a garter stitch ridge which is formed by knitting two rows. Counting "ridges" is an easy way to determine how many rows you have knitted without having to count as you work. But if you find this confusing, just multiply the number of ridges given by 2 and that is how many rows you should knit (ie 6 ridges is 12 rows).
- Always change colors with the right side facing you, so that all of the tails are along the same selvedge.
Begin
With the Main Color (Au Natural), cast on 162 stitches.
Knit until piece measures 4 1/2 inches from the cast on edge (or 21 ridges).
With the Teal, knit 6 ridges.
With the Main Color, knit 6 ridges.
With the Ducky, knit 6 ridges.
With the Main Color, knit 6 ridges.
With the Candied Apple, knit 6 ridges.
With the Main Color, knit 6 ridges.
With the Juniper, knit 6 ridges.
With the Main Color, knit for 11 3/4 (or 53 ridges).
With the Juniper, knit 6 ridges.
With the Main Color, knit 6 ridges.
With the Candied Apple, knit 6 ridges.
With the Main Color, knit 6 ridges.
With the Ducky, knit 6 ridges.
With the Main Color, knit 6 ridges.
With the Teal, knit 6 ridges.
With the Main Color, knit 4 1/2 inches (or 21 ridges).
Bind off loosely in knit stitch.
Weave in the ends and tada!
November 22, 2011
Reader Comments (50)
If anyone out there is looking for a less expensive yarn to make this blanket in here are a few suggestions:
Cascade 220- 6 Skeins of Ecru, and 1 each of the accent colors. This yarn is very reasonably priced and 100% natural wool. It isn't machine washable (neither is the original Hudson Bay Blanket!) but it handwashes beautifully. http://www.purlsoho.com/purl/products/item/649-Cascade-Yarns-Cascade-220
Cascade 128- 10 Skeins of Ecru and 1 each of the accent colors. This yarn is a slightly thicker gauge, so you would probably want to move up to a size 9 or 10 needle. It is machine washable and comes in great colors! http://www.purlsoho.com/purl/products/item/6355-Cascade-Yarns-Superwash-128
Blue Sky Cotton- 8 Skeins of Bone and 1 each of the accent colors. This is the softest, easiest to work with cotton around. It's machine washable and comes in great colors! http://www.purlsoho.com/purl/products/item/721-Blue-Sky-Blue-Sky-Cotton
Happy knitting everyone!
The Juniper should be back in stock shortly. If you'd like to place an order for it now you can go ahead and place an order. Then in the "special instructions" section just request that the order is held until the Juniper is in stock.
Alternatively you can email customerservice@purlsoho.com and ask that they drop you a line when it comes back in stock.
Thanks for the question!
Molly
If you are a tight knitter you might want to move up to a size 8 or 9. The best thing to do would be to knit a gauge and use whatever needle gives you 19 stitches over 4 inches in garter stitch.
Thanks so much for your question!
Molly
blanket. As far as I can tell, your estimate of how much yarn "Au Natural" is needed is way off. Perhaps my math is wrong but it seems to me that this requires almost 10 skeins of Au Natural. Please double check the pattern instructions and get back to me. Thank You. Nancy Blanford
It definitely only took 6 skeins. Please check your gauge and the blanket measurements if it seems like you're using a lot more yarn.
Thanks for the question!
Molly
It is the same thing. Thanks for your question!
- Molly
This pattern uses just one strand of yarn. Our patterns will always let you know if you need to be using two strands.
Thanks so much for your question!
- Molly
To make the blanket bigger, you should multiply the gauge-per-inch (ie 4.75) times the size you'd like (for example, 50 inches) and cast on that number (237 or 238 stitches)
Make sure to also proportionately increase the sizes of the stripes and the distances between them. For example, if you want a blanket 58 inches long (which is 1 1/2 times longer than the original 39 inches), the stripes would be 39:58 as 6 (ridges):x. So, 9 ridges (58 / 39 x 6 = 9)!
You should have plenty of the contrast colors for a much bigger blanket, and for the Au Natural color, again, figure out proportionately how much bigger your blanket is than the original and get that much more of the main color. If you overestimate, remember that you can exchange any unused, unwound skeins (within 6 months) for your next project!
Thanks for your question. If you have specific measurements in mind and are feeling overwhelmed by the math, I'm happy to figure it all out for you!
Whitney
The skills involved in this project are appropriate for a beginner but it is quite a lot of knitting. We usually recommend that people start out with a quicker first project, usually a scarf in garter stitch.
Thank you for your question-
Molly
This yarn is machine washable, which is one of the (many) reasons we love it!
Thanks for your question!
Molly
But I have a quick question; I'm opting to use one of the more cost effective cottons, the Blue Sky worsted cotton, which is listed as machine washable. But the Blue Sky website lists it as hand washable only. Do I need to do anything extra to the yarn to ensure machine washability? Silly question, but I appreciate the answer! Thanks :)
It's not a silly question! Even though the Blue Sky Cotton says it's hand wash only we have machine washed countless things we've made from it and they've all been fine. You donn't have to do anything special to it beforehand.
Thanks for writing in.
Molly
Doubling the size would result in a 68 x 78 inch throw. I would say that the "usual" afghan is something more like 48 x 58. For such a blanket you would cast on 228 stitches (provided you get the same gauge as we did). And you would need about 12 of the natural colored skeins, but I suspect you would get away with just one of each of the accent colors.
Good luck and thanks for asking!
Whitney
Any tips out there on anything I can try to save this? Thanks so much.
-Sara
calls for all garter stitch don't you knit one row
and purl the next row because of the
circular needles? Then one knit row and
purl row would be a ridge?
Regarding your question about garter stitch on circular needles, unless you are "knitting in the round", you would knit every row. With this pattern, you are knitting flat, just on circular needles.
:-)
-Sara
That is wonderful news! Thanks so much for sharing about the Carbona Color Run Remover too.
--Purl Bee
Sherri
To figure out how many to cast on just multiply your gauge by the width of the blanket. For example, if like me, you get 4 3/4 stitches to the inch in garter stitch and you want a 48-inch wide blanket, you would multiply 4.75 x 48 and cast on 228 stitches!
Let me know if you have any other questions! Sounds like a really cozy hockey game!
Whitney
That's so hard to say! Maybe between 18 and 22 hours? It depends so much on your speed, but at least it's easy!
Thanks for asking and good luck getting it done!
Whitney
Janie
It depends on the 11 year old, but I will say it's an awful lot of knitting! If she's a confident young knitter with a lot of patience and stick-to-it-iveness, I would hate to discourage her!
What a wonderful idea she has; I wish her tons of luck!
Whitney
This blanket is so beautiful and I'm hopefully going to have a crack at making it in the coming weeks, but I just have a little question: if I wanted to make this in the 'full-grown' size (48x58), would I still use the same length of needles (32"), or would I need to go up to the next length?
Thanks for your help.
You could probably get the stitches onto a 32-inch needle, but I imagine that a 40-inch might be more comfortable!
Thanks for your question and I love your idea!
Whitney
To switch colors you cut the yarn that you're not using any more, leaving at least an eight-inch tail that you will later weave in. Then you simply knit the first stitch of the next row with your new yarn (again leaving a generous tail). There's nothing tricky to worry about, and any looseness you may notice in that first stitch will be remedied when you weave in the tail.
I hope this helps. Thanks so much for your question!
Whitney
thanks
Unfortunately we don't have the time right now to change the scale of this blanket but thank you so much for writing in with the suggestion!
Best-
Molly
I'm afraid that the best answer I can give you is probably! I'm 90% sure that you'll be fine, but I can't honestly remember how much yarn I had left over, and the remainders have long since been made into hats and mittens and who-knows-what!
Thanks for asking and good luck!
Whitney