Embark on a peaceful, carefree knitting journey with our Gradient Drift Blanket pattern. The shifting hues of our Nine-Note Bundle set you happily adrift on a sea of flowing colors, while stripes of Note mark the rhythm of each passing wave—all in the softest, most beautiful yarn you can imagine.

Gradient Drift Blanket | Purl Soho

To make this beginner-friendly blanket, you knit through each color of a radiant Nine-Note Bundle, moving from light to dark and alternating with a single color of Note. The changing colors glow between the wide solid bands, creating a fascinating sense of depth and movement.

Gradient Drift Blanket | Purl Soho
Gradient Drift Blanket | Purl Soho

The Gradient Drift Blanket is all garter stitch, which means it’s the easiest knitting possible—all you have to do is keep happily knitting and wait for the next gorgeous color. Note and our Nine-Note Bundle are the very same irresistible yarn, offered both as individual 100-gram skeins and as gradients of nine 50-gram skeins, each with its own distinct palette of colors.

Gradient Drift Blanket | Purl Soho
Gradient Drift Blanket | Purl Soho

You’ll fall for this yarn as soon as it’s in your hands—a soft mix of extra-fine merino wool and silky baby alpaca with a smooth touch that feels wonderful on your needles. A multi-ply structure adds beautiful bounce and body, making this round, DK-weight yarn a true joy to knit.

Gradient Drift Blanket | Purl Soho

Pick your favorite Nine-Note Bundle—from bright Penny to mysterious Tidewater—and pair it with six 100-gram skeins of Note to knit your Gradient Drift Blanket. Then cast on and let the rolling waves of color carry you along from one stripe to the next!

Gradient Drift Blanket | Purl Soho

Pattern designed and written by Purl Soho designer, Gianna Mueller. See even more of Gianna’s work on her Instagram!

Story written by Andrea Lotz for Purl Soho.

Want to print this pattern? On desktop, find the “print” icon in the right margin, and on mobile, scroll to the end of the pattern for it. Use the on-screen instructions to remove anything you don’t want to print!

Materials

Gradient Drift Blanket | Purl Soho
  • Yarn A: 1 of Purl Soho’s Nine-Note Bundles. One bundle includes 9 skeins of 80% extra fine merino wool and 20% baby alpaca yarn. Each bundle is 900 yards/ 450 grams; approximately 725 total yards required. We used Tidewater for one blanket, and Penny for the other.
  • Yarn B: 6 skeins of Purl Soho’s Note, 80% extra fine merino wool and 20% baby alpaca yarn. Each skein is 200 yards/ 100 grams; approximately 1,200 total yards required. We used Dark Denim with Tidewater, and Purple Heath with Penny.
  • US 6 (4 mm), 32- or 40-inch circular knitting needles

NOTE: We used every last yard of Yarn B for our blankets! To avoid running short, be sure to check your gauge, reuse your swatch yarn, and keep tails short. Or, consider ordering an extra skein of Yarn B. If you don’t end up needing it, you can return unwound yarn for a refund within 30 days of purchase, or within 6 months, for store credit. Our Return Policy has all the details!

GAUGE

20 stitches and 40 rows (20 ridges) = 4 inches in garter stitch, blocked

SIZE

Finished Dimensions: 40 inches wide x 48½ inches long

NOTES

GARTER RIDGE

A “garter ridge” equals two rows of garter stitch. It looks like a prominent horizontal ridge and is an easy way to count rows.

YARN A COLOR SEQUENCE

Start with the lightest color skein of the Nine-Note Bundle (Yarn A), then use the next darkest color, and so on through the gradient to the darkest color.

PATTERN

With Yarn A (using the lightest color skein, see Notes), cast on 200 stitches. We used a Long Tail Cast On.

NOTE: Place a removable stitch marker or piece of scrap yarn on next row to indicate the right side.

*With Yarn A, knit every row until there are 10 garter ridges on right side, beginning with a right-side row and ending with a wrong-side row.

Cut Yarn A.

With Yarn B, knit every row until there are 18 garter ridges on right side, beginning with a right-side row and ending with a wrong-side row.

Cut Yarn B.

Repeat from * 7 more times, using a new skein of Yarn A each time, until darkest color skein of Yarn A remains.

With Yarn A, knit every row until there are 9 garter ridges on right side, beginning and ending with a right-side row.

FINISHING

With wrong side facing you, loosely bind off knitwise.

Weave in all ends and gently wet block.

Share your progress and connect with the community by tagging your pics with #PurlSoho. We can’t wait to see what you make!

Gradient Drift Blanket | Purl Soho
Gradient Drift Blanket | Purl Soho

LEARN ABOUT NINE-NOTE BUNDLES + ALL OUR BEAUTIFUL YARNS

The gorgeous gradient of our Nine-Note Bundle makes this project sing! A carefully calibrated scale of nine skeins ranging from very pale to very saturated, there is beautiful complexity in every harmonious color. A light worsted/DK-weight yarn, our Nine-Note Bundles are a mix of 80% of the softest extra fine merino wool in the world and 20% incredibly soft baby alpaca… It must be experienced to be believed! For a coordinating color, pick up some Note, the same yarn with double the size per skein and its own unique palette of painterly heathered colors.

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Looking for more inspiration? Explore all of our knitting patterns (including tons of free knitting patterns) and knitting tutorials, buy one of our many knitting kits and yarn bundles, and shop for beautiful yarn. We have over 35 gorgeous natural fiber yarns in 100’s of magnificent colors, designed to bring integrity, beauty, and joy to your next knitting project and only available at Purl Soho!