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Pocketful Of Love Blanket
A favorite bear, tonight’s bedtime story, or whatever else belongs close at hand… Our Pocketful Of Love Blanket pattern has a special place for all of it. Cast on with our Daily Wool Sport yarn, machine-washable wool with a joyful bounce to its step and a palette of timeless heathered colors.
Crib or Small Throw size, you knit this blanket lengthwise in garter stitch, carrying the unused yarn along as you work the stripes, leaving you with fewer ends to weave in when you’re done. Slip-stitch selvages along the short sides and I-cord bind offs along the long ones are very tidy details. And for the finishing touch, you knit the generous pocket separately, then whipstitch it on with the stripes facing the opposite way. No need to be nervous about the sewing… We’ll walk you through every step!
Daily Wool Sport is a sport-weight yarn with a tidy 4-ply spin, clear stitch definition, and a nice, springy bounce that’s delightful on the needles. This 100% superwash wool yarn is soft and light in the hand yet hardworking and resilient enough to stand up to years of being carried from room to room. It’s machine wash- and dry-able, too, so you can always toss your blanket in the laundry.
Pick from 24 luminous, heathered colors full of depth and complexity, including the Pink Smoke and Seaglass Blue pairing we chose, then cast on for your Pocketful Of Love Blanket, a heartfelt handknit gift ready to cradle both a child and all the little treasures they’ll tuck inside.
Yarn lovers, if you adore the yarn used in this project, you’ll love exploring all of our other yarn collections! Discover over 55 thoughtfully designed yarns in nearly every natural fiber and in every spectacular color you can imagine. Only available here at Purl Soho’s online yarn store, where every skein is created with care and your creativity in mind!
Pattern designed and written by Purl Soho designer, Hiromi Glover. See even more of Hiromi’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
- Purl Soho’s Daily Wool Sport, 100% superwash wool yarn. Each skein of this sport-weight yarn is 300 yards/ 100 grams.
- Main Color (MC): 5 (8) skeins; approximately 1355 (2220) total yards required. We used Pink Smoke.
- Contrast Color (CC): 2 (4) skeins; approximately 600 (1050) total yards required. We used Seaglass Blue.
- US 6 (4mm), 40- or 47-inch circular knitting needles, depending on size you are making
- Removable stitch markers
NOTE: We used nearly the entire skeins of CC for the Crib size. To be sure you have enough, swatch using the MC only, keep CC tails short, and consider ordering an extra skein of CC. 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
24 stitches and 48 rows (24 ridges) = 4 inches in garter stitch
SIZES
Crib (Throw)
- Finished Dimensions of Blanket: 31¼ inches wide x 40 inches long (41¼ inches wide x 50 inches long)
- Finished Dimensions of Pocket: 10 inches wide x 12¼ inches tall (12¾ inches wide x 15¼ inches tall)
NOTE: You work this blanket lengthwise, so the width listed above corresponds to the number of rows, and the length corresponds with the cast-on edge.
SAMPLE: We knit the Crib size.
NOTES
SLIP STITCHES
Slip all slipped stitches purlwise with yarn in front.
CARRYING UP YARN
When changing colors, do not cut the yarns. Instead carry the non-working yarn up the selvage. To do this, simply hold the yarn you just used in front of the new yarn as you knit the first stitch of the row.
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!
PATTERN
WORK BLANKET
With Main Color (MC), cast on 240 (300) stitches. We used a basic Long Tail Cast On.
A little tip: When you’re casting on so many stitches, it helps to place a marker or piece of scrap yarn every 50 stitches, so if/when you lose your place, you don’t have to start counting from the very beginning!
Row 1 (right side): K1, slip 1 (see Notes), knit to last 2 stitches, slip 1, k1.
Row 2 (wrong side): Slip 1, k1, slip 1, knit to last 3 stitches, slip 1, k1, slip 1.
Repeat Rows 1 and 2 three more times, ending with a wrong-side row. [4 garter ridges total on right side, excluding cast-on row]
*With Contrast Color (CC) and carrying MC up selvage (see Notes), repeat Rows 1 and 2 two times, ending with a wrong-side row. [2 garter ridges in CC]
With MC and carrying CC up selvage, repeat Rows 1 and 2 four times, ending with a wrong-side row. [4 garter ridges in MC]
Repeat from * 29 (39) more times.
Cut CC only.
TOP EDGING
NOTE: For help, please visit our I-Cord Bind Off Tutorial.
Continuing with MC…
I-Cord Bind Off Row (right side): Cable cast on 3 stitches, *k2, knit 2 together through the back loop (k2tog tbl), slip 3 stitches from right needle to left needle, repeat from * until all stitches are bound off and 3 stitches remain on left needle.
Cut MC.
Thread the tail onto a tapestry needle and pull through remaining stitches.
BOTTOM EDGING
NOTE: For help with Picking Up Stitches, please visit our Picking Up Stitches Tutorial and go to the Along A Horizontal Edge section.
Turn blanket so wrong side of cast-on edge facing you, and with MC, pick up and knit 240 (300) stitches along cast-on edge.
With right side facing you, work I-Cord Bind Off Row as for Top Edging.
Place removable marker on Bottom Edging. This edge will be on your left when you attach the Pocket later on.
MAKE POCKET
With MC, cast on 60 (76) stitches. We used a basic Long Tail Cast On.
NOTE: Place a removable stitch marker or piece of scrap yarn on next row to indicate the right side.
With MC, knit 8 rows even, ending with a wrong-side row.
**With CC and carrying MC up selvage, knit 4 rows even, ending with a wrong-side row. [2 garter ridges in CC] ***
With MC and carrying CC up selvage, knit 8 rows even, ending with a wrong-side row. [4 garter ridges in MC]
Repeat from ** 10 (13) more times, then repeat from ** to *** one more time.
Cut MC.
Continuing with CC, work I-Cord Bind Off Row as for Top Edging. This edge will be top of Pocket.
FINISHING
WEAVE IN ENDS + BLOCK
Weave in all ends.
Wet block both the Blanket and Pocket to finished dimensions. (Do not remove removable marker while blocking.)
SEW POCKET
Orient the Blanket with right side facing you, stripes running vertically, and removable marker on the left. Sew the Pocket in the upper left area of the blanket.
Here is how…
Place a removable marker approximately 6 (7) inches down from the top and 3 (4) inches in from the left selvage. With the I-cord edge of the Pocket at the top, align upper left corner of Pocket with the marker. Making sure top edges of Blanket and Pocket are parallel, secure all four corners of the Pocket to the Blanket using markers or pins.
With a new 2¾ (3½)-yard length of MC and using a whipstitch, sew the Pocket to the Blanket around three sides, leaving I-cord edge open. For side edges, insert needle under a selvage stitch of the Pocket, then under the adjacent purl stitch on Blanket. For bottom edge, insert needle under a cast-on stitch of the Pocket, then under the adjacent purl stitch on Blanket.
Weave in all remaining ends and steam block the pocket area, if necessary.
Share your progress and connect with the community by tagging your pics with #PurlSoho. We can’t wait to see what you make!
Learn About Daily Wool Sport + All Our Beautiful Yarns
This project is incredibly soft and conveniently machine wash- and dry-able in our beautiful Daily Wool Sport, a 100% superwash wool yarn. A round yarn spun from 4 tidy plies, this sport-weight yarn is un-prone to pilling, with a bounce to its step and a lovely stitch definition. Daily Wool Sport is ready to knit and wear on repeat!
More Free Knitting Patterns
- Be sure to explore our growing collection of Daily Wool Sport knitting patterns and cast on!
More Sport-Weight Yarns
- Shop our entire collection of sport-weight yarns (What is sport-weight yarn, really? Learn all about sport-weight yarn in our deep-dive article!)
- If you want to use a different yarn, be sure to take the time to get the correct gauge. Need help? Check our All About Gauge Tutorial, our Yarn Substitution article, and our Complete Guide To Yarn for lots of helpful information.
More Yarns With Similar Fiber
- Shop Daily Wool Worsted, this yarn’s worsted-weight sibling
- Shop machine-washable yarn
- Shop superwash wool yarn
- Shop wool yarn
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 55 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!
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My favorite pattern yet! Can you please recommend some more color combos so that I can make one for each grandkid?
Hi Renee,
Thank you so much for reaching out! This sounds like such a thoughtful gift, and I’m happy to help with some ideas for color pairings!
A few options:
If you’d like to write back with your grandkids’ favorite colors, I would be happy to tailor my response! I’m certain whichever combinations you choose will be beautiful, though.
I’ll keep an eye out for your reply, and I hope they wear the blankets with love!
All the best,
Hills
I wish this yarn came with a black.
Hi Janet,
I’m so sorry we don’t have black available in Daily Wool Sport. I hear how frustrating it can be when the color you’re after is unavailable. I do really love the idea, though! I’ll be sure to pass it along to our yarn development team.
In the meantime, you might consider checking out Good Wool in Well Water, Cotton Pure in Navy Nightfall, or Season Alpaca in River Rock as some dark alternatives! I’d just recommend being mindful of swatching when substituting yarns. It’s the perfect opportunity to adjust your needles to meet gauge, and ensure you like the look and feel of the finished fabric. Our gauges are listed for blocked swatches, as well.
I hope you find the perfect yarn for your project! Please feel free to reach out anytime with questions, comments, or suggestions!
All the best,
HIlls
Great pattern!
I would prefer to knit this blanket in Daily Wool Worsted. How many skeins would be needed for the larger size?
Thanks!
Hi Cindy,
Thanks so much for reaching out. I’m so glad to see the Pocketful of Love Blanket caught your eye, and I’m happy to consider this with you.
Unfortunately, because Daily Wool Worsted will knit up to a different gauge, we’re unable to make an accurate yardage estimate without some information from your swatch.
To estimate your yardage, you would need to knit and block a gauge swatch. You would also need the information from the label for the weight of the skein and its yardage. This will give you grams/yard for this yarn. Once you’ve knit and blocked your swatch, you’d want to weigh it with a kitchen scale. From there, you can imagine how many swatches you might need to make a blanket the same pattern as the sample. You can divide the blanket’s total area by the square’s area to find this ratio. Then multiply this ratio by the swatch’s weight. This will give you the total grams needed. Now, you can divide by the weight of the skein. This should give you the yardage you need. Divide that by the yards per skein, and you should have the number of skeins you need!
With your swatch, you can also estimate a new stitch count to cast-on if you would like. It’s the desired inches divided by the stitches per inch.
I hope this helps point you in the right direction. Please feel free to reach out anytime.
All the best,
Hills
This looks very easy yet still elegant! Would it be possible to use a provisional cast on instead of picking up all those stitches for the bottom edging?
Thanks.
Hello Sandy,
Thank you so much for writing in!
This sounds like a really great idea, and I don’t see any reason why it shouldn’t work out for you! Please feel free to reach back out and let us know how this worked for you.
I hope you enjoy your Pocketful of Love Blanket project. Feel free to circle back anytime!
Happy knitting,
Hills
Hi! I would love to knit this with Linen Quill, doubled. I assume the guage would be the same. How many skins of each color would I need?
Also, I don’t really want to make the pocket and I want to make the blanket with the stripes going horizontally instead of vertically. So how many stitches should I cast on if I have just switching straight directions?
Cynthia
Hi Cynthia,
Thank you so much for reaching out!
Unfortunately, this pattern is written with the stripes vertically rather than horizontally because it is cast on from the long side. Sadly, we don’t have the resources available to rewrite this pattern for horizontal striping.
I’d recommend knitting and blocking a gauge swatch if you would like to experiment with Linen Quill. Two strands of Linen Quill would work up to a DK-weight with a gauge range of 5.25-5.75 stitches per inch. This pattern was worked at 6 stitches per inch. You might get better results knitting the blanket using two strands of Linen Quill on smaller needles than the pattern suggests.
I can’t really make an accurate yardage estimate or tell you how many stitches to cast on without your gauge swatch information. If you end up knitting at, say, 5.5 stitches per inch, you would want to multiply this number by the desired width (if you were working this with horizontal stripes rather than vertical).
You might consider taking a look at the Alpenglow Blanket, the Incredible Blanket, or the Daybreak Blanket. They all feature Linen Quill and horizontal striping.
I hope this helps point you in the right direction, and that you find the perfect project + yarn pairing.
Kindly,
Hills
I really don’t think gauge matters here, it is just a blanket! I’ll figure it out myself, thank you,
Hi Cynthia,
You’re right that gauge isn’t so important for a blanket, since it doesn’t need to fit anybody, so you can knit this at any gauge you want! I checked out our Linen Quill projects, and I noticed that our Half + Half Triangles Wrap, which is knit in garter stitch with the yarn held singly, has the exact same gauge as this blanket! I think holding Linen Quill singly could be a great option for this blanket, so I recommend swatching to see what you think!
If you’re knitting this project at the pattern gauge and want to make the stripes horizontal instead of vertical, you can cast on 188 stitches for the Crib Size or 248 stitches for the Throw Size to get the same width measurement that’s given in the pattern. Then you can just knit it to the length you want! (If you’re knitting at a larger gauge, you’ll just want to cast on fewer stitches to achieve the same dimensions.)
I looked at the yardage we used in the Half + Half Triangles Wrap to estimate how much yardage you’d need for this project using Linen Quill held singly and knitting this at the pattern gauge. For the Crib Size, you’ll need 3 skeins of Linen Quill in the main color and 2 skeins in the contrast color. For the Throw Size, you’ll need 4 skeins of Linen Quill in the main color and 2 skeins in the contrast color.
I hope this helps give you a starting point for your own calculations! This blanket will be beautiful in Linen Quill! Please let us know if you have any other questions along the way.
Kindly,
Allison
You could knit the pocket for the gauge swatch.
Hi Shanan,
That’s a great idea! The pocket would make an excellent gauge swatch! Thanks for sharing.
Happy knitting,
Allison
Hello,
This is such a cute blanket! Would this pattern work well with one of the cotton/plant based yarns instead?
Thank you!
Hi Stacy,
We’re so thrilled you are excited about the Pocketful of Love Blanket pattern! Cotton Pure and Japanese Denim Cotton are two beautiful plant-based substitutes, both made with 100% organically grown cotton, and would be amazing for this pattern. With any yarn substitution, we recommend knitting a quick gauge swatch to check your needle size. As long as you are getting the same gauge, you will need approximately 1355 (2220) total yards of the Main Color and 600 (1050) total yards of the Contrast Color for the crib or throw sizes respectively.
Happy knitting!
Mia