How to make a baby blanket from a knitting pattern dictionary.

Take your book of knit stitches, sit in a comfortable chair, perhaps with a little snack, and start flipping through the stitch pictures...you will notice you are attracted to some "looks" and not to others. At this point don't look at any of the pattern instructions. Again, I am talking about a book of just stitches...not a how-to-make something book. Go through the pictures a few times before you look at the instructions.

As a beginner, you may then wish to either, pick a certain technique to learn, like a wrap...or you may see something you HAVE to do :-) A good starting pattern would have not more than four different rows (two would be even better) and the instructions in the row shouldn't be very long.

Example from Mon Tricot Knitting Dictionary:

simple drop stitch

Row 1 knit, winding thread 3 times around needle

Row 2 Purl, letting extra 2 loops drop

This makes a very open work....would be nice for a summer shawl. Put some rows of st.st. in between if you like...or garter... Back to the baby blanket. Cast on enough stitches to make "about" the width you want...do you really care "exactly" how wide it is? (if you do, my style is not your style :-) Work as many rows of the pattern as you want to make the blanket as long as you want...and cast off. The baby will love it :-)