When I was little, I wanted a pet giraffe! I’ve always been tall, and when I was little I found these tallest of animals fascinating. I would have loved the Giraffe Family Baby Blanket as a small child, and this makes the perfect gift for a new baby (especially if the parents are tall!).

At 91 x 71 cm (35.75 x 28 in), the blanket is sized to fit a pram, stroller, Moses basket or crib, and can also be rolled out on the floor and used as a playmat. The blanket is knitted in one piece with the giraffes being incorporated using the intarsia technique. The giraffes stand against a green grass and blue sky background, and the edge stitches of the blanket are knitted in moss stitch to prevent curling.

The blanket instructions are written out in full, with both charts and written instructions for the giraffes.

Sizes
One size: 91 x 71 cm (35.75 x 28 in)

Tension
16 sts and 22 rows = 10 cm (4 in) in stocking stitch worked flat on 5.5 mm (US 9) needles after wet blocking, or size needed to obtain correct tension.

Yarn
Aran-weight yarn in the following colours and amounts: A (green): 125 m (140 yds); B (pale blue): 520 m (570 yds); C (yellow): 115 m (130 yds); D (brown): 40 m (45 yds); E (black): 5 m (10 yds)

The yardages given are enough to knit the grass, sky, and yellow portion of the giraffes, then add the spots and faces using duplicate stitch. If you knit the whole blanket using intarsia, you will find you need less yellow than stated.

I would recommend using an acrylic, wool, or wool/acrylic blend yarn with plied structure and good stitch definition. If you are making the blanket for a baby, you may wish to consider using a machine washable yarn to make the blanket easy to care for.

Needles
5 mm (US 8) circular needle at least 80 cm (32 in) in length; 5.5 mm (US 9) circular needle at least 80 cm (32 in) in length

Notions
Stitch markers x 4; Bobbins for holding the different yarn colours during colourwork; Chart row marker; Tapestry needle

Pattern notes
The sample is knitted in Stylecraft Special Aran (aran, 196 m per 100 g ball, 100% acrylic) in Meadow 1065 (A), Cloud Blue 1019 (B), Saffron 1081 (C), Mocha 1064 (D) and Black 1002 (E).

Weave your ends into regions of the same colour to avoid show-through.

Weave in your ends every 10 or so rows to avoid having to do them all at the end.

When working from the chart, odd numbered rows should be worked right to left, and even numbered rows should be worked from left to right.

If you find that printing the chart on A4 paper is too small to easily read, you can find a few solutions in this blog post: https://www.vikkibirddesigns.com/2021/10/making-knitting-...

You may prefer to add the spots to the giraffes at the end using duplicate stitch. If you wish to do this, knit all the spot sts from the chart or written instructions in C (yellow) while you are knitting the blanket, then sew over them at the end using D (brown).

This pattern was tech edited by Jo Torr.

A version of this pattern was published by Willow Yarns.

Notes for the Willow Yarns version:

To knit this blanket, you will need:

• Willow Yarns™ Cub (60% cotton/40% acrylic; 50g/88yd): 6 balls 0011 Clear Spring; 2 balls 0010 Lily Pad; 2 balls 0006 Afternoon; 1 ball 0007 Twig
• US size 8 (5 mm) 32” circular needle or size needed to obtain gauge
• Brown embroidery thread
• Six 11 mm light brown buttons
• Sewing thread to match buttons
• Fine needle
• Yarn needle
• Bobbins for holding the different yarns during intarsia knitting
• Stitch markers
• Chart row marker (optional)

Difficulty: Advanced (knit, purl, more intricate intarsia)

Pattern Style: Chart for the intarsia section, with written instructions for the main blanket