The Sierpinski Carpet is a type of fractal. This means, in simple terms, that it is a shape made up of smaller copies of itself, which are in turn made up of smaller copies, and so on ad infinitum. Fractals can be simplified by only extending them to a certain iteration, and some simplified fractals can be charted for knitting. This fractal is created by starting with a square, then dividing it in 9ths (with a 3x3 grid) and removing the center square. Further iterations are created by subdividing the resulting squares, etc.

What’s New?

The original pattern was a baby blanket, which was made from a L4 fractal, surrounded by a ring of L3s, surrounded by L2s. It was done in worsted weight yarn, which I felt made the resulting piece a little heavy for a baby blanket, but it was the right size at about 33” square. However, my original idea was to make a blanket out of a single L5 Sierpinski carpet fractal, a 243-pair (plus border) cast-on. My original sample knitter didn’t have time to do this, so I redesigned it to the Sierpinski blanket that’s in the original book. However, with more time, I finally realized my original dream and made a throw blanket out of a L5 version in sport weight. Strangely, the gauge came out about the same as in the worsted version, so the full blanket is enormous compared to the original.

Finished size & weight

The finished weight of this blanket is a little over 2 lbs, or around 1 kg. It took just over 10 skeins of one color and just under 10 skeins of the other, so get 11 skeins of each just to be safe.

After blocking, this blanket is around 45” square. Actually, it’s 45” by 42” but I doubt anyone will notice that it’s not perfectly square. I highly recommend using blocking wires to keep the edges clean while blocking it.