Textured Diagonal Baby Blanket

I've been working on a new project for the last couple of weeks and thought I'd post the pattern.

Textured Diagonal Baby Blanket

Yarn: Bernat Baby Jacquards, 2 balls

Needles: Size 8 36” circular needle
Size: Small
Across the center of the blanket (which is knit diagonally), the blanket measures about 28". Mine came out as a 22" by 21" slightly skewed psuedo-square. It would be suitable as a stroller or car seat blanket or as a security blanket for a toddler to carry around.

Important terms:

YO: Wrap your yarn over your right needle.

PM: Place marker
SM: Slip marker

A Note about Gauge:

Gauge is not crucial for this project. I knit a couple test swatches of stockinette and seed stitch until I liked the look of the fabric.

Special Notes:

Yarn is held doubled throughout. I used my ball winder to wind the skein into a center pull ball, then I divided the ball in half by pulling the center and outer strands until the ball came unwound and rewound the ball on my winder with the yarn held double.

This blanket is knit in two separate pieces and grafted together using a three-needle bind-off. It is recommended that you use two circular needles (one for each panel), but you could set the first panel aside on waste yarn and use the same circular for the second panel. This would make it more difficult to graft the two panels together, but it's knitter's choice.

Stockinette:

With yarn held doubled, Cast on 3 stitches.

Row 1: K1, PM, YO, K1, YO, PM, K1. (5 stitches)

Row 2: K1, SM, P3, SM, K1. (5 stitches)

Row 3: K1, SM, YO, knit to marker, YO, SM, K1

Row 4: K1, SM, Purl to marker, SM, K1.

Repeat rows 3 & 4 until blanket measures 5 inches.

Seed Stitch:

Row 1: K1, SM, YO, (K1, P1) to marker, YO, SM, K1

Row 2: K1, SM, Knit the purl and purl the knit stitches to marker, SM, K1.

Repeat rows 1 & 2 until seed stitch section measures 5 inches.

Continue to alternate between stockinette and seed stitch panels until you no longer have yarn to complete a row.
Make a second panel in the same way as you completed the first & connect the two panels (on the wrong side) using a three-needle bind-off.

An in-progress photo.

Finished blanket