It's not really a new release by now, since this pattern has been available for at least a month already. But it's definitely new to my blog :) so I feel like a should post about it anyway.
I've been thinking about creating a baby blanket in a not-so-traditional rectangular or square shape for a while now. And Faro - is what came out of those thoughts.
Faro blanket is a round shaped baby blanket, knitted from center to border. It's about 40 inches wide, which is enough for most baby/toddler sizes. The design itself is pretty simple, with some cables and some bobble stitch (I'm recently obsessed with bobble stitch). The outside border of the blanket is joined as you go after the body is finished.
So, overall, it's quite simple design, but it has one somewhat unusual detail. The cast on method. As I mentioned above, the blanket is knitted from center. I tried different ways for cast on and knit first few rows, but I managed to achieve a nice flat center of the blanket only with this unusual option - magic ring (yes, the one you usually use in crochet).
If you're not familiar with the magic ring thing, basically it's a loop of thread that you cast on stitches INTO and after you have all stitches needed, you just pull the end tail to close the gap in center (here's a pretty good video on YouTube , but I plan to make my own for this specific blanket soon).
The only difference I made for this design though, is that I suggest to pull the tail and close the center after you knit a few rows (for about an inch or so) and not after finishing cast on. This way it's much easier to start knitting, without huge tension, and you can easily see if you started properly without any mistakes. I do explain it in the pattern as well, but I thought I should mention it here too in case you're just considering knitting this pattern and got confused with this new technique.
So, here's the pattern:
The pattern for Faro blanket is also available on Ravelry and LoveKnitting.com