One of my favourite self-care things is my Rainbow Superhero Blanket, which I designed and knit so that I could have something cheery to?wrap around me any time I need a shot of nurturing/refuelling/comfort or a little nudge of remembering that I am a creative genius.

And I leave it in a pile of colour on my giant hot pink cushion and it makes me smile all day long.

Because it’s one of my favourite things, I share a lot of photos of it in Facebook and people are always asking about it, so I am sharing the pattern, which is a very simple pattern I designed for it, so you can knit your own.

Let’s all be superheros!

Supplies

• 7.5 mm knitting needles (If you knit loose, use 6.5 mm needles)
• 14 balls of?Knit Picks Shine Sport yarn?(or similar, or totally different – your choice! Shine Sport is what I used – it’s soft and silky and easy care plus comes in bright colours)

 

There are 7 colours in the rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple) you can get 2 of each or 2 different shades of each (which is what I did – though some colours I used have been discontinued since then) or make up your own rainbow using just your favourite colours.

Blanket Size

14 balls will give you (roughly, depending on your gauge)?147 cm (58″) square.

You can, of course, get more yarn if you want a longer rectangle blanket.

Blanket Knitting Pattern?

Cast on 226 stitches in red.

Knit 1 row

Purl 1 row

Knit 1 row

Purl 1 row

Knit 1 row

Purl 1 row

Begin stitch pattern.

 

STITCH PATTERN

Row 1 (right side) ? knit

Row 2 ? knit 5, purl to 5 stitches from end, knit 5

Row 3 ? knit 5 *(K2tog) 3 times, (yo, k1) 6 times, (k2tog) 3 times; repeat from * to 5 stitches from end, knit 5

Row 4 ? knit 5, purl to 5 stitches from end, knit 5

 

To make the rainbow: Start with red, work your way through the rainbow??(red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple – or else make up your own rainbow!). ?What I did was knit each ball to the end, and just attach the new colour wherever the old one ended.

 

Continue in stitch patten until you have about 6 rows worth of yarn left (I measured it out, measuring 3X the length of the row for each row, and then leaving extra for binding off) then:

 

Knit 1 row

Purl 1 row

Knit 1 row

Purl 1 row

Knit 1 row

Purl 1 row, bind off.

 

Enjoy! And if you knit it, I’d love to see your photos on the?Facebook?page!