In my opinion, the perfect baby blanket is reversible and doesn’t require any fiddling with picking up stitches and adding a border after the knitting is done. This sweet blanket uses a slipstitch pattern that looks nice—but very different—on the two sides. The blanket starts and finishes with 2 x 2 ribbing and has a simple i-cord edge that you work as you go to keep your edges tidy.

If you’re new to slipstitch patterns, you’re in for a treat! This pattern may look intimidating, but it’s actually a pretty easy knit. You need to know how to cast on, knit, purl, slip stitches, and bind off—and that’s it. Thanks to the magic of slipping stitches, you work only one color on each row. You’ll need to pay attention to the directions for a repeat or two, but you’ll be able to memorize the pattern very quickly. At the end, you won’t have to do any tricky finishing work. And if you use just two colors, you won’t have to weave in a lot of ends.

This simple blanket offers a lot of customization options. The sample shown is 100% cotton worsted weight yarn as I meant for it to be able to stand up to frequent machine washing and drying. (You’re welcome, new parents!) However, you could make it using yarn of just about any fiber and weight by figuring out your gauge and doing the math to get a blanket the size you want. You could make it using just two colors, as I did, or stripe multiple contrast colors, use a gradient, choose a yarn with long color changes, or use up scraps from other projects.

Sample measures 36x36 inches and used 570 yd MC and 855 yd. CC.