The challenge: design a knitted baby blanket for a tropical climate!

To knit a baby blanket for my newborn niece, I had to find a yarn that was easy-care washable and dryable, of course, but also lightweight enough for the climate in Corozal, Belize, which is usually warm and always humid. Believe it or not, cotton fiber doesn't work all that well for babies in the tropics; when cotton knits get wet, it takes the fabric a long time to dry.

Luckily, I found this Moda Dea Lazy Daisy yarn. It's a light, fluffy worsted-weight yarn (80% acrylic and 20% nylon) with popcorn-like bobbles on the main thread every 4-1/2 inches.

This yarn drives some people crazy to knit with, and it does take some getting used to; but it's perfect for my Belize Baby Blanket! The bobbles keep the blanket up & off the baby's skin, and the inevitably loose knitting allows great air circulation.
Once I had the yarn, of course I couldn't find a pattern I liked to work with it! So I designed my own, which follows.

It's super simple: I used a seed stitch for the blanket borders and stockinette for the body of the blanket. When knitting it up, I noticed that more bobbles ended up on the purled side of the blanket, so I reversed the stockinette every 7th and 8th rows for visual interest and to give the blanket stability.

Since I had to start knitting before we knew the baby's sex, I chose the Lazy Daisy color called "Fluff", which is predominantly white with threads of pink, blue, pale green and yellow, which works for either. I used 7 full skeins and about 10% of the 8th skein to make this fairly large blanket.

Although the recommended needle size for this yarn is US 10, I scaled down to a US 8 to get a slightly sturdier fabric, counting on the bobbles to keep it open and breathable.

PATTERN STITCHES

If using circular needles, knit flat, side-to-side. Blanket is knit side-to-side from the bottom border to the top.

Seed Stitch: Right side rows P1 K1, wrong side rows K1 P1.

Stockinette: Knit RS rows, purl WS rows

Reverse Stockinette: Purl RS row, knit WS row.

GAUGE

Knitting loosely, my gauge worked out to 3-1/2 stitches per inch on the size 8 needles, and my finished blanket measured approximately 40 inches wide by 54 inches long.

Please note, though, that I wrote this pattern specifically for the Lazy Daisy yarn to accommodate its quirky bobbles. If you choose a different, bobble-less yarn, it will give very different results; I recommend you knit a gauge swatch in your own yarn, and adjust the number of cast-on stitches accordingly ... choose an even number so that your seed stitch will work easily.