9 Square Knitted Preemie Blanket Pattern

I feel like I'm kinda jumping all around right now with blogging, but this post has been waiting a while. And I absolutely love the whole quilt block inspired knitted preemie blankets I'm working on! So, here it is:

One of my absolute things to make is baby blankets! Seriously, I am excited just thinking about making one!! Whether it's knitted, crocheted, quilted, you name it and it's right up my alley.

I figured it would be fun to make up some preemie sized blankets for a few reasons. 1- Why not?? 2- Little babies need blankets too!! 3- You can always put smaller squares together to make a bigger blanket (lots of options here). 4- Who doesn't love a quick & easy project sometimes that would totally benefit someone else??

Combining the look of basic quilt blocks with knitting just seemed so awesome, and thus the idea for these blankets arose. I also have a free pattern for a 4 square knitted preemie blanket if you're interested in that too.

This blanket measures about 18 inches square.

Edited to add: 

Materials:
-Aran weight yarn, I used 2 skeins of Adriafil Fluo which is 220 yards
-Size 7 needles


Pattern:

Cast on 87 stitches. Knit 6 rows. (The photo only shows 4 rows knit, but 6 looks/works much better)

Rows 7: knit 30 stitches, purl 27 stitches, knit 30 stitches.

Rows 8: knit 3 stitches, purl 27 stitches, knit 30 stitches, purl 27 stitches, knit 3 stitches.

Repeat last 2 rows until you get to row 42.

Row 43: same as row 7.

Row 44: same as row 8.

Repeat rows 7 and 8 again until row 77.

Row 78: same as row 7.

Row 79: same as row 8.

Repeat rows 7 and 8 again until row 112.

Knit 4 rows. Weave in ends.


Now you have a wonderful preemie sized blanket!

If you are looking for a wonderful group to donate these to you can look on the Giving Artfully, Greyson's Gift, and Project Linus websites. Feel free to email me with any more charities that accept donated preemie sized blankets, I will be more than happy to add them to my charities page!

Edited to add:  I would LOVE to see any blocks/projects you create with this pattern! Feel free to join & share in my Flickr group: Your Lyanna Jean Designs.