For the nerdy baby (or parents) in your life!

Baby blanket with a pattern derived from a 3-period “pulsar” oscillation in John Conway’s cellular-automation game Life. (For more about the “Game of Life”, check out the article on Wikipedia and/or some of the free online generators and apps that let you play with it.) This pulsar is a common outcome for many inputs in the game. It looks similar to typical colorwork snowflake or flower patterns, yet is oddly unique.

(Note: the blanket pattern is not derived using a cellular-automation technique in the sense of “what is knit on one row determines what is knit on the next row”, which a number of cool designers have been working with lately. This is a literal representation of the pulsar in its 3 phases.)

The blanket is made with granny-square blocks that are knitted back and forth in rows using stranded knitting technique, then sewn together and edged all around in seed stitch. You have to be able (and willing…) to use 2-stranded colorwork technique on both knit and purl rows and weave in a lot of “floats” along the wrong side.

The pictured blanket is made with 24 blocks and 9 edging rows, resulting in a stroller-size (21x28 inches, 54x71 cm) blanket. As with all modular blankets, size and shape can be varied by adjusting the number of blocks or the yarn/gauge used.

I love Rico Classic Baby DK and made the blanket in three colors of it that I happened to have, but you can use any washable yarn that strands well.

Published under a Creative Commons Non-Commercial ShareAlike license, so have fun with it and please feel free to link your own adaptations, translations, etc. to this pattern page!