Do you have a favorite blanket? The one you always curl up with on the sofa after a long day, or the one you grab when you’re going on a late-night adventure or camping trip, or the one you always fight over because it’s that soft? Even if you already have a favorite blanket, this arm knit blanket just might tip the scales in its own favor once you learn that you can make your own blankets using whatever yarn material you’d like – all in under forty-five minutes.
Simply Maggie recommends using Premiere Yarns’ Couture Jazz, though of course you can use any bulky or chunky yarn your heart desires. The pattern uses a size 6 bulky yarn, and you’ll probably need around 11 balls of yarn.
If you’re interested in seeing just how easy it is, follow along with Simply Maggie’s tutorial on YouTube. It’s just five simple steps:
- Create a long tail cast-on, about five feet. Then make a slipknot. Use whichever arm you’re comfortable with. The pattern is created starting on the right arm, but you will be using both of them as you would with two knitting needles.
- Cast on your stitches. This might be a little complicated at first but try watching the video and then following along. You want to make tight stitches so that the blanket has small holes, but do make sure that you can still slide them along your arm as you add more stitches. (You can make any size blanket you want, although this blanket’s size is about 5′ x 3′ approximately)
- Now it’s time to arm knit! If you’re having trouble watching and listening to the instructions at the same time, you might try muting the video while you watch it the first time, or turning the video away and listening to the audio by itself, whichever is easier for you.
- Bind off – this part should come a little easier now that you’ve learned how to knit with both arms. The pattern calls for about 32 rows before binding off. Remember to bind off loosely or else you’ll have a skinny end and a wide end.
- Weave in the ends and voila! You have a beautiful, cozy, snuggly blanket to wrap yourself in for any occasion! Be sure to tailor the knots you made when joining the yarn so that they are somewhat hidden. (Just cut the extra material close enough to where they aren’t glaringly obvious)
This can be quite a workout for your arms, so be sure you’re somewhere you can be comfortable and that you have enough time to complete the blanket in one sitting – it can be difficult fitting the loops back onto your arm, though of course if you need to, you can find a way to make that work, like sliding a dowel through the loops to keep them in order.
If this piques your interest and you’d like to try making your own arm knit blanket in under forty-five minutes, check out Simply Maggie’s YouTube tutorial (there are also bloopers at the end to show that no one’s perfect and it’s all in good fun) and follow along to create your own. You can also check out her Etsy shop and her social media channels on Instagram and Facebook.
