What the heck is arm-knitting you ask? Well, arm knitting is technique that has you using your arms in place of knitting needles. Cool right?
Now, you may be thinking, I have never knit a single thing in my life, and you’re suggesting I can make an entire blanket? What’s great about arm-knitting is that it’s great for beginners. You don’t need any previous experience with knitting to take on this project. We know this may seem like a crazy big endeavour, but trust us, we each made a blanket in 1 hour – and we’re not superhuman, you can totally do it too.
This blanket is perfect for a cozy day or night in and also makes for a great gift. Who doesn’t want to cocoon? This is also a great group activity, because once you get going it’s pretty straightforward, so you can chat away during the process. You can also trade tips throughout and work together to make sure everyone’s moving along at the same pace.
We have been loving chilling on this blanket. For each of us that meant something different. For Vanessa, it’s perfect for a little Netflix and Chill-i. When she wants to decompress after a long day at work, she craves feel-good TV and comfort food.
For Alyssa, it’s all about pouring a glass of wine, setting up a tarot spread and setting the mood with some candles. For me, it’s laying down with my journal to plan out my week and dig in to some coffee.
- 6-8 pounds of yarn. You’ll want to choose something that’s super bulky. Luckily, arm-knitting is on-trend so there’s lot’s of options out there. We used this yarn from Michaels, which worked well but next time we would choose something even smoother as the fibres stuck to our clothes a bit. There’s a great guide for choosing yarn for arm-knitting here.
NOTE: If you’re in Canada and don’t have access to a Michael’s or another yarn supply store visit Yarn Canada, their shipping is pretty reasonable and they’ve got a ton of options to choose from.
- To begin, place the yarn on the right side of your working station, unravel about 4ft of yarn giving you some slack to work with.
- Make a loop, put your left hand through the loop hole and pass some of the slack through, pulling tight. This is your first stitch. Continue this about 15 times, making sure each stitch is tight.
- Continue this about 15 times forming a chain, passing the slack end through each loop, making sure each stitch is tight. Flip the chain over onto it’s backside.
- Now it’s time for the first row. In your chain there are a series of knots. Use your right hand (your index and thumb) to pull through the knots and grab the slack to form new loops. Again, do this 15 times. Your first row is done, woot!
- Next, place your left hand through the loops pulling through the slack yarn and creating a new loop. You’re essentially creating a loop onto your previously formed loop. Repeat this for as long as you’d like, creating new rows (we did about 20). Make sure you’re keeping equal tension while pulling your loops
- Casting off is what needs to happen when you reach the very end of your blanket – it’s basically closing off the blanket. Eyeball to make sure you have enough yarn left to finish a row. Cast off by pulling through the slack yarn through (but not completely through) the last two loops, repeating from that point on, one loop at a time.
- Finally, when you reach the end tie that bad boy into a knot and tuck or braid the tail into the rest of the blanket.
Here’s our favourite video that explained it pretty well, We did something differently because we wanted a bigger, tighter looped blanket, but it will help to visualize the instructions above.
We’ve got the perfect cocktail for you to sip on while making this blankie. If there was any drink that is the equivalent of a cozy blanket, it’s a Blueberry Tea. Grab the recipe here.
Sweet Life
These tunes will help you get in the zone as you work on those loop holes – including the epic Frank Ocean jam Sweet Life.