So this is a translation of my swedish post about how I made my chunky blanket. The idea is not mine, I found it on a swedish craft group and it was quite popular among people for a while. Anyway here we go...
Some people make their own knitting giant knitting needles from PVC pipes or broomsticks, this often give a more compact blanket as your arms are normally thicker than broomsticks. I choose to armknit as I was too lazy to make my own knitting needles. If you don't know how to armknit just do a quick youtube search and there are plenty of good videos. Armknitting goes quickly, sometimes it can be easy to take up the wrong stich resulting in "twisted" stitches but it's easy enough to redo.
In contrast to using merinowool you will see when the fabric stretches are turning when you cut the stretches of fabric, making your yarn.
I used 40 stitches and it bacame about 160cm wide and then you can make it as long as you feel like. I used 8 blankets for the knitting and then another blanket and a half to make tassles.
Each piece of fabric is 8cm wide, I think if I were to redo it by armknitting I might make them 10-12 cm wide instead. The blanket is very elastic and its quite cosy and makes a great bed cover or just couch blanket. When you cut your yarn its important that you cut it in the direction of the elasticity so that it "curls up" on itself to form chunky yarn when you pull lightly on the strips.
1. Fold the blanket double. I measured 16 cm wide strips and cut from one direction and cut almost all the way to the other side, but not quite. I left maybe 3-4 cm at the other end.
2. Then cut each 16 cm strip in half but from the opposite direction. Don't cut all the way this time either. Try to cut from the folded side the first time so that everything sticks together at the end. This way you get one massive contrinues length of fabric. Bascially cut teh opposite I have done in this picture.
3. Then cut the blanket where you double folded it so there is one massive stretch of fabric. Round of the corners.
4. Pull at each lenth of fabric/blanket so it curls up into yarn. When it curls you might notice that you need to cut more in the "turn" of the yarn. I put some stitches at the places where the turns had been as these do not curl the same way and it makes them blend in more than if you don't. However, this is not a big deal and it it doesn't bother you that you can see the turns in the finished blanket then you might not want to waste time.
5. Roll the yarn into balls. I stictched together the yarn from two blankets and made into one giant ball. Then I just stitched it together when I needed a new piece of yarn as I was knitting. You could also just tie it together, it's not very noticeable either.
6. Then start knitting. If you don't know how to armknit just google it. There is plenty of youtube videos to use for guidance.
7. This is the end result. I also made 8 cm wide strips of 1 blanket and a half, however this time I cut all the way trhough just to make the tassles. Tassles/fringes are not neccesary and completely optional. I used two strips for each fringe, just fold it double and pull through.
Comment: It was a very easy project and I was happy with the end result. It is very suitable as a bed cover or hanging on a couch or in a reading corner. If I was to redo it I might make a pair of giant knitting needles. My 35mm knitting needles were perfect in thickness, it made a more compact blanket, but they were obviosly too short. Some people have made blankets with braiding patterns etc which is also very pretty. However, I am not a good enough knitter for that.
The most timeconsuming part of this project was probably cutting up all the blankets and making the yarn. After all I cut 10 blankets for this blanket. The knitting itself probably took about 3 hours, that included redoing most parts of the blanket as I discovered some errors quite late. If you do not have the possiblity or your arms start to hurt you can thread thorugh a thick band of a contrasting colour and then rethread the project on your arms again and keep going.
Total cost: 150 SEK ca. £12, Time: MAking the yarn and rolling it into balls 3-4 hours. Knitting time: 3-4 hours.
Hope the description makes sense. Any question just leave a comment and I will try and answer.
Ikea sells cheap fleece blankets, grey-white patterened for less than £1 each.
armknitting,
chunkyblanket,
fleece,
