Another Way to Knit a Giant Chunky Blanket

By now we’ve probably all seen giant blankets knit with roving or many strands of yarn held together, worked with arm knitting or using giant knitting needles.

Both of those are valid methods, but here’s another thing to try if you don’t want to have a giant blanket hanging on your arm for a couple of hours or to hold the weight of a big blanket on a pair of knitting needles.

Lily Ardor made her chunky knit blanket using a sort of finger knitting technique in which the loops are pulled up across the row, then you make more loops to go inside those loops. Because roving sticks to itself pretty easily you don’t have to worry about the stitches dropping before you get back to them.

This is an interesting idea and might be an easier way to do it for people who can’t hold all that weight (she says her blanket is about 7 pounds) on their arms while they work, because this way it can sit on a table as you work.

Have you knit one of these giant blankets? I’d love to know how you did it.

[Photo: Lily Ardor.]

It’s a common complaint among women and femme dressing folk that our clothes do not include enough (and enough useful) pockets. And even if your clothes do have good pockets, there’s always a chance that you’d rather have another pocket to put some essentials in rather than having to carry a whole bag.

But because we are knitters, we can take this problem into our own needles and knit ourselves some auxiliary pockets.

Beatrice Mase did just that, with a kind of fancy toolbelt pocket accessory that they call VELVET Pockets.

The stitch pattern has a plush, sort of velvet effect, thus the name, but it’s worked with regular fingering/sock weight yarn. (The sample uses wool, but you could experiment with other fibers, too.) It calls for 776 yards of 710 meters, which you might just have in your sock yarn stash.

The pattern includes several pockets of different sizes, with the main body of the pocket worked flat in one piece and the exterior pockets sewn on at the end. You also have the option of adding screw rivets and a coordinating clasp that make it look even more toolbelt chic.

The design is worked with a loop of knit fabric at the top so it can slide onto a belt. The pattern includes explanatory diagrams, photo and video tutorials and is adjustable to fit different sizes of belts.

It’s almost enough to make me want to start wearing belts again, even though I haven’t for years. Because who wouldn’t want a few extra little pockets to hold things when you don’t have enough to really justify carrying a bag around?

The pattern is available in English and French on Ravelry and you can also buy a kit complete with the yarn, rivets and clasp (the pattern is not included in the kit) direct on Etsy.

[Photo: Beatrice Mase]

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