Knit a Giant Ribbed Blanket with Your Arms

Arm knitting was a huge (ha!) trend last year, and it hasn’t really gone away. It’s a great way to make a big project fast, and it’s a way to get the look of knitting without actually knowing how to knit. I taught some fiber arts classes at my daughter’s school last summer, and all the girls loved arm knitting. They made so. many. scarves.

This chunky arm knit blanket from Flax & Twine is a little different because it uses a ribbed pattern instead of Stockinette. It’s still really easy to do and you can knit up the whole thing in an afternoon. It works up super fast and squishy because you hold four strands of yarn at once.

Have you tried arm knitting? This would be a great project to take you beyond scarves if you haven’t tried a blanket before.

[Photo: Flax & Twine.]

Next Pattern:

This swirly square stitch knitting pattern from Studio Knit is a lot of fun, and it looks kind of complicated without being difficult at all.

The swirly nature of the block comes from regularly placed increases, as the pattern is worked in rounds from the center out. Switching between sections of all knit stitches and all purl stitches (which gives you stockinette and reverse stockinette respectively when worked in the round) adds to the off-kilter flair but makes it really easy to knit.

You can work it in a single color or change colors regularly. This isn’t really a change colors randomly kind of pattern just because it looks better if you work a full repeat in a single color, but you know there are no rules so you can do whatever you want.

You can also make it any size you like, and indeed use any yarn you want. This one is blanket sized and used five colors of worsted weight yarn, but you can use any yarn and corresponding needles (you’ll need double pointed needles and circulars of various lengths, depending on how big you want to make your square).

For a start, why not grab some cotton yarn and stitch up a swirly washcloth? You could still use a couple of colors if you want, jsut for fun.

Once you try that, you’ll probably want to make a bigger version, and you could definitely use more colors than Kristen did (or just one color if you prefer), you just need to make sure you change colors at the beginning of the pattern repeat to keep everything looking good.

If you’re ready to start (and I know I am!) you can grab the free pattern and check out a video to help you get started at Studio Knit.

[Photo: Studio Knit]

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