In case you didn’t know I recently picked up a new hobby! I have been teaching myself to knit via some youtube videos.
Last week a friend of mine shared a video on my facebook of a woman who was “arm knitting” a huge fluffy blanket! I was immediately obsessed and I spent my fine Sunday afternoon arm knitting a cute open weave blanket! It was so much fun and I am so glad I spent the time doing it!
I started with 5 skiens of this beautiful super bulky (weight 6) yarn. It’s so soft and is this amazing purple color called Frosted Plum. I spent way too much time deciding on this color. I bought something else only to go back and buy this one since I could not stop thinking about it! Half way through I had to pause my knitting and run to Michael’s once again to pick up 4 more skiens. I only ended up using two of those, but I wasn’t sure how long I was making it… I was purely winging it!
I was assisted by a youtube video (once again) that I found on simplymaggie.com (http://www.simplymaggie.com/arm-knit-a-blanket-in-45-minutes). She used different yarn so hers only took about 45 minutes while mine took me an entire afternoon!
Here’s some photos along the way:
See the finished product below!!
Some things I learned:
-there is SO much math involved in following a knitting pattern!! (Unless you wing it like I did because let’s face it – math is for chumps)
-if you choose a less wide yarn than the tutorial uses you will almost triple your work time…usually…maybe.
-you can’t do anything while arm knitting, you are literally in yarn handcuffs!! I worked my way around this by unwinding a wire coat hanger, allowing me to thread it through the stitches on my arm and give myself a break
-you can only make your blanket as wide as your arms are long, and my arms aren’t very long….
-the tighter you make your stitches the less open your weave will be. My arms are pretty thin so you’ll be able to see how open my weave is. If you want something less open I’d suggest opting for knitting needles rather than arm knitting
-THIS IS LOADS OF FUN AND EVERYONE SHOULD EXPECT A BLANKET FOR CHRISTMAS and I’m now taking orders for anyone that wants one
-The Plant Lady
theplantladychronicles 