How To Make An Easy Knit Baby Blanket
At some point in our lives, I think most of us had the great idea to knit a baby blanket for a friend or family member who was expecting. I am also willing to bet that a LOT of those people failed, or at least thought they failed… Just look at my friend Brittany’s story.
The thing is, it absolutely IS a great gift idea–making this handmade item is a beautiful gesture, especially if the final product is completed in time, and with structural integrity. By no means does that mean perfection!
For those of you who’d rather chop off an arm that to sit there for a few hours and knit, no problem! Head to your local craft fair and support a small business owner. For those of you who love to have something to do while you binge Netflix, relax before bed, or occupy your time on your commute (as a passenger)–Let’s do this!
This is a fool-proof baby blanket not-pattern tutorial, meant to get you through the project, as easily and as quickly as possible, so you can give that awesome heartfelt gift, without feeling like a failure.
How To Make An Easy Knit Baby Blanket
You’ll need:
- A handful of skeins / balls of a SOFT yarn of your choosing. Go with something chunky or bulky for a quicker knit (4-6).
- A pair of knitting needles, sized depending on the type of yarn you pick. For the thicker yarns, you’ll want larger needles (10mm+).
- About 3-5 hours to complete the project, which can be spaced out as much as you want (ie. through 4 episodes of Grey’s, or one row daily while you wait for your forgotten coffee to re-heat).
*For the purpose of this tutorial, I used my beloved 15mm needles with one ball of Patons Roving (since I am making a photo prop, which is smaller) and almost two balls of the Bernat Softee (used a couple yards to make a matching baby bonnet).
What To Do:
- Cast on 60-75 stitches.
- Knit across.
- Repeat for a total of 60-75 rows (the same number of stitches you have on your needles) for a square blanket.
- Continue for 30 more rows for a rectangle blanket.
The beauty of this one is that you just keep going until the length ‘looks about right’ so if you run out of yarn with ‘6 rows to go’, you can choose to buy more or leave it as is. Better yet, you don’t even have to keep track of how many rows you’ve accomplished so far–eyeballing it is totally fine!
This one was knit in stockinette, with 6mm needles and baby yarn (thickness: 2).
Want something a little more fancy or difficult?
–> use the stockinette stitch, or knit the whole thing in seed stitch
–> add edges around the border
–> use smaller needles to create a tighter weave
–> use smaller needles AND thinner yarn to create a smaller + tighter weave
–> follow a pattern with colour-changes or a fancy design
Your friendly neighbourhood photographer,
