Super Soft Knitted Blanket

Up until recently, my knitting experience has extended only to scarves and some other small things, but I wanted to finally try my hand at a super cozy knitted blanket for the upcoming cold months.

In the past, I've been deterred from knitting a blanket because I didn't want to make it in strips or squares that need to be sewn together. That's the problem with knitting... you can only fit so many stitches on a needle, and that amount is likely not enough to make a blanket. So unless I used some crazy, complicated pattern, I thought this was my only option.

But as it turns out... there's this special little tool in the knitting toolbox called circular needles. I kind of thought circular needles were only used for knitting in the round (i.e. hats and socks and stuff), but as I started researching blanket patterns I realized that I could use circular needles for a large blanket too! NO SEWING! I immediately went out and purchased my supplies and set to it!


Here's what I used!
- Size 17 circular needles
- 6 skeins Bernat Baby Blanket yarn in Sand (10.5 oz. size)
- Scissors

(Yes, I used baby blanket yarn. Everyone deserves a soft blanket, even if they aren't a baby.)

Here's what I did!
- Since this was my first time knitting a blanket and using this type of yarn, I wanted to keep everything super simple. So no fancy pattern here - just regular ol' knitting. Also, this blanket needed to be BIG. Nick's biggest complaint about the blankets we have is that they won't cover him from feet to shoulders. So a big blanket it is...
- I casted on 140 stitches. Then I just knitted, knitted, worked in a new skein of yarn, knitted, watched The Sopranos, knitted, knitted, ate Oreos, knitted, knitted... you get the idea. This baby was time consuming.
- Once I finally reached my desired size, I casted off, knotted, and cut my yarn. By hand, I worked in all of the stray yarn pieces from adding in a new skein.
- My completed blanket is 5'x7.5' (yes, BIG) and also AMAZING.


I'm super proud of this project (as I think I should be). My blood, sweat, and tears went into making it... okay, that sounds pretty gross. But in all seriousness, I accidentally cut my finger while knitting (ouch), and knitting a blanket in a hot apartment in the middle of summer basically means you're covered up with a blanket in a hot apartment in the middle of summer..., and I definitely cried at the Billy on the Street segment during the Emmys (hilarious). So I guess it's true. My blood, sweat, and tears went into the making of this blanket.


This blanket took me about a month to complete, which actually doesn't seem like very long... but I knitted about 3-4 solid hours a day for that month, so it definitely wasn't a quick and easy project that can be cranked out in a few days (like scarves, mittens, etc.)


Anyone else ever knitted a blanket? How was your experience?

xo, Sarah