Arm Crochet/Knitting a Blanket

Today I’d like to give an unofficial review of arm-knit or arm-crochet blankets. I’ve seen these on the internet and they look so luxurious and they are very easy to make, especially for those of us who already have some experience knitting or crocheting.

That was the good part, each blanket only took me about 7 hours to complete. That’s crazy! I did each in three work times while I watched a movie. It was really great that they look beautiful and are so easy and quick to complete. The method I used was a stockinette stitch with the blanket spread out on a table. 

First, I had to figure out my gauge. I used Premiere Couture Jazz yarn and it is much thicker than anything I’ve ever used before. However, it isn’t thick enough to take very long stitches. I started out with almost 4” long loops, but it looked really loose and more like a net than a blanket. I finally liked the look of 2” long loops (after much pulling through and pulling out). 

So I chain stitched 37, then pulled a loop through each of the 36 going back the other way and continued pulling 36 loops through the existing loops. I only used my hands, no tools. This number gave me the width I wanted, about 65”.

I ran into a problem after only working for a couple of hours, it was clear that, unless I wanted to give my children wide scarves to wrap around themselves, I was going to run out of yarn long before I reached the 75” length I was shooting for. 

I had optimistically purchased 10 skeins for each blanket. Online they never tell you how many to use, they go on and on about how it depends on the brand of yarn you use and the length of stitch you use and your desired finished size. It was really frustrating to me, not knowing anything about the product, to guess how much I needed to buy. One how-to video maker mentioned that she was using 8 skeins for her blanket, so without knowing her projected finished size, I thought 10 would probably do it. I ended up needing 22 skeins for each blanket!

Luckily, I started buying skeins months in advance, because they really add up! Another problem was finding the colors I needed in the quantities I needed. Stores don’t carry this kind of yarn because it takes up too much room and they sell out quickly. So online I was at the mercy of stock on hand and ended up ordering from three different stores and often waiting for backorders.

My kids love the blankets. They are very soft and fairly warm. They are not heavy like I was hoping, and if I had known the final price tag for each, I wouldn’t have made them. For the money, fabric blankets would have been heavier, warmer and just as soft. These are beautiful, though, and more homemade looking than fleece blankets would have been. I guess my opinion is that I tried something new and different, I made a yarn blanket for each of my children in a fraction of the time a regular one would have taken, and I’ll take what I’ve learned and pass it on.