Every time cold weather rolls around, Instagram is filled with images of this type of chunky + cozy blanket. I immediately want one. Then I see how much they cost, laugh and forget about them – until next winter. I’ve even thought of making them. But the cost of the wool seemed a bit steep for something that I’m not even sure I could actually do. I happened to watch a YouTube video where they mentioned that they made a blanket using yarn from Michaels.
So I went out on the hunt. The brand, Loops & Threads, is exclusive to Michaels; and, as it turns out, this particular yarn (Free Spirit, $35) is a seasonal item. Just kill me now.
I was already obsessed so I spent FOUR days and many gallons of gas, driving all over Los Angeles searching for as much of this yarn as I could find. I ended up with dark gray, a dusty rose and a smokey light blue.
This yarn is Jumbo 7 sized and unbraided or twisted, which mimics the look of wool roving. But I will warn you; its a much rougher and does shed quite a lot.
I think, in the future, if I was going to make more of these I will invest in wool roving but, for now, this is fine. $35 gets you 54 yards/162 feet and weighs 1kilogram/2.2 pounds. That is a great deal.
In the tutorial posted below, I made a queen-size blanket which is 25 links/60 inches across with 4 skeins. Using that as reference, a baby blanket would require 2-3 skeins and the larger sizes would take 6-8 skeins. To figure out how many loops to do; divide the number of inches you want your project to be, I did 60″, by the width of your yarn, mine is 2 1/2″. This equals 24 and I did 25 loops. Using this type of yarn also makes for a heavier blanket.
This tutorial is not an arm knitting tutorial. It is hand knitting flat on a table and rather than working from the side of the blanket and knitting vertical sections; you start at one end and work away from yourself going back and forth horizontally until you reach your desired length and you finish it off. This also enables you to easily stop and start your project without worrying about it falling apart. But if you do stop, just make sure you don’t accidentally miss a loop and knit 13 levels before noticing it and have to undo it all. Oh is that just me and my champagne problems???
You do not need to know how to knit, I didn’t and still don’t. I watched a video and kept replaying it until the steps made sense. I’ve combined all my research and the required steps to make your own blanket into one video. This is just a basic pattern but it’s a classic – debating on filming more videos with different techniques/patterns.
I hope you enjoy this tutorial and will try to make yourself a chunky + cozy blanket of your own!
chunky + cozy blanket tutorial
Other materials Sources:
White Wool Roving, Sale: $20
BeCozi Chunky Yarn, $16+
SarahLouCo Dyed Merino, $26+
Loops & Threads Indie Pop, $35
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