DIY Arm Knit Blanket | Arm Knitting Tips & Tricks

It’s no secret that I don’t like fall, I really hate winter, and summer is the season I live for and look toward to all year but, alas, I can’t stop the passage of time and until Hubby and I move to Costa Rica I have to embrace fall as best I can – and what better way to do that than by getting cozy with the luxurious, outrageously soft DIY arm knit blanket that’s become so popular?  I wanted one of those massively chunky blankets for the guesthouse because those late summer nights were already getting a bit chilly.  When Sarah from Mama Knows Luxury, a Canadian-based company specializing in extreme knitting, reached out and offered to send me a kit to make my own chunky blanket, I jumped at the chance to try arm knitting.

A thick, chunky knit throw is such a great way to add some coziness to the guesthouse bed, but the pretty aqua hue kept the decor feeling summery.  We’ve since decommissioned the bunkie for the season so I brought my cozy new DIY arm knit blanket inside and it looks just as pretty draped on our cream leather sofa.

I never learned how to knit but I’ve always been fascinated by knitting.  My late grandmother could knit so beautifully and she tried to teach me but, being a lefty, it was difficult for me to wrap my brain around doing it backwards.  Although I’m ambidextrous with a lot of things, for some reason I couldn’t knit right-handed.  But it turns out that this DIY arm knit blanket is easy to make!  My Mom came over to help and we whipped this up in a couple of hours on a rainy Saturday.  The best thing is that if the blanket doesn’t turn out, it can easily be dismantled and re-knit, a process which felts the skein a bit and helps make it even more smooth and less fuzzy.  So this is a no-stress, foolproof DIY project – my favorite kind!

The epic 8lb ball of 100% merino wool above is part of the Mama Knows Luxury + DeBrosse “Chamberlain” Extreme Knit Large Blanket Kit and it makes the perfect individual size blanket (about 38″ x 56″ but you can adjust those measurements a bit, we made it long enough to use at the foot of a Queen bed).  After sending me the kit, Sarah sent the link to these great how-to videos.  If you’d like to learn how to make a DIY arm knit blanket, definitely check out those videos because it’s so much easier to learn arm knitting that way.

Below I’m sharing some photos just to show you how easy it is, along with the tips/tricks we picked up along the way.  The first tip: when you first cast on, make sure the loop fits snugly on your arm to ensure that the knitted blanket doesn’t end up too loose.

Second tip: we found that knitting on a big flat surface, like a bed, makes this project even easier – especially when it came to creating a perfect rectangle with even tension throughout.  The blanket also gets heavy as you progress and laying it down after casting on the first row makes this project less of an arm workout.

Third tip: make sure you never twist the stitches and maintain as even a tension as you can – which is easier when you lay the blanket flat (as opposed to literally knitting with your arms).  This is so easy you could do this with kids to helps them understand the process of knitting as a precursor to teaching them how to knit with needles.  If I’d tried this first, as a kid, I might have been able to grasp knitting as an adult.

The merino wool is very soft and smooth to the touch and this blanket has a nice weight to it (8lbs to be exact!).  If you’re curious about how to care for and wash a chunky wool arm knit blanket, check out this post from Mama Knows Luxury.  I haven’t needed to launder it yet but washing wool never scares me – I even wash my dry-clean only cashmere at home!  If you love the look of chunky knits and extreme knitting, be sure to follow Mama Knows Luxury on Etsy, Pinterest and Instagram for tons of gorgeous inspirations and DIY knitting ideas/kits.