How to knit
A Baby Blanket For Beginners
How to Knit a Baby Blanket for Complete Beginners - Easy Knit Baby Blanket
Sharing buttons:
what's in it a baby blanket shall we hey
there and welcome back to be hooked the
place where you and I turn yarn into
anything we want hobby or lifestyle
you're brand new to this channel welcome
I can't wait to teach you how to knit a
baby blanket and if you've been around
for a while yes I did get my hair cut I
cut all of it off I just needed to
change thank you once again for joining
me in this video we're gonna knit a baby
blanket together this is so simple and
so easy it's great for a first project
now before we get to the first lesson
the cast on we need to talk about the
supplies because you are a beginner this
is one of the areas that I made a big
mistake well first of all I didn't
realize that knitting has a tendency to
expand a little bit as you go along as
you knit your rows well I also didn't
understand that the project has to fit
on the needle so because of that and
because we're knitting a blanket that's
about 36 inches wide we need longer
knitting needles we can't just use the
streets so in order to make our baby
blanket fit all on the needle we need a
pair of circulars this is an
interchangeable set so this cord
actually comes apart and the knitting
needles are separate as well that you
don't have to have an interchangeable
set you just need a pair of circular
needles so something with a cord and the
the total length needs to be 36 inches
at least because that's the length of
our blanket now keep in mind that that
measurement is tipped to tip so if I
were to stretch this out of course you
can't see the whole thing there in the
frame but from tip to tip should measure
at least 36 inches the next thing you'll
need to do is get three skeins of red
heart
dreamy yarn this is a medium-weight
we're going to use three balls so pick
three different colors now in order for
this pattern to work out you do need to
have three different colors okay alright
now that we have all of the supplies
ready to go the first thing we need to
do is cast on so
how to do that next so the first thing
you'll need to do is get both ends of
your scheme we really don't need to buy
two Skeens for this in each color we can
just use one tail from the middle of the
ball and one tail from the end of the
ball we'll hold these together to make
our blanket go a little faster and make
it a lot squishier so find those two
ends and put them together so that
they're even and we can start on the
cast on we'll be using the long tail
cast on for this so we need to estimate
a long tail because we have to cast on a
lot of stitches we want to make sure we
have enough yarn so grab at your needle
and then just take your two ends and
we're going to wrap it around there a
few times this is just the estimating
process so I'm just wrapping that's two
wraps three four five six seven eight
nine and ten I like to do a nice round
number pinch that off with your finger
back here and you can let it go and this
is roughly the amount of yarn that it'll
take to make ten stitches so then you'll
take this tail and you'll fold it over
that'll be enough for 20 stitches fold
it over again and so on alright so
you'll take the yarn right at the end
here this is my working yarn over here
coming from my ball of yarn this is the
tail once again your tail is going to be
much longer because you're casting on 82
stitches I'll be casting on 12 for my
little swatch here so I'll lay that over
my needle I'm opting to not use a slip
knot for this then I want to gather it
in my finger so put your two fingers
together just like this and stick that
between the two strands grab your
fingers here in the background and pinch
that off now open your two fingers and
steady that on top of your needle and
then we're going to swing it down grab
the Strand on the front of your thumb
swing it back grab the Strand on your
finger and then release that thumb whoo
over the tip of the needle then you
should be able to just pull on that
tighten it up and that's two stitches
cast on I'll say that one more time
wrap it around grab the front strand on
your thumb wrap it back grab the Strand
on your finger then release your thumb
over the tip of the needle I'll also
link to a video where I have the
longtail cast on in complete beginner
format it's super slow if you need some
practice with this then you can check
that video linked in the description and
I'll also have it on your screen here
now keep in mind that two strands
corresponds with one stitch for this
pattern so when you're counting your
cast on stitches you're doing it in
groups of two technically so this is one
stitch two three four five and six
you
so the longtail cast on is pretty simple
right you'll need to make sure you're
casting on 82 stitches as you just heard
but do keep in mind that this is a
pretty flexible pattern if you want a
wider blanket this is where you would
make that adjustment just keep in mind
though that the pattern is written for
three schemes of dreamy yarn and if you
do go with a bigger blanket we likely
won't have enough so you need to make
sure that you get extra yarn if that's
the case now if you want a smaller
blanket you can also make this
adjustment here you'll just cast on
fewer stitches okay so we've cast on 82
stitches
we're ready to start knitting now once
you have all your stitches cast on your
needle and keep in mind you're gonna
have some that's flowing into your cord
here that's why it's a good idea to have
that 36 inch cord I'm using the slightly
smaller one because I've just got a
swatch here so you'll have a lot more
stitches on your needle when you have 82
we're ready to start on the first row
now the stitch pattern is incredibly
easy for this particular pattern we're
only going to work with knit stitches so
when you get this point here we just
want to turn our work so I'm going to
take it and just flip it now you can see
my tail end really clear here I've just
got a little bit left just a couple of
inches so this is my working strand
that's really important because when you
estimate if you overestimate and you
have a long tail and you don't keep
track of that and you start knitting
with your tail well you'll run into all
kinds of problems when you come back
around and realize that you've done that
so you want to make sure you're not
knitting with your tail and I'll just
slide these stitches down to the end and
I'm ready to start knitting now when you
work a knit stitch you're simply going
to take the tip of your other needle
stick it into the stitch from front to
back so this is what it'll look like
from the front and when you flip it over
it'll look like that so I'm holding that
needle there with my finger so I just
want to take that working yarn wrap it
around the tip of my needle
and knit it off
now we can do from this point is grab
your tail give that a little pool and
then I'll tighten up that stitch now I
want to show you the knit stitch again
using my dominant hand here there's two
ways of knitting this is the way that I
like to knit but if you're a crochet ER
you might find the other method a little
more comfortable for you so let's work
with this dominant hand for a few more
stitches I'll find my next stitch once
again keeping in mind that it is two
strands of yarn insert my needle knit
wise I'll take the yarn wrap it around
the tip and knit it off by the way this
is sometimes called flick knitting and I
was a crochet or first I knitted in the
Continental style for a little while
before I settled in on this one is
really comfortable for me so that's
flick knitting let's look at this other
option now I'm going to drop it from my
dominant hand pick it up in my
non-dominant hand the same way that I
would hold my yarn as if I were
crocheting so I've sort of got it
wrapped around my pinky there under
these two fingers and over my index
finger here I'll find my next stitch now
I'll still insert my needle in the same
way but the motion feels a little
different watch where the working yarn
is coming there from the backside of
that needle I'll stick my needle in the
stitch just like before and then I just
simply want to grab that from the back
there and pull it through
and slide everything down work that
again it's going to be a little tighter
here on this first row because our cast
on stitches are not as stretchy as our
traditional stitch so as we work up a
few more rows this technique will get a
lot more comfortable you can see things
are a little tight I'm having to sort of
push them down that's okay that's
totally normal so that is the
Continental style of knitting whichever
you prefer they actually look the same
no matter what so I'm going to go back
here to my comfortable style of knitting
and finish knitting the rest of the
stitches in my swatch now for you you'll
go ahead and knit every single one of
your cast on stitches until you get to
the very end
so that's it all we're doing is knitting
for this entire project we're gonna get
a lot of our pattern from the color in
the way that we use the yarn because
we're doubling those strands up so we're
going to knit the first row as you've
seen let's have a review one more time
so you know what to do on that second
row okay so once you get to the end of
your row your work should look something
like this only of course quite a bit
longer so we're ready to start on Row
two we're not changing anything with a
stitch pattern but what you'll need to
do is turn your work once again so I'm
just flipping it in this direction
taking my needle along for the ride and
I'm ready to start knitting once again
so the first thing I always do is get my
stitches situated they're a little tight
like I mentioned because we've got that
first row so no worries there I'll find
my first stitch get my needle into
position gather up my yarn to knit the
first stitch and I'll continue knitting
until I get to the end of the row no
changes here just knitting
you
you
so the result of knitting every single
stitch for every single row gives you a
stitch pattern called the garter stitch
this is one of the signature stitches
and knitting and you've probably seen it
many times before it gives you that
characteristic bumpy sort of wavy
texture it's really squishy and really
stretchy and very warm making it great
for your baby blanket now we understand
the stitch pattern we're going to knit
every stitch for every single row but as
you anticipated we need to do some color
changes and that's what really brings
this pattern to life so before we get
into the know how the the physical steps
to changing the colors let's first have
a look at the color pattern itself so
you can know exactly what you need to do
and when then from there we'll have a
look at exactly how you're going to take
your two strands of yarn from your one
skein and chant transition that so you
have one strand from one color and one
strand from another color so here we
have an overview of what the color
pattern looks like for our baby blanket
now keep in mind that this is sort of a
side view and although I've been
knitting with the gray two strains of
gray for my swatch so it's easier for
you to see on camera we actually start
at this edge right here so that is our
cast on edge and we work in this
direction you'll notice here that we
have five different stripes and when we
break it down to give it a name this is
what it looks like so we have a a a b b
b b c and c c so you'll use this
reference in order to guide what two
strands you hold together so for example
this would be your first strand this
would be your second strand and so on
okay so the next thing you need to know
is how long do you work each of these
stripes well because we want things to
be nice and uniform we're going to work
each stripe for about
seven inches so from one side to the
next is going to be 7 inches and that'll
be the same for each one of our stripes
okay so now that you get the hang of
that color pattern let's talk about how
to physically make that transition from
our two color which is what we've
started with here to where we have to
add in that second color so the first
thing you'll need to do is find your
working yarn and you're going to trim
one of them now leave yourself a tail
that's about eight inches or so that'll
give you enough to weave in later I'll
trim one and just completely let that
one go then I've got my second yarn here
I'm going to have that here in the
background just ready to go and I'll
pretend as if I'm going to continue
knitting so holding my work this way is
where I would have ended that I'm going
to flip it and get ready to knit so
insert your needle knit wise just as you
normally would
I've got my two ends here so tail right
here I'll tuck that behind and then this
is my good piece of yarn so grab your
second color and then fold it in half
leaving yourself a tail that's about
eight inches and then just place that
over the tip of that needle then also
take that strand from that previous
color and wrap it around now I'm holding
all of this in my pinky just so I can
get it through that stitch so I'm
pulling through one of each color and
knitting it as normal and I've got that
first stitch we're pretty much ready to
go now but we do have some loose ends
that we need to get tidied up so that we
don't drop things drop our stitches
completely so to fix that we'll just
take the two ends from each color just
make a knot with these just to secure
things for now and we'll weave them in
later so moving forward I'll go ahead
and insert my needle knit wise make sure
you're gathering up the right strands
here and then
continue knitting so no change to the
stitch pattern here we're just knitting
but we've got our new color alright so
the last technique you need to know to
finish your blanket is of course the
cast off now you'll do this several
steps down the road you want to make
sure that you're working your color
transition as you've seen it in the
written instructions once again be able
to crochet calm / easy knit blanket
that'll give you the instructions on
where to make those color transitions to
change from one skein to the next and
how to blend the two strands so you get
the pattern that we want so once you do
all of that then we get to cast off so
when you get to the point where you're
ready to cast off you'll simply turn
your work set yourself up as if you're
knitting another row and then we're
going to knit the first two stitches
then we'll take the first stitch that we
knit and pass it over that second one so
just to use your other needle to slide
it under there and you'll probably need
to pull up just a little bit and I like
to hold this on my other needle here
with my index finger as I slide it over
just like that then we can knit the next
stitch and repeat so we knit one we pass
it over once we get that initial set up
knit another one pass it over we'll do
that until we get to the end of the row
then when you make it to your last
stitch you'll go ahead and knit it and
then pass that stitch over until you
have just that one loop remaining on
your needle and then we can go ahead and
trim the tail once again leave it about
8 inches or so
then just pull up on that loop what I
like to do is pull that tail through the
loop make sure things are nice and
secure and it sort of fixes that little
corner that tends to get a little messy
now of course the last thing you'll need
to do to finish your blanket is weave in
those ends I want to show you a couple
of tips that I have personally that I've
learned sort of the hard way over the
years on how to weave in your ends so
that they actually stay in and then I
want to give you a virtual high five
because at that point your blankets are
complete so the type of darning needle I
like to use when I'm weaving in my ends
especially for knitting is the bent tip
you can see how that tip is bent just a
little bit that really helps me to weave
it in if you don't have one of those
it's not a big deal you can still do
this technique without it so I want to
isolate sort of like the bump of this
stitch so I'm kind of going in and
always going in the same direction now
you can skip up a row if you want or if
you can grab both of them that works too
sometimes I find it easier to skip and
buy skip I mean jump from this one to
this one rather than go this one to this
one
really doesn't matter all that much I
found and you'll work it so you've got a
few stitches on your needle go ahead and
pull that through you don't want to pull
too tight because as you can see that
will tuck in that little piece of the
side there basically so we don't want
that to happen then what I'll do is I'll
jump to the next Ridge catch my yarn
under there and then just sort of work
that same technique down
and then we can trim that off so you'll
have to do that for all of your
remaining ends and that's all there is
to it well I think a big congratulations
is an older to you because you're well
on your way to finishing your baby
blanket you were able to do more than I
was able to do so many years ago when I
tried to make a baby blanket just like
this one for my nephew I'm so excited
for you that you're able to finish it
and gift it to somebody special and
thank you for allowing me to be a little
part of that journey for you I also want
to thank my sponsor red heart for
allowing me to bring this tutorial to
you today red heart dreamy is a dreamy
product right it's a great yarn and it's
perfect for this baby blanket now if you
loved this video or my teaching style
and you want to learn more about
knitting and crochet if you haven't done
so already go ahead and subscribe to the
be hooked Channel right here on YouTube
you can find more videos just like this
one there's quite literally hundreds of
them to teach you how to knit and
crochet you can also go ahead and check
out some of these videos here to the
side of your screen they're hand
selected to figure out exactly what you
want for me and how I'm able to serve
you in that way so check out some more
of those videos after you subscribed and
I will see you in the next video my
friend bye for now
