How long would it take to knit a baby blanket?

[DollyBarton]

I have a friend who is having a baby and I want to knit her a baby blanket. I've done smaller items before but never a full blanket. For a pretty easy pattern (I wouldn't undertake a complicated one) how long has it taken you in the past to knit a standard sized blanket? I just need a ballpark so that I can decide whether to do it or stick to a smaller item. Baby is due in a couple of weeks and I want it to have it ready for her immediately after.

Obviously a lot depends on how many hours you have available to you in a couple of weeks, how fast you knit, etc. but I'd say that a simple pattern (that allowed knitting whilst watching TV or chatting with friends or similar) would be achievable in the time. If you were to give it your all for the first week then you'd be able to gauge whether you need to allow additional hours in week two or could ease off a bit. Your friend is lucky to have such a gift coming her little one's way!

I can probably do an hour an evening, 4-5 evenings a week. So Im thinking I have about 8 hours. Just know idea if that is enough to knock out a blanket!

How about crochet? And using a thicker yarn (minimum Aran)?

I'm a beginner with crochet it takes me about 10mins to make one Aran weight basic 5 inch granny square using a 5mm hook.

The full 9 months with my second....

Takes me ages! Baby stuff tends be all 4 ply or dk I did one once had about 250 stitches took about 15min a row. Hundreads of rows!

A fortnight will probably be enough if you stick to cot size and aran or chunky yarn.

I'm new to knitting but have never crocheted at all!

Ages. Ages. 5 months? That was with DK yarn though. There are some lovely chunky baby yarns about - I used chunky bamboo to make a pram blanket shaped to fit round the harness. Took hardly any time. So if you're set on a blanket I'd say choose a chunkier yarn than DK.

36" square blanket without too much decoration in at least DK can be done in 2 weeks.

If you belie what everyone on fb says, about 3 hours. Practically speaking- I crocheted a 'call the midwife' blanket in about 3 weeks. Took me about 2 hours each day. I'm fairly slow and distractible though.

I'd put off learning to crochet for years, taught myself this year using YouTube videos (Bella Coco videos are great) and it's loads faster, obviously because it's quite 'gappy' 'holey' compared to knitting.

There's lots of nice chunky baby yarn that would work (knit or crochet) esp the self patterning ones, Hayfield baby blossom chunky is a lovely self patterning yarn and is quite new, it's about £3.50 a ball iirc.

I'd go on Ravelry, check the 'Patterns' tab and if others have knitted it, you can look at the dates on their project pages and see how long it took them.

Thats a great hint Joffrey! Thanks.

My DC are 7 and 9 and their blanket is not finished 😀

If you're new to knitting - buy one!

My sister knits blankets for charity - she knits squares and sews them together but she can knit for hours on end. I can knit but only fairly plain stuff and not much patience. Would like to learn to crochet -someone's mentioned a video - can you really learn from a video?

Can you sew? If so make an easy blanket with two fabrics (one should be cosy like fleece or brushed cotton) sewn right sides together, leave a gap to turn it right side out and top stitch round the edge.
If not then use a chunky yarn and make it car seat size.

Magic. I use YouTube all the time to learn new techniques or remind myself of stuff I forgot! I also have a couple of brilliant videos from 'Craftsy' (they do special offers every now and then so I wait til an offer is on, then pounce). 'Interweave' (a US crafts publishing company) also do some excellent video tutorials that are downloadable. And again, I wait for the sales which they have frequently.

I sit with my patterns and laptop so that each time I hit a stitch I can't remember I YouTube it! Hasn't led me wrong yet!