Eleventh Hour Blanket
It’s not too late to wrap your favorite people in hand knit love! True, starting a knitted blanket now would normally be a recipe for big time holiday stress; but since we should all banish yuletide overdrive from our lives, I decided to design a blanket that, even if you worked at a leisurely pace, you could start now (or next week!) and be done in plenty of time for Christmas!
Of course, for this plan to work the blanket would have to be the kind of beautiful gift you love to give. And so for inspiration, I turned to a perennial Purl Bee favorite, the Eleventh Hour Scarf, and borrowing the concept, the yarn and the stitch pattern, the Eleventh Hour Blanket was born!
Doubling Cascade’s very soft and very bulky Magnum means not only a quick knit, but a deep and toasty blanket, perfect for cuddling and snoozing. It may not be the eleventh hour to the holiday season, but as far as knitting blankets goes, it is! -Whitney
Designed by Purl Soho designer, Whitney Van Nes.
Share your progress and connect with the community by tagging your pics with #PurlSoho, #PurlSohoBusyHands, and #PurlSohoEleventhHourBlanket. We can’t wait to see what you make!
Materials
- For the Main Color (Ecru): 7 skeins of Cascade’s Magnum, 100% Wool. Each skein is 123 yards/ 250 grams; approximately 861 yards required.
- For the Contrast Color (Birch Heather): 1 skein of Cascade Magnum. Approximately 123 yards required.
- A US 36 (19/20 mm), 40 inch circular needle.
- Two US 17 (12 mm) double pointed needles.
Gauge
About 3½ stitches = 4 inches in seed stitch, with yarn doubled and using the larger needles
Finished Size
42 inches x 52 inches
Pattern
Begin
NOTES
- For the Main Color, you will use the Magnum doubled. The best way to do this is to pull from two balls at once. For the seventh ball, just pull one strand from the inside of the ball and one strand from the outside. If you don’t have a swift and ball winder to wind a center-pull ball, never fear, you can do it by hand! Click here for a great video that shows you how!
With two strands of the Main Color and the circular needles, cast on 45 stitches.
Row 1: *K1, p1, repeat from * to last stitch, k1.
Repeat Row 1 until you have used all seven skeins, leaving enough yarn for the bind off row.
Bind off loosely in k1, p1 pattern.
I-Cord Edge
NOTES
- For the I-Cord Edge you will no longer double the yarn. You’ll use just one strand of the Contrast Color, like normal!
- I like to use a Provisional Cast On for this kind of edging so that, later, I can graft the two ends together. If you feel overwhelmed by a Provisional Cast On, then just cast on as usual and you can sew the ends together when you’re through.
With one strand of the Contrast Color and the double pointed needles, cast on 3 stitches.
Starting a few inches from a corner, make an Attached I-Cord around the entire blanket, picking up 1 stitch for every row or stitch.
At the Corners
When you get to a corner, knit 1 row of the I-cord without attaching it (in other words, just knit 3 stitches and slide them to the right end of the needle), then pick up a stitch at the corner (knit 2, slip 1, yarn over, pick up 1 stitch, pass the yarn over and slipped stitch over), make 1 more row without attaching, and then continue the Attached I-cord as usual.
Finishing
When you have knitted the Attached I-Cord all the way around, then use the Kitchener Stitch to graft the two ends together. (If you didn’t use a Provisional Cast On, then just sew the two ends together.)
Weave in the ends and enjoy your big, cozy blanket!
Hi. The link to the attached icord video is broken. When I search your site, I can’t seem to find it. Do you have a way to link directly to it?
Hi Melissa,
Thanks for reaching out and letting us know! I have repaired the link and will include it here for you!
https://www.purlsoho.com/create/attached-i-cord-tutorial/
Best,
Cassy
What is the best cast on to use to begin this blanket?
Hi Jes,
Great question! We used a Long Tail Cast On for our sample, but I have also seen this done with a Cable Cast On and it works equally well!
Best,
Julianna
Is this knitable with gentle giant?
Hi Malks,
Thanks for reaching out! Yes, Gentle Giant would be wonderful for this blanket – in fact, we already knitted a marled version using one strand of Gentle Giant and one strand of Super Soft Merino!
I hope that helps!
Julianna
Thanks so much! How many skeins of gentle giant?
Hi Malks,
Thanks for reaching out! We recommend 8 skeins of Gentle Giant for this blanket!
All the best,
Gianna
Hi PurlSoho gang! I’ve never tried double knitting before, and I’m thinking about using this pattern as my first foray into it. The instructions I’ve found so far usually say to alternate knit and purl/knit and slip according to color, with one color/yarn being used for the knit stitches, the other for the purls, etc. How exactly does that play out with this pattern? Would I knit twice, once with both strands, then switch to the front and purl twice? Thank you!
Hi Lilly,
Thanks for writing in! It sounds like you might be referring to our Double Knit Blanket. It is quite common to work double knitting as you describe using both colors at the same time in each row, but our method uses only one color per row – the two methods do produce the same fabric but our technique is just a bit more beginner friendly to help out knitters who are new to Double Knitting. If you are new to double knitting, I wouldn’t recommend trying to translate this pattern to the two colors per row method as it might be quite confusing. Our Double Knitting Tutorial should be quite helpful!
Best,
Julianna
If I want to make this but using only one strand of the cascade Magnum instead of two, what sized needles would I need please?
Thank you.
Hi Suzie,
Thanks for reaching out! I would suggest knitting a gauge swatch using Magnum held single on a US 13 or 15 needle. You can then measure your stitches per inch, multiply that number by 42, and round to the nearest odd number to determine how many stitches to cast on.
Happy knitting!
Julianna
Thanks very much Julianna.
Is the Magnum yarn washable. I love these blankets, but I
want to make something that for my grandchildren that
they can use and pop in the washer and dryer over and over
and over.
Hi Esther,
Thanks for asking about this! Magnum is not machine washable, unfortunately. We don’t currently have a machine washable yarn that is as thick as the required 3 1/2 stitches over 4 inches for the gauge of this blanket. For this project, we actually held Magnum, which is a super bulky yarn, doubled. Any washable yarn that can be doubled or tripled to get this gauge would be what you’d want to substitute. I hope this helps – please let me know if you have any other questions!
Best,
Cassandra
I d like to block my finished blanket to give it a little more length/width. Should I do this before or after adding the border?
Hi Carolyn,
Thank you for writing in! We recommend finishing your blanket with the border and then blocking your project just to make sure everything blocks out evenly. I hope this helps but please let me know if you have any questions!
Happy knitting,
Gavriella