I am always SO happy when someone wants to learn to knit! Thank you for passing the craft along. The very easiest baby blanket I can think of that is still pretty would be this one: Diagonal Baby Blanket

You only need to know the garter stitch, how to decrease, and how to yarn over. It is plain, but because it's on the diagonal, it adds interest. And the yarn overs at the beginning of each row give it just a little fancying up. Use any yarn you want and appropriate needles for that yarn. I suggest using a circular needle so that when you get toward the middle you're not struggling with all the stitches.

Also, you don't have to decide how large you want to make it right from the start. Once it is the width you want, you just start doing the decrease rows.

This does sound like it would be much easier for her to do especially not having to count for patterns and deciding where to quit for the length.

The garter is just all knitting stitches, right? What is a good size of circular needle to use. She has never picked up a pair of knitting needles before and I do not want to scare her off.

My friend is going to buy yarn from Hobby Lobby it is a variegated worsted weight yarn it says a 4 med. weight. The brand is," I Love This Yarn" and it is soft. I have not used any of the newer yarns so am not at all familar with it. This sure does not look like a worsted weight.

We need to keep the cost down for a first time project and for her budget.

Yes, the garter stitch is all knit rows. I Love This Yarn is considered worsted weight, but it has a silky feel and does feel and look more like an aran weight. I think a size 6 or 7 needle would be fine. I have even used 5 on that particular yarn. But, in my experience, New knitters tend to knit tighter, so I think I'd stick with a 7 for her. As for the length of needle, I would suggest a 32", or a 24", no shorter. The needles will be your biggest expense. Hobby Lobby or Joan both carry Bates circulars, which are probably the least expensive.

We are in luck there on the needles I have every needle on hand I will need to check the length of my size 7. I know I have two of the circulars the same size .

I am needing one of the circular for my project. I am even going to do make a Cuddle Bunny toy for her great grand baby. Then a knit stocking hat for my husband. I have not made any knit projects for a number of years. I am looking forward to this.

I am pleased that you shared the information about having had experience with this brand of yarn. There are so many out there that I didn't find any that I was even familiar with.

I haven't a clue how much yarn it is going to take. I do not know how to compute the amount as the pattern calls for yarn totally different. We'll just be sure to buy plenty

The tiny baby toy I am making takes a whole large skein of blanket yarn. I can only guess the lighter smaller yarn for baby blanket will probably take 6 or more skeins.

If you do a pattern search at the Lion Brand website, you will find that they have listed that exact same pattern nearly a dozen times and called it something different just because they used different yarn. You will find at least one that calls for worsted weight. I'll check a bit later and see if I can come up with one.

Well, it looks like Lion Brand has wised up and deleted the redundant patterns. But I've saved several over the years. These are all for a 30" square blanket. And the pattern I gave you the link for uses a yarn called Amazing, which I see is actually worsted weight.

I see one calls for one skein of Pound of Love, which is a tad over 1,000 yards (worsted weight). Another pattern calls for Cotton-Ease, which is an aran weight, and used about 830 yards.

I checked Ravelry and they list I Love This Yarn as being Aran weight, so we were right, not quite as heavy as worsted. It is 355 yards per skein, which means your friend should be able to make the blanket with 3 skeins. When the piece is 30" from corner to corner (not diagonally, but from 1 corner to the corner she started at), she can start the decreases. If she felt like buying another skein, she could make it a bit bigger. 30" is a bit small, but a very nice size to wrap a baby up with.

Let me know how your friend's recovery goes and how her blanket shapes up. Have a great time with your visit. You're a good friend.

Thanks I will have her buy 4 skeins, I like it when you can actually wrap the baby in the blanket!

Bad news developed and the surgery has to be cancelled. She got the flu and on top of that she has developed allergies to one of her meds. She is allergic to a lot of meds. Her throat is swelling and closing on her. Had to go to hospital two times this weekend. Once was today and her daughter drove her, yesterday she had to call an ambulance.

DR. says need to get over the flu first and then to find what meds are causing this. It something she has been taking for a while nothing new has been given to her.

When she is well, we are going to get started learning to knit this baby blanket. She is really weak from this flu bug so it may be a week or two.

We have been friends for over 40 years and used to baby sit each others kids, We each had 5 children so it was a great exchange.

I told her I was making a hat for my husband and she said she might like to try this too for her self. Knit right along with me.

Oh, sorry to hear she's ill and surgery has to wait. I believe things happen for a reason, although I'm often stumped as to what the reason can be. I've been teaching a fairly new friend to knit and I've found that she often does better when we are both knitting the same thing. It's the visual.

Yes, this is too bad. You are right things do happen for a reason.

I will check back when we have a project knitted.

Thanks for your help, I do appreciate it!

I'm sorry that your friend is having health issues. Learning to knit, and then continuing with knitting, will give her something great to do, and get her mind off those issues because she'll be concentrating on the stitches. I find knitting to be very relaxing, too.

According to the Hobby Lobby website, the I Love This Yarn skeins vary in length from 252 yards to 355 yards. The yardage depends on which of the yarns you get -- solid color, ombre, tweeds, metallic, etc. The pattern that Donna recommended calls for 6 skeins of Lion Brand Amazing yarn, which are 147 yards each (for a total of 882 yards).

Often, it is easier for a beginner to knit with heavier yarn and larger needles. An added advantage is that a project is done more quickly. :-)

Yes, when you first start out you really want to see progress, So easier pattern larger stitch and thicker yarn will be great.

Look for a bulky or super bulky yarn and size 15, 17, or 19 needles. Because it's a baby blanket, it should be an easy-care yarn -- machine washable and dryable.

I have never used any of the newer bulky yarn. Wouldn't this size of needles create large stitches? Maybe not if the yarn is bulky.

I am going to teach a friend to knit and I was afraid being too bulky she might have a hard time seeing if she lost any stitches while knitting.

You also need to be mindful of the fact that if the stitches are too large, baby can get little fingers and toes caught in those big spaces. I think it's best to stick with the worsted weight and save the bulky yearn for a super quick scarf.

This is exactly what I was thinking of with the bulky yarn and tiny fingers.

The yarn is very pretty and great for other projects but for me I won't use it for a baby, just my opinion.

You could do an advanced pattern search on ravelry.com ; knit...blanket....baby...worsted....easy...free.

I found my way to ravelry and they have lots of great patterns. My friend has picked out one she likes that is fairly simple. Soon I will start teaching her how to knit.

When I took her to the doctor on Friday we bought the yarn and are all set to start.

Just out of curiosity, which pattern did your friend pick? I am trying to build up a stash of baby blankets, washcloths, etc., for when our nieces and nephews have babies. I want to use a variety of patterns.

My friend chose the Sunny Baby blanket pattern free from liefstyle.howstuffworks.com

Our back up plan if this other one turns out to be too difficult for her is the Garter stitch baby blanket.. She chose a pretty rose color yarn that is soft.

We are hoping to get started one day this week.

Actually Aran weight is HEAVIER then Worsted I have gone up to size 11 with I Love This Yarn and still gotten a nice cloth but would not go up much higher. Grin it is a favorite of mine for the "5 Hour Baby Sweater" I am currently knitting a Castlefair Baby Blanket with A Pound of Love on size 7 needles and it is a bit dense I think. The Castlefair is just a gussied up garter stitch square blanket like the one linked earlier.

Wow! All these years I thought Aran was lighter than worsted, but you're right, Dorothy. I had to look it up for myself. Learn something new every day.

Dorothy, when you get finished wit the baby blanket I would love to see a picture of it.

I have started showing my friend how to knit. She keeps forgetting and I don't live close to her to show here again. We were to get together today for another lesson. It didn't work out her car broke down so i ended up driving her to do her errands. Then we just ran out of time. I probably won't see her until next month now.

The blanket looks great. this looks like the one my friend wants to do. I am waiting for her to call me back tonight. I want to see if she can drive over here tomorrow so we can work on her knitting.

This is a wonderful idea about a blanket for a car seat or stroller. What size did you make? Or what size would you suggest for the stroller or car seat?

I will suggest this to her when she is ready to start her baby blanket.

Too bad you aren't neighbors or something, she could send up a flare every time she gets stuck! I wonder if you could have her do a couple practice swatches--one garter, one stockinette, just to warm up her skills.

You mentioned a garter stitch blanket? Not sure which one that is, but it sure would be nice and drapey, easy too. If she has a variegated yarn, it would make up for the plain-ness of garter.

I would hesitate to suggest another pattern, it's confusing enough already, right? I've spent too much time browsing Ravelry myself, so I understand! Choosing a pattern is not easy! I like Donna's suggestion of the diagonal blanket. I think the Sunny is 30x34, slightly larger, pretty but a little more pattern following than the diagonal.

Have fun!

I will be seeing her in 10 days and we will have part of the day to play. Hopefully, she will have been practicing. I think I will see if I can teach her 11 year old granddaughter to knit. She lives just around the corner and can help grandma, when she is not busy with sports.

That's really nice of you! A simple garter stitch blanket would be ideal. Check out garter blankets on Ravelry. There are plenty of free downloadable ones there. And they will tell you how much yarn you need to get.

I have not been to the Ravelry site. Thank you for sharing this information.

While an all-garter stitch blanket will be easy to knit, keep in mind that garter stitch uses more yarn than stockinette stitch.

The Jimmy Beans Wool website has a knitting calculator that tells you approximately how much yarn you will need for various projects. It does say on the calculator results that the estimate is for stockinette stitch and that you'll need more yarn if your project has pattern stitches, cables, ribbing, etc.

That calculator also gives sizes for blankets. They are:

• 24" x 30" -- stroller blanket
• 28" x 36" -- lap blanket
• 36" x 36" -- crib blanket
• 36" x 48" -- baby blanket
• 48" x 60" -- afghan
• 52" x 70" -- large afghan

Per the calculator, if you knit a stockinette stitch stroller blanket, using worsted weight yarn with a gauge of 5 stitches per inch / 7.5 rows per inch, you will need approximately 614 yard of yarn. A 36" x 48" baby blanket would take 1,474 yards.

very useful information. I assume with using more yarn it may also take more time to knit.What size of needles would you suggest to use?

Thank you for sharing this. I will print this out some time I may want to make a blanket.

I think at this point my friend has given up trying to learn to knit. She had so many health issues and had the surgery postponed twice. She just had the knee surgery. I took care of her 3 days and then we left for our vacation. We just got back home and my friend has been in the hospital with other complications all week.

She was wanting to make this blanket for her great grand daughter before she was born. She is now 7 weeks old.

I'm so sorry your friend is having health issues and most likely is very disappointed that she did not meet her goal of having a handmade blanket for her great granddaughter. I hope she can make up for it by spending some time with the baby.

Loralee asked, "What size of needles would you suggest to use?"

I wrote, above, "... worsted weight yarn with a gauge of 5 stitches per inch / 7.5 rows per inch ..."

It is impossible for me to recommend one needle size. The yarn requirement given by the knitting calculator is the yardage needed if the knitting has a gauge of 5 stitches per inch (horizontal) and 7.5 rows per inch (vertical). That's why knitting a gauge swatch is important. The most commonly used needle sizes with worsted weight yarn are (U.S.) sizes 7, 8, and 9. If a swatch is knitted and the gauge turns out to be more or fewer stitches per inch / rows per inch, then a new swatch should be knitted using a larger or smaller needle. Some folks knit rather tightly and would end up with more stitches per inch so they would need to use a larger needle. Other folks knit very loosely, and end up with fewer stitches per inch, so they'd need to use a smaller needle.

Matching the gauge is very important if you want the finished item to be the size called for in the pattern. An example would be if you are knitting a sweater. Many baby blanket patterns will say that gauge doesn't matter because "it's just a blanket." While that is fairly true, if you are a tight knitter you will end up with a blanket that is a smaller than you intended.

I don't worry too much about gauge with a blanket. I just try a few rows and make sure I like how it works. Size 8 ( or 10) needles with worsted weight yarn would be good for a beginner. Really big needles are not as easy to work with for a beginner. If the sample you knit runs bigger or smaller than the gauge suggested, and you like the looks of the sample, then just do more or fewer repeats of the pattern as required.

Its great to know I can vary the size of the needles.

"Its great to know I can vary the size of the needles."

It's why patterns where gauge is important always say, "or size necessary to achieve gauge" or similar wording.

I knew there was a reason, sometimes a person just has to think outside the box.