Wool Blanket AND Mattress Topper

In this Instructable

I'm going to show you how to make a HUGE fluffy soft wool blanket for winter that also DOUBLES as a wonderfully breathable wool mattress topper for the hot summer months AND where to buy the wool as cheap as possible.

It will keep you cosy warm in winter as a blanket and cool in the summer as a breathable mattress topper.

This will walk you through all the steps of

1. Where to buy your wool cheap
2. How to felt it so it won't shed
3. How to arm knit it up

You can use also use super chunky chenille yarn (which many who have wool allergies prefer). It also doesn't require any felting, just knit up and you're finished.

I've used 10 kgs (22 lbs) of White Eider Wool Roving (approx. 400 meters in length) for my project because it was the cheapest on the website.

This will make a blanket 200 cm (78") by 180 cm (70") roughly, to use it as a wool mattress topper simply fold it in half and lay it on your bed under the sheets.

Felting Your Wool Roving

Spraying it with a bit of water helps it felt up faster.

Wool felts by friction so to felt your wool roving you can.

1. Roll it between your hands OR
2. Roll it over a towel that's tucked tightly around your lap, OR
3. Section it off into 2 kilo (4.4 lbs) sections and pop it in the dryer on warm (NOT HOT) for 5 minutes. Repeat this until you've lightly felted all the wool and then tight it back together using a regular double knot.

*Hint - The bigger you make your loops the larger your blanket will be, the small your loops the smaller your blanket.

Casting On

1. Make a slip knot in the end of the yarn.
2. Slip your hand through the slip knot and grab the yarn again pulling it through the loop,
3. Now slid your hand through the newly made loop and grab more yarn and pull it through that loop.
4. Continue on until you have a chain of yarn as wide as you want your blanket.

Arm Knitting the Body

It's best to watch the video for instructions here, but I'll do my best to explain.

1. One side of the chain should have bumpy dashes and the other side should look like a braid or plait. Pull yarn through the bumpy bar to make a newly formed loop, then continue along the chaining pulling new yarn through each bumpy bar. You should have a chain full of loops sticking up to one side now.
2. Pull your yarn through one of the loops sticking up to form a new loop.
3. Continue moving across all loops pulling new yarn to form a new loop through each of them.
4. You now have one row complete!
5. Continue back and forth making new rows in this manner. It will take several hours so be patient, and take breaks to give your arms a rest.

Casting Off

Let's finish off the blanket now.

1. Knit two of the loops like you did on the rows before.
2. Now take the back loop (previous loop) and pass the other loop through it and let go.
3. You should now only have one loop left with the other loop securely laying sideways at the base of that loop.
4. Knit 1 more loop like you did on the rows. Now repeat step 2.
5. Continue knitting one new loop, then passing it through the previous loop until you only have one loop left.
6. Pass the tail of your yarn through the end loop and snug it up tight and weave in the tail, tucking it here and there to hide it.

You now have a HUGE blanket that can also double as a mattress topper!

Either way you use it you'll feel the luxury of pure wool. Be sure to put it in a cover if you're using it as a mattress topper to keep any fuzzies off your sheets.