Needlecrafts Knitting

Knitting Guidelines for Standard Bed and Blanket Sizes

standard blanket sizes for knitting

The Spruce

Lots of knitters love to make blankets and afghans because, even though they can be large projects, they are very satisfying. The feeling of knitting love into every stitch is certainly present, and knowing that you are literally keeping your friends and family warm when you knit blankets for them is a great feeling.

It's like literally knitting a hug.

Design an Easy Knit Blanket

Just pick a pattern to stitch and a yarn you'd like to use, make a gauge swatch, ​and use that to determine how many stitches you need to make a blanket the size you want.

But what size do you want? Different countries have different standards for the size of mattresses. Blankets designed to go on beds tend to be significantly bigger than the bed they are going on, so there's room for tucking and for a little bit of blanket to hang over the sides of the bed.

In America, the "standard" sizes for blankets are as follows:

  • Crib: 45 by 60 inches
  • Twin: 66 by 90 inches
  • Double: 80 by 90 inches
  • Queen: 90 by 90 to 100 inches
  • King: 108 by 90 to 100 inches

Of course, the size of your blanket will vary based on the depth of the mattress, how much coverage you want, whether you want it to hang to the floor or comfortably cover the pillows, and so on.

If you're not American or are planning a gift for someone overseas, you can alter these measurements slightly to correspond with the slightly different measurements of beds in other countries. And even if your measurements aren't perfect, odds are whoever you're giving the blanket to will be so thrilled they won't even care if it doesn't fit their bed perfectly. Just call it an afghan or a throw, and it's still a lovely gift, whatever its size.

Standard Mattress Sizes

This chart gives the sizes in inches and meters for the four main types of mattresses sold in most of the Western world. Another size you might want to know is the size of cribs, which can vary in size but usually have a mattress around 28 by 52 inches.

U.S. UK Australia Europe
Twin (Single) 39x75 inches (1x1.9 meters) 36x75 inches (0.9x1.9 meters) 36x75 inches (0.9x1.9 meters) 36x79 inches (0.9x2 meters)
Full (Double) 54x75 inches (1.35x1.9 meters) 54x75 inches (1.35x1.9 meters) 54x75 inches (1.35x1.9 meters) 55x79 inches (1.4x2 meters)
Queen 60x80 inches (1.5x2.05 meters) 60x78 inches (1.5x2 meters) 60x80 inches (1.5x2.05 meters) 63x79 inches (1.6x2 meters)
King 76x80 inches (1.95x2.05 meters) 72x78 inches (1.85x2 meters) 72x80 inches (1.85x2.05 meters) 71x79 inches (1.8x2 meters)

Note: Measurements are approximate.

Yarn Requirements

Of course, once you know the size you want to knit and the gauge you're getting in the stitch pattern you want to use, you'll need to know how much yarn to buy.

There are some rough yardage estimates for knitting baby blankets. Of course, if you are working from a knitting pattern it will tell you how much yarn you need, or you can look for patterns of a similar size to the one you are planning to estimate how much yarn you will need for your project.