Best Natural Yarn for a Blanket: 5 We’d Use Ourselves

There isn’t one best natural yarn for a blanket, because each fiber does something different. Wool is the warmest, cotton is breathable, and alpaca is the softest of the three.

They’re also the three that most blanket patterns call for. So we’ve picked five we’d use ourselves, each suited to a different job, with what to check before you decide.

What this article covers:

• Our Picks for the Best Natural Yarn for a Blanket
• How to Choose the Best Natural Yarn for Your Blanket

Our Picks for the Best Natural Yarn for a Blanket

These are the five we’d hand you across the counter, each for a different kind of blanket.

1. Malabrigo Rios (Best for an Everyday Wool Blanket)

Rios comes in over 100 colors, and every one is dyed by hand in Uruguay, so you’ll see the color shift a little through the skein (the bundle of yarn). Rios skeins ship as twisted hanks (unwound yarn), and we’re happy to wind them into center-pull cakes for you for a small fee. They’ll turn up ready to work from, with the yarn pulling neatly from the middle.

It’s superwash merino wool (from merino sheep), which means the fibers have been treated and your finished blanket can go in the machine.

The four plies (the individual strands) keep stitches crisp, so cables (the rope-like twists you see in a lot of patterns) and texture stay visible. You get 210 yards per 100g skein, so with 12 you have enough yardage to make something like a 50x60 throw.

Because hand dyeing means no two batches match exactly, we suggest buying a spare skein up front rather than ordering more halfway through.

2. Cascade Paca (Best for the Softest Blanket)

Alpaca is the softest fiber here. It has no lanolin (the natural grease in sheep’s wool), so it feels smooth against bare skin. Cascade Paca is 100% baby alpaca (which refers to the fineness of the fiber, not the age of the animal), and it’s left completely undyed, so the color you work with is the original color of the fleece.

You get 220 yards per 100g skein, so 11 would cover that same throw. You can order a single skein or a whole bag, which is useful when you need ten skeins for a blanket.

3. Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece (Best for a Lighter Blanket)

A pure cotton blanket gets heavy and dense once it reaches any size, so we'd go with a blend instead. Cotton Fleece is 80% pima cotton, a long-staple type whose fibers are longer than standard cotton, which makes the yarn smoother and much easier on your hands over a long project. The other 20% is merino wool, so the fabric has a little give and your blanket holds its shape instead of sagging the way pure cotton can.

At DK (Double Knitting) weight, which is medium-light thickness, Cotton Fleece is the lightest yarn in this list. It can go into the machine on cold, which is a blessing for a blanket that gets used every day.

The plies are twisted tightly, so your stitches come out sharp and even. DK is thinner, so it takes more yarn to cover the same area, and you’d need 14 for our example throw.

4. Berroco Gianna (Best for Striped Blankets)

Gianna is self-striping. The color is dyed in long stretches along the strand, so you get wide bands of color without ever needing to join different-colored yarns. That’s the easiest color "change" a beginner can make.

The blend is 46% merino wool for warmth, 26% cotton for comfort, and 14% each of baby alpaca and silk for softness and a faint sheen. It’s hand-wash only, so it would work best for making a throw that stays away from messes.

At 296 yards per 100g skein, it holds the most yarn of the five, so the same throw takes nine skeins, three fewer than Rios. There are eight colorways to pick from.

5. Malabrigo Chunky (Best for Finishing Quickly)

Bulky yarn (which is thick and heavy) creates bigger stitches, so you cover more ground with every row. Malabrigo Chunky is pure merino, hand-dyed in Uruguay like Rios, in more than 30 colors. It isn’t superwash, so you’ll need to hand wash the blanket.

Because it has three plies rather than four, you’ll get a rounder, plusher stitch. Each skein holds 104 yards, so the same throw takes 18, which is more balls than any of the worsted (medium thickness) options.

How to Choose the Best Natural Yarn for Your Blanket

Five things to check before you order:

• Fiber: Wool for warmth, cotton for breathability, alpaca for softness against bare skin. Blends sit somewhere in between, and a cotton blend is the way to keep a big cotton blanket from getting heavy.
• Weight: This is the thickness of the yarn. Worsted weight is the safest starting point because most blanket yardage estimates and patterns are written for it, though baby blankets are usually made in DK, which is thinner and can take longer per square inch. Bulky works up faster if you want to finish sooner.
• Superwash vs. not: Superwash wool goes in the machine. Untreated wool and alpaca need to be hand-washed, so save those for a blanket that can be well cared for.
• Yardage per skein: Check the yards instead of ball counts, because ten skeins of Chunky and ten skeins of Gianna can make very different blankets (1,040 yards against 2,960).
• Color: Solids suit stripes and granny squares, self-striping gets you color changes without joining yarns, and hand-dyed shades vary between batches, so buy all your skeins at once.

Frequently asked questions

What about silk, cashmere or mohair?

They make fantastic blankets, but they’re tougher for a beginner. Mohair hides your stitches, so mistakes are hard to catch and fix, and silk and cashmere cost far more per skein. Stick with wool, cotton, or alpaca if you're still learning.

Will a wool blanket be itchy?

A blanket made from fine merino won’t be itchy. The fibers are thin enough to bend against your skin rather than poke into it, which is why every wool on this list is fine merino. The coarser wools are the ones that prickle.

Can I use a different yarn from the one my pattern uses?

Yes, as long as you match the weight and swatch it. Before making your blanket and committing to your yarn, create a gauge swatch (a small square to measure how big your stitches are) and compare your stitch count to the pattern’s.

Is natural yarn better than acrylic for a blanket?

For a blanket you’ll sleep under, yes. Wool and alpaca hold warmth and move moisture away from your skin, so you don’t wake up clammy. However, acrylic costs less and is a bit more durable, so some people prefer it for kids' and animal blankets.