Jumbo Yarn Love

Last January, I was presented with an excellent birthday gift—the Knit-a-Dress-a-Day Knitting Book. The book is a crack-up-- suggesting you could make an entire garment in under 24 hours-- and I’m pretty sure none of the dresses in it would look good on me even if I could knit that fast. Come to think of it, I'm pretty sure the dresses wouldn't look good on anybody. But still, I love the idea of using super huge needles to make a project really fast.

I sort of forgot about the book until I saw some of the muy gigante yarns and needles from Big Stitch Knitting down at the store. Now I’m tempted to get a few skeins and make something—maybe not a dress but just something to see how it feels to handle such jumbo needles and yarn.

This in turn got me thinking about what the Yarn Harlot has to say about holiday knitting. She says you should only make gifts for people who really appreciate hand knitted gifts. Not people who say, “This looks like something from the store,” and not people who are going to shove the gift in the back of the closet.

The holidays are just about upon us—Thanksgiving is only a couple of weeks away. And despite the Harlot’s advice and any past experience we’ve had when it comes to unappreciated gifts, I think some of us can’t resist making a list that includes more hand knit gifts than we can realistically make.

So I’m thinking this big yarn might offer a compromise. If you can’t stop yourself from making presents, why not at least pick projects that knit up really fast? Nobody says you have to make socks for everyone that involve the equivalent of toothpick needles and dental floss yarn, right? Check out these pictures and think about the possibilities—maybe not a dress in a day, but perhaps a scarf or a hat.