I'm pretty new to the knitting game, and if I'm completely honest, am still a bit scared of anything which isn't scarf shaped. But when I was offered the chance to work with chunky wool retailer Woolly Mahoosive, I just couldn't resist trying something a bit different with some arm knitting. The idea of knitting up a (literally!) huge project in 45 minutes intrigued me, and I couldn't wait to get started.
Now, full disclosure - this bale of Mushroom Pink Extremely Chunky Acrylic was sent to me for free, and I was given free reign to knit up a storm. Secondly, I had pretty much zero idea what I was doing and spent a lot of time watching various YouTube tutorials before deciding on a whim that the only way it'd make sense was to dive right in. Originally I was tempted to knit something shawl shaped so that I could include it as part of an outfit post, but since I had so much material to work with, felt a nice throw would be the best way forward.
The Acrylic Mammoth 4kg bale comes in a huge variety of colours, and is a super soft, man made acrylic with a pretty sheen. One is enough for a huge blanket, with it working out as 5 meters per 100g. It can be used to knit with 40mm needles, but I decided that arm knitting was something I really wanted to try.
After casting on and unravelling part of the wool, this was the situation. Nope, that's not some monster from the deep, that is in fact me under a huge pile of wool!
It took some time to get into the flow of it, but once I had it down, the blanket knitted up pretty quickly. The chunkiness of it makes it very satisfying as you get through the project swiftly, and seeing the progress really spurs you on. Most tutorials suggested that a "simple" blanket would take between 45mins to an hour, and my first attempt was probably closer to two. But that was mostly because there were a few false starts with both the casting on and binding off. Once I worked out what I was doing and how best to control the working strand of wool, things moved quickly.
It's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm really proud of my first attempt. It's about the size of our sofa and as soon as I floated the idea of unravelling it for a re-do, Lord Dicely swiftly jumped in to protect the blanket's integrity saying that "it was perfect". They're not kidding when they say love is blind, but as both him and Goldie were very quick to cuddle up with it, I'm not going to question it.
It definitely got the Goldie seal of approval, which was definitely good enough for me! It's definitely made me want to be more adventurous with my knitting projects, and now just need to figure out how to improve.
Until next time,
(All photos (c) Diana Thompson / Fashion Loves Photos unless otherwise stated. Please do not reproduce without written permission.)
I absolutely love it! If I could be bothered with the faff, I would make one for myself.
ReplyDeleteIf you ever get the time, it's a fun and cosy way to spend an evening. :) x
DeleteThis is amazing! Well done, looks great. I’d love to give it a go myself :) x
ReplyDeleteThanks lovely! :) It was so much fun to do! x
DeleteOh My God I so want to try this now! I love the colour of the wool and I have to say the end result is epic. I would love a throw like that myself. I can't believe it didn't take weeks to make either - perfect for a beginner like me x
ReplyDeleteI am USELESS at knitting, so honestly if I can make something which looks halfway decent, anyone can! ;) x
Delete