Learn how to make your own giant yarn for extreme knitting and chunky blankets! Super easy and so much cheaper that purchasing wool roving!
For the last 2 years I’ve been obsessed with the giant knit blankets you see all over instagram. ALL OVER! You’ve seen them. They look like this.
And yes, I spent many hours looking at how to make one myself and I came to a few conclusions.
1. My arms are too wide to do arm knitting that looks half way decent.
2. Wool roving is expensive no matter how you find to buy it.
3. Buying one of these things is still ridiculously expensive.
4. Roving is not a great thing to make a knit blanket out of. It sheds and is delicate and you can’t wash it. And I have a cat that likes to make biscuits. Thats all that needs said there.
And while I’m sure there are a ton of other yarns out there to achieve the look, I decided to make my own.
In this tutorial you’ll learn to make your own giant yarn using strips of fleece for any number of projects!
How to make Giant Yarn out of Fleece!
Time: 2-3 hours
Cost: $40 – I got the fleece on sale!
Suggested viewing: A Series of Unforntunate Events (The Series)
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Supplies:
7-8 Yards of a solid color fleece
Fabric scissors or Rotary cutter
Self healing mat
Ruler
Your hands!
To begin, lay out your fabric (or as much as you can). Keep it folded like it came off the bolt. We’re going to work in 3 feet sections. Place your ruler to the folded side and start cutting 3 inch strips, leaving about 2 inches uncut on the edges of the unfolded side. – NOTE: Depending on what you’re going to use this for, you may want to use 2 inch strips instead of 3. I used 3 inches for a blanket, but 2 inches for anything having to do with giant needles (Size 50 or 70)
Just a quick side note…. maybe don’t do this if you have cats in your immediate vicinity. Or maybe Grampa the Cat is just a butthead. She basically decided all of fleece was hers to play with and hide under… but only while I was trying to cut it. Here is a cute photo for proof.
The easiest way I found to do this was to cut mark my measured out 3 inches, then go back and cut the rest of the strip. Just remember to leave those last 2 inches. This is VERY important.
Once you’ve cut your section strips, its time to make the yarn.
This is where it gets weird so I’m gonna walk you through it.
On the TOP layer, first strip – cut all the way to the edge. Pull the strip to the side.
Now, on the BOTTOM layer – First strip – DO NOT cut on the first cut, but the second, so you’ll have a bit of a U shape. Trim and round the outside edges of this “Turn” and set aside.
Do the same technique for the next line of your TOP layer that you just did for the BOTTOM layer. Trim around the outside edges.
You’ll notice that you’re making one long continuous strip of fabric. Keep going! As your yarn gets longer you can start to roll it into a ball.
Once you’ve finished with one section, keep the strip attached to the next section and lay out another section of fabric. Repeat the method above until you’ve finished all of the fabric. You should have a GIANT ball of yarn. You can also do this in two balls and use your needle and thread to attach the ends of both strips.
Ready to make something out of it?
