My dear daughter has been wishing for a jumbo yarn blanket for several years now, but I hadn’t gotten around to it (I wonder why). Knitting with jumbo yarn isn’t my favorite, but it’s still knitting, so given the opportunity I knew eventually I would come across the right yarn for it.
I noticed Red Heart Boutique Irresistible Yarn was on our 2017 KNITmuch schedule, and so I took the opportunity to take on the task of knitting it up. What’s that horrible expression, something about killing two of something so very sweet at once with something very hard…!
Irresistible yarn in Taupe
Irresistible yarn is a weight category 7, otherwise known as jumbo! So I’m using a whopping size US50 [25mm] knitting needles. The fiber is content 90% acrylic and 10% wool, the texture makes me think of roving, and there are two thick strands twisted together. This twist, I find, gives more texture to the finished knit. Each ball weighs 10oz [283g] with 29yd [26m].
My gauge is 4 sts x 4½ rows = 4” [10cm] on the needles I mentioned above.
Irresistible yarn is really big yarn! Look at my pen! One strand of this twisted yarn is the same size as the pen!
I asked for 15 balls of Irresistible yarn to make a 5’ x 6’ blanket in stockinette stitch with a garter stitch trim, of which I used only 14. I’ll tell you why in a later post this week.
It’s a happy feeling to get a box of yarn delivered at my doorstep, like Christmas in July?
I kept the blanket simple — no pattern, no cables — and used Red Heart’s Cool Comfort’s Knit Throw (free pattern) to gauge how many more stitches to add for a blanket. Red Heart’s throw measures 40″ x 50″ [101 x [127cm]. Later in the week, I’ll highlight some projects that include cables and simple stitch pattern suited for Irresistible yarn.
Follow me this week to learn more about my knitting adventure with a jumbo yarn and the tips I found along the way. We’ll also explore other patterns that make this yarn quick to knit up.
Cool Comfort Knit Throw is much quicker than my blanket. It has less stitches and rows. Although, my blanket is still a quick knit.
This is part 1 of 5 in this series.
Go to part 2: The knitty-gritty of Irresistible yarn
Go to part 3: Casting off and weaving in ends, a tip at your fingertips for jumbo yarn