No, I’m Not Thumbelina. I Just Knit With Giant Needles And Yarn
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Laura Birek Community member
In 2011, I decided to knit something giant. But I didn’t really know where to start. There were no tutorials available, so I was flying blind.
First, I bought six pounds of unspun wool roving, then I went to the hardware store and bought broomsticks to act as knitting needles. When the broomsticks were too small, I went back and bought 1.5″ diameter PVC pipe. I turned each five-foot length of pipe into “knitting needles” by adding duct-tape tips, and just started knitting. A few hours later, I had my Giganto-Blanket.
When I posted a video of myself knitting the blanket, I was suddenly getting a lot of requests for the pattern. So I wrote up the Giganto-Blanket pattern and put it up online, and now I even sell the finished blankets on Etsy.
More info: nocturnalknits.com | Etsy
Like Atlas, but with wool
Don’t look now, but you’ve got a giant ball of yarn behind you…
On the needles
Those knitting needles are five feet long. Seriously.
Playing with scale
Tiny bed or giant blanket? Oh wait, is that a cat?
All balled up
These balls of yarn are ready to be knit into a Giganto-Blanket.
It’s so squishy
Really, you can’t imagine how soft it is.
Free People custom design
Free People asked me to make a version of the blanket for their holiday shop.
Giant yarn, cat + spinning wheel
Neither the cat nor the spinning wheel is required for making the blanket, but they sure to do look cute sitting there.
My first attempt
It turns out knitting on broomsticks wasn’t good enough. I had to go bigger!
Cabled Giganto-Blanket
The giant scale of the knitting makes for really dramatic cable patterns.
Free People custom design
Free People decided to call it the “Big Sky Blanket” – they sold out almost immediately.
Quality assurance
My cat Magnus likes to inspect each blanket and give me feedback.
Tiny cat?
Molly is a small cat, but next to the Giganto-Blanket she looks downright miniature! (She loves “helping” me knit my blankets.)
Pure comfort
It turns out the blanket is my cats’ favorite place to sleep.
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Too much animal pain just for a blanket. There is no need for this these days.
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There is plenty of good whool to get from animals that have a great life. Yet the whool from uggs for example is plain cruel, I agree.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
The wool for Uggs is from animals that were being killed for food. They don't raise them and just kill them for their wool.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
The only "animal pain" is in your way of thinking.
Quite disgusting. Wool is inhumane, as some are saying.
Sheep have to be shorn or in the summer months or they can suffer terribly in the heat and with fly strike.
Yeah sure, they need to be bound, tortured, mutilated without anesthesia and butchered when they are "useless" for the heat, please...
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
It's funny reading comments from people who have clearly never been near a farm in their lives.
yarn doesn0t necessarily have to be wool!
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
Nah; you can take you bullshit animal rights extremist and go fuck yourself... preferably with a lambskin condom.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
Because this is more humane? http://img2.timeinc....0/sheep-440.jpg
If you know so much about farms you should know that the sheep have been genetically manipulated for centuries to produce more wool...
And this is the result, not their natural state.
Creation of human intervention... Wow, how deep. That's what they told you at the church?
What happens after a sheep is shorn? It wanders off confused and goes back to munching grass
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
Wether you like it or not you shear it! Or the poor bugger dies of heat exhaustion, dehydration or maggots eating under it's skin.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
That's 60lbs, 10 times the amount used to make the blanket. Imagine carrying all that around on a hot summer day
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
You might not like the practice but flystrike isn't any prettier. http://www.teara.gov.../p17443nsil.jpg
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
Please tell me Thomas, what is your plan of action other than banging on about practices you don't understand? How would you fix it?
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
There's always going to be sheep is what I'm saying, you either let it die horribly in the name of animal welfare or you give it a buzz cut.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
You can't just say whoops we f*cked up oh well we'll just wait for them all to die, no biggie
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
@Thomas - So you have a problem. You have a species that is your responsibility because it is historically a creation of human intervention
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
Church of Darwin- Nature isn't all cute animals; if you'd worked near it, you'd know that.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
In some respects I don't know who's side you are on but it's certainly not the animals.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
ha ha 4 people didn't like being confronted with the reality of being an unshorn sheep. Mulesing is ilegal in the UK before anyone starts.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
You are an idiot, wool is about as inhumane as a haircut... please take your vegan stupidity elsewhere
Just because you're an ignorant does not mean that the sheeps do not suffer mulesing. Take your stupid bullshit elsewhere...
nicola, almost 90% of the soy production is used for feed the animals on the farms. You're just talking nonsense, somebody had to tell you
Your hairdresser is doing this to you?
Yo must be a mad asshole if you still going there for a haircut.
https://www.google.es/search?q=mulesing&biw=877&bih=489&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=E2m_VMCbF8mvUanAgcgH&sqi=2&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ
Also sheep is the plural of sheep, not sheeps :P
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
Mulesing is only practiced where there are wrinkled breeds like merino with blowfly problems, eg Austrailia, cos the alternative is worse.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
If you are so passionate about it, I suggest you get out there and dip the sheep yourselves, but boycotting wool will lead to more neglect!
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
Shaving them is not harming them. And really this is what annoys me, you are all happy to b*tch about it but do nothing to help. Grow up!
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
Those animals will still be there if you boycott wool or not, but at least they are not neglected and left to rot under farming.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
That lassie used brown sheep wool so this post has sweet FA to do with cruelty
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
Silly spoiled little hipsters, who have never cleaned sh*t and blood of themselves. You have no idea how things work.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
To me this is an exercise in total lack of common sense.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
Sorry but I'm not talking nonsense. You work around animals, not house pets, you know they get diseases and the disease spreads.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
what do you think is in your tofu?
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
The rest of the world thinks you're idiots because no one else mules their sheep. Yes I think it's abhorrent, but maggots eating your flesh?
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
Apparently a lot of you are cool with animals dying from horrible disease. You probably believe eating soy doesn't harm the environment too.
You can find them at giantlycruelblankets.com or something...
To all that think it's inhumane to use God's bounty, have you ever seen sheep that were NOT sheared? Speaking of inhumane! Signed, ALL ANIMAL LOVER...
Too much animal pain just for a blanket. There is no need for this these days.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
There is plenty of good whool to get from animals that have a great life. Yet the whool from uggs for example is plain cruel, I agree.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
The wool for Uggs is from animals that were being killed for food. They don't raise them and just kill them for their wool.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
The only "animal pain" is in your way of thinking.
Quite disgusting. Wool is inhumane, as some are saying.
Sheep have to be shorn or in the summer months or they can suffer terribly in the heat and with fly strike.
Yeah sure, they need to be bound, tortured, mutilated without anesthesia and butchered when they are "useless" for the heat, please...
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
It's funny reading comments from people who have clearly never been near a farm in their lives.
yarn doesn0t necessarily have to be wool!
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
Nah; you can take you bullshit animal rights extremist and go fuck yourself... preferably with a lambskin condom.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
Because this is more humane? http://img2.timeinc....0/sheep-440.jpg
If you know so much about farms you should know that the sheep have been genetically manipulated for centuries to produce more wool...
And this is the result, not their natural state.
Creation of human intervention... Wow, how deep. That's what they told you at the church?
What happens after a sheep is shorn? It wanders off confused and goes back to munching grass
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
Wether you like it or not you shear it! Or the poor bugger dies of heat exhaustion, dehydration or maggots eating under it's skin.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
That's 60lbs, 10 times the amount used to make the blanket. Imagine carrying all that around on a hot summer day
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
You might not like the practice but flystrike isn't any prettier. http://www.teara.gov.../p17443nsil.jpg
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
Please tell me Thomas, what is your plan of action other than banging on about practices you don't understand? How would you fix it?
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
There's always going to be sheep is what I'm saying, you either let it die horribly in the name of animal welfare or you give it a buzz cut.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
You can't just say whoops we f*cked up oh well we'll just wait for them all to die, no biggie
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
@Thomas - So you have a problem. You have a species that is your responsibility because it is historically a creation of human intervention
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
Church of Darwin- Nature isn't all cute animals; if you'd worked near it, you'd know that.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
In some respects I don't know who's side you are on but it's certainly not the animals.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
ha ha 4 people didn't like being confronted with the reality of being an unshorn sheep. Mulesing is ilegal in the UK before anyone starts.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
You are an idiot, wool is about as inhumane as a haircut... please take your vegan stupidity elsewhere
Just because you're an ignorant does not mean that the sheeps do not suffer mulesing. Take your stupid bullshit elsewhere...
nicola, almost 90% of the soy production is used for feed the animals on the farms. You're just talking nonsense, somebody had to tell you
Your hairdresser is doing this to you?
Yo must be a mad asshole if you still going there for a haircut.
https://www.google.es/search?q=mulesing&biw=877&bih=489&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=E2m_VMCbF8mvUanAgcgH&sqi=2&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ
Also sheep is the plural of sheep, not sheeps :P
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
Mulesing is only practiced where there are wrinkled breeds like merino with blowfly problems, eg Austrailia, cos the alternative is worse.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
If you are so passionate about it, I suggest you get out there and dip the sheep yourselves, but boycotting wool will lead to more neglect!
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
Shaving them is not harming them. And really this is what annoys me, you are all happy to b*tch about it but do nothing to help. Grow up!
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
Those animals will still be there if you boycott wool or not, but at least they are not neglected and left to rot under farming.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
That lassie used brown sheep wool so this post has sweet FA to do with cruelty
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
Silly spoiled little hipsters, who have never cleaned sh*t and blood of themselves. You have no idea how things work.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
To me this is an exercise in total lack of common sense.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
Sorry but I'm not talking nonsense. You work around animals, not house pets, you know they get diseases and the disease spreads.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
what do you think is in your tofu?
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
The rest of the world thinks you're idiots because no one else mules their sheep. Yes I think it's abhorrent, but maggots eating your flesh?
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
Apparently a lot of you are cool with animals dying from horrible disease. You probably believe eating soy doesn't harm the environment too.
You can find them at giantlycruelblankets.com or something...
To all that think it's inhumane to use God's bounty, have you ever seen sheep that were NOT sheared? Speaking of inhumane! Signed, ALL ANIMAL LOVER...