Knitting an Extreme Knitting Yarn - Me and my big ideas!

I must confess, I am prone to slightly over ambitious ideas and this is just one of those ideas...

A couple of years ago I found this 4ply machine knitting yarn on E-bay.  At the time I convinced myself that it was too much of a bargain to pass by.  They must be a knitwear factory's end of line stock as I managed to buy 5 cones of varying weights for £25.  They worked out at £2 a kilo for a heck of lot of chenille yarn.  Oops!

I didn't really have a project in mind for them and so they've sat, all this time, almost filling my poor daughter's cupboard, taunting me to actually do something with them.

This year, instead of making a New Year's resolution, I've decided to just pick a word - 'De-clutter' - and this means using up some of those crafting supplies that take up too much space and actually doing something with them.  This yarn definitely fits into that category.

I dug out my 30 year old Brother knitting machine and set to work knitting some 'yarn'.  A sort of extreme, velvety t-shirt yarn if you will.

I had to remind myself how to cast on, but I finally managed to get those 12 stitches to stay on and just set to work.  Left, right, left, right in stocking stitch.  I did very briefly consider making it as an I-cord, but as that would involve making 2 passes to work 1 row, I very quickly dismissed that idea.  It curls up in on itself as it knits anyway.

The thing I'd forgotten though was just how much using the machine hurts my back, so this is very much a work in progress.  I can't just sit for a few hours at a time and settle back with a good film.  10 minutes at a time is about my limit.  Oh the frustration!

Here is a sneaky peek at my efforts after just 2 days. If you're interested, I'm managing 90 rows a minute. My intention is to work through the whole cone. I've done 10% so far. This could take a while...

Related posts:-

Making super chunky yarn
from crushed velvet

Update on my extreme
knitted yarn

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