From One Extreme to Another

Way back in June 2012 I wrote about an extreme knitter by the name of Althea Crome. She uses very tiny needles and thread to re-create master pieces on very small sweaters. Check out what I said then about her work here.

Tools for using only 150 strands of yarn

Tugging yarn to ready it for knitting is a workout here

Today I want to write about another extreme knitter who has taken things in a completely different direction, using multiple strands to knit a mattress among other items. Rachel John from the UK is a textile artist and according to her own website:

During 5 years of research and development (2000—2005) Rachel re-invented textiles by changing the way yarn is used. She discovered that by mixing anything from 5 to 1000 strands of yarn together and, with her redesigned tools for the very thick yarn and extra wide pieces, you can easily and rapidly create stunning textiles for use at home, as gifts, as apparel. For instance hand knit a king size throw in just 2 days or an inch thick carpet rug in 6 hours.

Back in 2006 she set the world's record for the number of strands of yarn used at the same time in knitting by putting 1,000 strands together. From what I can tell from the video about it, the process looks pretty arduous to set up and then actually manipulate. (The investment of 6.5 minutes to see the process is worth it IMHO.) Here's photos of some of her finished work.

This isn't the type of knitting project I will be taking on soon, but the colour combinations used by this talented textile artist are indeed beautiful. I enjoy knitting with tools that are more portable, like #7 needles and 1 or 2 ply lace weight yarn. That's a project you can take on the bus.

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