Make your own extra-bulky yarn for arm-knitting!

You may have seen them on Pinterest or Facebook: Ultra-chunky throws and blankets made with super-bulky yarns. And then you realise that it can be difficult and often expensive to get hold of super-bulky yarns. 

What about making your own? It is easier than you think!

Crochet method: Take a bulky yarn you like. Anything in 12-14+ ply that will work with needle size 6-8mm upwards will be fine for this. Use either your fingers or a big crochet hook and crochet a chain. This will be your extra bulky yarn! You can make it even thicker by working with two strands of yarn. Keep going until you have created a chain long enough to work with.

Use the Frankfurt Knot to add a new strand of yarn. The Frankfurt Knot is a clever knot that is very strong and at the same time very small. No need to weave in the ends - you can cut the yarn very close to the knot and it won't come undone. The key to this knot is to feed the shorter yarn end under the other yarn, feed it around the other yarn and then make a simple knot into the yarn end itself  (in other words, do not knot both yarns together at this point). Then do the same on the other end and pull to bring the two knots together. The two knots will essentially stop each other from coming undone. 

The following video shows how to do this knot. (This video is not in English, but you can turn the sound off - the demonstration is pretty self evident).

Spool knitting method: Use a yarn you like, it doesn't have to be super-bulky. Make a long cord on a spool knitter (also know as Knitting Nancy or French Knitter) and use that as your yarn.

To spool knit with thicker yarn, make your own spool knitter using a toilet paper roll and four paddle pop sticks. You can use this the same way as a Knitting Jenny.

Multi-stranded yarn method: Pick a yarn you like and use several strands of the yarn at the same time. The benefit of this method is that you can start straight away on your final project.

It can be a bit tricky to work with several strands at once if you are not used to this, as you want to make sure your different yarns don't get all entangled up. You can reduce the number of balls you are working with by using both yarn ends from inside and outside the ball.

You can even make your own multi-coloured yarn that way - simply pick different colours to mix and match. Or create unusual effects by mixing different types of yarn - there are so many options here that you will have fun experimenting.