Remember my first trip to Knitting On The Fringe with Linda my knitting buddy? I fell in love with more than the beautiful yarn. Behind the counter was a wall hanging which looked like it may have been knit by the Jolly Green Giant or Paul Bunyon (do you have to be from Michigan to know who Paul Bunyon is?) I was absolutely mesmerized, intrigued and immediately obsessed. "Where did you get this?" I inquired. The shop owner told me she made it. She even made the knitting needles using wooden closet polls which she sharpened. She put many different skeins of yarn together to create this rope sized fiber. I loved it and I wanted to do it. I began planning in my head. First I decided that I wanted my yarn to be shades of copper and teal. Next, I began collecting yarn. Remember how I collected pink yarn for my Survivor Shawls? I began doing the same thing with copper and teal yarn. I decided instead of a square, my huge wall hanging would be the rough shape of a giant garment.
I developed this fabulous collection of copper and teal yarns from all of my favorite yarn shops, walk-in and online. Yarn Paradise, Knit-A-Round, Silver Threads and Golden Needles, Lizzie Anne's, Yarn Quest, Crafty Lady, Webs, Jimmy Beans, The Yarn Barn; they're all in there and more. I must admit that I did not make my needles. I bought them online from Jenkins Woodworking. They are made from hardwood and will become part of the wall hanging.
My fiber rope contains 25 individual strands of yarn in copper and teal. Isn't it beautiful?!?! Just like pink became my favorite color when I was collecting yarn for Survivor Shawls, copper and teal became my favorite colors when I was collecting for this giant garment. This definitely was a labor of love. I had to learn a new technique to cast on. Knitting became comparable to lifting weights. It was definitely trial and error until Viola!, it's done. I have some additional final touches bouncing around in my head.
I am toying with painting different shaped, big buttons copper and tie them on with different strands of yarn. I am also going to wrap a huge styrofoam ball in the yarn used to make a big ball of yarn still attached to the giant garment. Then finally I have to figure out where to hang it. My wonderful knitting room is the obvious place but that will take a little reorganizing. Some day I will surprise you with the giant garment hanging on a wall. You will be impressed and amazed. From this project I learned the excitement of stepping totally out of the box and playing with no rules.