Bigga Bitty Blankie

Try to say that 4 times in a row fast. Bigga bitty blankie. Bigga bitty blankie. Bigga bitty blankie. Bigga bitty blankie. I’ve always liked tongue twisters. “Buy a box of biscuits. A box of mixed biscuits and a biscuit mixer.” Rubber baby buggy bumpers. Rubber baby buggy bumpers. Rubber baby buggy bumpers. Now back to the Bigga bitty blankie.

Awhile ago I bought more Sirdar Bigga than I needed for a project. Actually, the project was supposed to be two of something, but the one of something took more yarn than I planned. I was left with 13 skeins of Sirdar Super Bulky Bigga. It has a nice loft to it, for a super bulky, at 50% wool/50% acrylic. Quite a few too many knots, but no need to worry about it anymore because the yarn is discontinued now.

I tried to come up with something inspired for this yarn. Nothing presented itself. I posted on the “WWYK” (What Would You Knit) Ravelry group. But even that normally energetic group could not come with anything interesting. The best suggestion was Anna & Heidi Pickles’s pattern for Puff Daddy, a garter stitch knitted footstool. I had enough yarn to make Puff Daddy’s Baby. I figured stuffing the Bigga Baby Puff would have been a Bigga headache. Finally, I found a Classic Elite two row lace blanket pattern that looked like it would work. But the week at the office turned into about two weeks at the office and it took a bit out of me. I’m afraid I didn’t have enough brain cells left to tackle even an easy lace pattern. My concentration wandered. I kept screwing up.

Finally, I just cast on 76 stitches on size 19, 27 inch circular needles I wrestled from deep in my needle stash. Big blue, hollow, plastic needles. They’ll work. It was off to the races. I finished this 41 inch by 49 inch lap blanket in just over 24 hours. And I did plenty of stuff in between. It took about  half an hour a skein. To work with a super bulky you have to put up with knitting needles the size of broomsticks. But after the initial unfamiliar feel, it’s mesmerizing to see mass quantities of inches filling up your lap at such a remarkable pace.

So the Bigga that has been taking up space in my cedar yarn closet has left its dormant phase and entered its productive phase. It now can warm a lap. Warm a toddler. Be a place for a cat to find cozy contentment. Keep chilly feet comfy when the dialing down gets a tad aggressive. And after a challenging week of work, I knitted a blankie basically all in one day. Very cool.