Extreme Knitting with Jacqui Fink

Jacqui Fink is an extreme knitter. She works with large scale needles and merino wool from her home country, Australia. Her super-sized stitches can become the extreme knitting she’s known for - large scale textiles, installations, and wall hangings.

She began working on large scale projects using wool that’s unspun, called Merino Tops - or roving (the type of wool used in needle felting). But roving is fragile, and not durable.

To create projects that have a lasting durability similar to regular knitting yarn, Jacqui found a mill that helped her develop a process of twisting and felting roving wool. Her resulting large-scale yarn can be worked like regular wool yarn.

Since switching from roving to working with her company’s felted K1S1 yarn, she’s created textile art projects for interior and exterior site-specific pieces, using hand knitting and knotting techniques. Jacqui’s K1S1 opens up possibilities for textile artists, knitters, designers, and crafters to take quantum leaps in what can be crafted from wool.

    · Don't miss: Our list of 25 Best Selling Knitting Books.

Watch Jacqui’s videos below for casting on and getting started, dealing with the weight and bulk of large yarn, and finishing off a project. Then, for clarity, watch Wool and the Gang’s regular-sized yarn tutorials for casting off and knitting a garter stitch (at the bottom of this page).

·You might like our blog posts: How to Knit, Yarn and Knitting Basics, and Knitting Videos.

Feeling inspired by Jacqui's work? Check out her commissioned pieces on her website’s Gallery page.  You can find her yarn for sale at Little Dandelion, and explore more videos and projects on her Online Tutorial page.

POPULAR POSTS