Knitting

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Book Review: Loopy Mango Knitting

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Loopy Mango has been know for years as a maker of really big yarn and the patterns to match. Owner Oejong Kim has just had published a book of patterns using the company’s yarn that it purports can all be knit in a day.

Even if they’re not quite that fast (especially if you’re a new knitter, you’re not going to knit a blanket in a day, no matter how big the yarn is), these projects have simple shapes and stitch patterns that will be quick to knit on the big yarn and needles the projects call for.

The book includes basic knitting instruction — it’s easy to learn on big yarn and needles because you can see what you’re doing — as well as patterns rated by skill level (absolute beginner, beginner and intermediate).

There are 34 patterns, including scarves, sweaters, blankets, hats and more. The projects aren’t listed under the book on Ravelry because some of them are sold in kits but you can check out my flip through of the book on my Instagram page.

Some of my faves are the Mohair Headband, Her Fringe Shawl (a big Garter Stitch triangle with fringe), the Fisherman Rib cowl, a couple of patterns using a fun aster flower stitch, and the Meri-Mohair Sweater, which combines a funny, thinner mohair with a big bulky yarn in a fun textured stripe sweater.

It should be noted that the sweaters are only in one or two sizes, and they are intended to be oversized, so if you have a larger frame or don’t like the oversized look these projects won’t appeal to you.

Still, there’s lots of cute, easy projects here for people who do like the oversized style, and this book might be just the thing if you’re looking for some great gift knitting ideas.

About the book: 192 pages, hardcover, 34 patterns. Published by Abrams, September, 2019. Publisher’s website

Comments

  1. Hi was wondering what patterns are listed for intermediary knitters. There’s an absence of images and contents for the patterns that are included for this skill level.

  2. Usually patterns are on Ravelry but because some of these were already published on their site, it doesn’t look like they have done so. That said, the whole book is suitable for beginner and intermediate knitters, and 16 patterns are labeled as intermediate.

  4. I don’t think I have my copy of the book anymore, but looking at the video I did, it looks like there is a long mohair dress but that cardigan doesn’t look familiar.

Have you read?

Knit a Leopard Print Shawl and Learn about Yarn Substitution

When I was looking around for free knitting patterns to share recently, I came across this fun leopard print wrap from Yarnspirations. 

This fun bulky wrap gives you tons of practice with instarsia and makes a bold statement while keeping you warm. It’s rated for intermediate knitters and the design is charted but pretty easy to follow. And it’s only 50 rows and worked in bulky yarn, so it wouldn’t even take that long to knit. (You can grab the free pattern from Yarnspirations.)

So what’s the problem? The yarn that the pattern calls for has been discontinued, and it’s not a yarn that a substitute for immediately springs to mind. 

The original yarn was Patons Alpaca Blend, a single ply bulky yarn that was a combination of acrylic, superwash wool, nylon and alpaca. 

My first thought was Lion Brand Hue + Me, which is an acrylic and wool blend, with two plies instead of a single. It looks like it has the colors you would need to make this fun shawl. 

But as I was thinking about it, I thought this would be a good opportunity to introduce you to YarnSub if you don’t already know about it. This website is a giant database of yarn that can consider the qualities of the yarn you want to substitute and offer potential substitutions. 

It’s not only thinking about yarn weight, like I was, but also fiber content, number of plies, gauge and even the difference in yardage between one ball and another. It even looks at the price and can be filtered by your price range or preferences about fiber content (if, say, you’re sensitive or allergic to wool, for example, or don’t want to you acrylic). 

When I plugged in Alpaca Blend, it gave me a lot of different options, though many of them were self-striping or multicolored, which wouldn’t work for this project, and I don’t see a way to filter for solid colors only. 

Still, it’s a good tool to give you some ideas you might not know about or might have forgotten about, and it tells you how the new yarn is similar to the old one and how it differs, allowing you to make smarter choices when substituting yarns. 

[Photo: Yarnspirations]