The Yarn Mistake That Costs Chunky Knitters £50+ (And Takes 30 Seconds to Avoid)
By Fernando Santos
Good news before we go near a calculator: for a cardigan, you barely have to work this out yourself. But if you like a figure in your head before you commit (and most of us do), the real amount is far smaller than the pile suggests.
It looks like a lot, but it isn't
Chunky wool plays a little trick on the eye. A few balls of our roving look enormous, because each strand is so thick and soft and takes up so much room. Pile it on a table and it looks like enough to knit a sofa, so people assume a whole cardigan must need a small mountain of it.
Thick wool fills your hands fast, so a cardigan takes fewer balls than fine yarn ever would.
Because each stitch is so big, the rows build up quickly and the whole thing grows in front of you. A cardigan that would take dozens of balls of skinny yarn comes together in surprisingly few balls of ours. The bulk you're holding is mostly air and softness, not extra work.
What actually changes the amount
There's no single answer, and anyone who gives you one without asking a couple of questions is guessing. Two things really move the needle:
- Your size and length. A cropped cardigan uses less than a longer, slouchier one, and a bigger, roomier fit uses a touch more than a snug one. Our cardigans are designed oversized on purpose, so do think about the silhouette you actually want to live in.
- Your colours. A cardigan in one single colour is the simplest sum of all. The moment you add colourwork (stripes, blocks, a bit of pattern) the wool gets split across several shades, and you'll want a sensible amount of each rather than one big pile.
None of that is hard. It's just the reason a one-size-fits-all "you need X balls" never quite holds up.
Roughly how much, by size
That said, most of us still like a number to anchor to, so here's our honest working. This is the total weight of wool a plain, single-colour cardigan takes in each size and fit. These figures come straight from how the cardigan is actually knitted, stitch by stitch, so they're the very same numbers our kits and Design Studio use:
Or here’s every size at a glance:
| Size | Cropped | Regular |
|---|---|---|
| XS | about 1.8 kg | about 2.3 kg |
| S | about 2.1 kg | about 2.6 kg |
| M | about 2.3 kg | about 3.0 kg |
| L | about 2.7 kg | about 3.4 kg |
Either way, you needn't weigh it out yourself: buy roughly that much loose Gigante Wool, or simply let a kit in your size turn up with the exact amount already weighed and split.
The best part: you don't have to do the maths
You should never be sitting at the kitchen table with a calculator trying to second-guess your wool order. We've done that bit for you, in two ways depending on how you like to start.
- Order a kit and it's already counted. Every Gigante kit arrives with exactly the right amount of wool for the size you've chosen, plus a little working room: pre-prepped, in your colours, with the matching pattern. Pick your size, and the box contains what that size needs. No sums, no guessing.
- Design your own and watch it tally live. In the Design Studio, as you choose your shape, your size and your colours, it keeps a running count of the wool for you, including how much of each shade once you start adding colour. Change your mind, and the count moves with you. You see what you'll need before you commit to anything.
Both of those read from the same calculation behind the scenes, so whether you buy a ready-made kit or design something one-of-a-kind, the wool that turns up is the wool the cardigan needs. You won't over-buy, and you won't run short.
A word on buying a little extra
If you're the cautious sort (and plenty of us are) it's perfectly reasonable to keep a touch in reserve for peace of mind. One thing worth knowing: wool is dyed in batches, and different batches of the same shade can vary ever so slightly. So if you might want a little more of a colour, it's wiser to buy it now, from the same dye lot, than to come back months later. Our kits already include a bit of working room, so this mainly matters if you're buying loose Gigante Wool for your own project.
Where that leaves you
Fewer balls than the size of the pile suggests. The exact number depends on your size, your length and how many colours you're using, and the easiest, most reliable way to land on it is to let the kit or the Studio count for you.
When you're ready, this is where to begin:
Whichever way you start, the counting's already taken care of, so you can get on with the lovely part.
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