Super Chunky Merino Yarn in 100g Balls: Meet Gigante Spun
By Fernando Santos
For as long as the cardigans have existed, people have written to ask the same thing: “I love your colours, but do you sell a normal chunky yarn? Something spun, in a ball, for ordinary big needles?” Now we do. It’s called Gigante Spun: 100% merino super chunky yarn in 100g balls, sixteen colours, on pre-order from today.
What super chunky merino yarn actually is
Yarn weights run from lace at one end to jumbo at the other. Super chunky (Americans say super bulky) is the thick end of everyday knitting: the weight you knit on 8mm, 10mm and 12mm needles, where a hat takes an evening and a scarf takes a weekend. Gigante Spun sits exactly there. Each 100g ball holds about 65 metres, it measures 6 wraps per inch, and it is a singles yarn, which means one soft, lofty strand rather than several thin plies twisted together. That single strand is what gives chunky knits their smooth, rounded stitches.
It is 100% merino wool, from non-mulesed sheep, Oeko-Tex certified and tested to EN71-3, the standard baby things have to pass, and soft next to the skin. Hand wash, do not tumble dry, do not iron. The usual rules for good wool.
Spun or unspun? How it differs from Gigante Wool
If you know Gigante for the cardigans, you know Gigante Wool: unspun roving that I split and comb by hand, for giant stitches on 25mm needles or your fingers. That is still the wool the cardigans and kits are made of, and nothing about it changes.
Gigante Spun is the other way to knit big. It is a proper spun yarn: finer than the roving, firmer, and ready to knit the moment it arrives. No splitting, no prepping, no fluff on the sofa. It is the yarn for chunky hats, scarves, cowls, blankets and chunky jumpers, for crochet with a 10 or 12mm hook, and for anyone who has a drawer of 8 to 12mm needles waiting for something worthy. Both are 100% wool. They are two different tools.
Gigante Wool is for stitches the size of your fist. Gigante Spun is for stitches the size of your thumb.
The sixteen colours
Every colour has a name from a story, because a shade called “mid blue” never made anyone smile, and colour should make you smile before you have cast on. The tales are the ones someone once read to you: big stitches, bigger joy, and a little make-believe on the needles. Here they are, as they sit on the shelf:
- Bear’s Porridge: warm cream, the colour of the bowl that was just right.
- Turkish Delight: soft rose pink.
- Briar Rose: hot fuchsia pink.
- Red Riding Hood: deep, true red.
- Enchantmint: pale mint green.
- Sherwood Sage: dusty forest green.
- Sugar Plum: lilac.
- Cinderella Blue: hazy sky blue.
- Genie Blue: bright royal blue.
- Mermaid Lagoon: teal.
- Witching Hour: midnight navy.
- Lemon Drop: soft lemon yellow.
- Gingerbread: rust orange.
- Toffee Apple: hazelnut brown.
- Woodland Mouse: mink taupe.
- Midnight Magic: black.
They are all the same yarn at the same price, so any two sit happily together: Bear’s Porridge stripes on Witching Hour, a Briar Rose pompom on a Sherwood Sage hat, Lemon Drop and Genie Blue for a child’s blanket. If you want to see them properly before you choose, the Gigante Spun page has every ball photographed.
How many balls of super chunky yarn do you need?
At 65 metres per 100g, the ballpark figures look like this. A chunky beanie takes 1 to 2 balls. A generous scarf, the kind that wraps twice, takes 3 to 4. A cowl is 2. A lap blanket is around 8 to 10, and a chunky jumper for an adult is somewhere between 8 and 12, depending on your size and how long you like your sleeves. Looser knitters use a little less, tight knitters a little more. The yarn maths post goes into what moves those numbers.
The price, and the sum behind it
A ball of Gigante Spun is £8. Put five or more balls in your basket, in any mix of colours, and every ball drops to £7. Five is about where a hat turns into a blanket.
I checked the UK shelf before I set it. The best-known names charge £12 for a 100g ball of 100% merino super chunky. Ours is £4 less, and £5 less from five. A twelve-ball jumper’s worth comes to £84 instead of £144. Same fibre, a different label and a different sum.
Pre-order now, dispatch from 27 October
Gigante Spun is on pre-order. Orders are open now, and dispatch starts on Tuesday 27 October: first ordered, first out of the door. If you add Gigante Wool or needles to the same basket, the whole parcel waits and ships together, so nothing arrives in two halves. UK delivery is free over £30; four balls gets you there. Outside the UK we ship worldwide, and the postage for your country is worked out at checkout.
Two ways in from here:
Keep reading
How Many Balls of Chunky Wool? The Maths That Stops Waste
Scarf, throw or cardigan: the ballparks, and what moves them.
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