Laura Thompson Woolly Mahoosive Marketing Assistant, Chunky Crochet Blogger and Freelance Illustrator / Designer

Hello! I’m Laura, I have been working for Woolly since August 2020 helping out with all areas of branding and marketing. Although I come from a textiles background and am a dab hand at embroidery, knitting, sewing and all sorts of crafts, I have never ever tried crochet, let alone chunky crochet!

Why Haven’t I Tried Crochet Before?

Honestly, I’ve been quite put off by how complex it looks! I’ve seen examples with tiny yarns and hooks, a million stitches, extremely intricate looking pieces; I’ve cringed at the thoughts of impending eye strain and evening upon evening of working my fingers to the bone and not getting very far! I don’t have the patience or time for that! I’m a working mother of a 3 year old, time is too precious! But I’d never considered chunky crochet before!

However, I started this role with Woolly and absolutely love working here. The team of ladies are amazing and it is great to work with a product I’m genuinely passionate about. So I thought I’d better get crochet savvy and that would help out massively with my work.

How I Got Started with Chunky Crochet…

After quick coaching from Woolly Mahoosive owner and self-taught chunky crochet guru Andrea and watching several YouTube beginner’s tutorials, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it actually isn’t that complicated! Especially when chunky crochet stitches are so easy to see.

Although my first mistake was to watch some US based videos, and of course all you pro crocheters out there know that the terminology in the UK and US differs. What I’ve learnt so far is that in the UK there is no single crochet term, what is a single crochet in US is called a double crochet stitch in the UK. Confusing.

So I switched to UK tutorials and everything started to become clear.

I watched tutorials from Bella Coco – YouTube , I found Sarah-Jayne’s videos very clear, straight to the point (don’t you hate when tutorials waffle on at the beginning?) and had no problems following along. So thank you Sarah-Jayne at Bella Coco 🙂 for your fab content.

Keeping Crochet Chunky…

Of course, I was practicing with our chunky crochet yarns from Woolly Mahoosive, and I must say I was amazed how quickly your work builds up when using giant yarns; so my beginning fear that I’d be labouring over a tiny square of crochet for days did not come true. Also, I could see what I was doing with the thick threads, it didn’t feel fiddly, more robust and like I had a good handle on the work.

My very first experiment was to learn to chain, which was to come in handy as I was planning to re-fresh our photography for our giant crochet hooks available on our website. I thought the pictures would be really cute if it also featured our chunky crochet yarns, matching the appropriate ranges of yarns we recommend to use with a particular size of giant chunky crochet hook. Below are the results:

12mm Chunky Crochet Hook

15mm Chunky Crochet Hook

12mm / 15mm

For use with our 12mm wooden crochet hooks, we suggest trying out our super chunky and soft 100% Merino Yarn Balls which we supply in 100g or 200g or our super chunky Squiggly yarn 500g (70% acrylic / 30% polyester). You could always experiment with Squiggly and our 15mm hook too for your chunky crochet project.

Our 5mm Macramé and Crochet Cord is also a great one to try with our 12mm or 15mm hooks.

20mm Chunky Crochet Hook

20mm

Our Wiggly Yarn is available in 3 colours; Mauve, Teal and Bronze, composition is 30 % wool 70 % acrylic and works well with our 20mm giant wooden crochet hook.

10mm Macramé and Crochet Cord is also a great one to try with our 20mm hook.

25mm Chunky Crochet Hook

25mm

Try our our Super Mahoosive Chenille in 2cm or 3cm thicknesses, our Wiggly or even our giant smooth Ribbon Yarn using 25mm crochet hook.

For a truly chunky crochet project, try crocheting with the 20mm Giant Macramé Rope Cord, a great yarn to create nautical style home décor and accessories such as storage baskets.

40mm Chunky Crochet Hook

40mm

Our 3 ply Twisty Twisty yarn can be crocheted on 40mm wooden crochet hook, along with the Ribbon Yarn.

This giant hook is also great for our Super Fine Merino Wool, Get Stuffed tube yarn and Mammoth vegan acrylic yarn as an alternative to arm knitting.

50mm Chunky Crochet Hook

50mm

Super Fine Merino and Mammoth can be used with our biggest giant wooden chunky crochet hook, at 50mm it is a beast! Once you get the obligatory giant male anatomy jokes out of your system and the giggles subside, it’s a really fun and novel hook to play around with!

I’ll keep sharing my beginners crocheting journey over our blog and see how it goes.

Will I become as “hooked on crochet” as everyone says? Only time will tell…

Share your chunky crochet story with us on Instagram @woollymahoosive, #makeitmahoosive 

Looking For Chunky Crochet Inspiration?

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