Time for a new craft?

Thank you for your comments on my recent "search for snugness" post re: looking for a nice snuggly winter coat. While i'm hoping to knit at least two for the winter, I have decided that one of them would be Wenlan Chia's Bulky Coat from Vogue Knitting.

I have always loved Wenlan's aesthetic and have enjoyed her previous knitting books. That said however, I have never knitted anything of hers up. For one, I worry about how the bulkiness of her knits would look on me (i'm fairly petite so I dont want to look 1- Like i'm swamped and 2- Like i'm gained 10 kgs overnight in all the wrong places). But i figured that the bubble coat was "bubbly" enough to look as if it was meant to be slouchy, oversized, and something to be deliberately gobbled up in. So, dilemma 1 solved. Now for dilemma Two. Subbing for Twinkle Soft Chunky.

I have done a whole heap of research into possible subs for Twinkle Soft Chunky and have found suggestions including:

• Brown Sheep Burly Spun
• Rowan Big Wool
• Plymouth Yukon
• Cascade 128
• Cascade Bollicine Revolution

However, on inspecting the gauge instructions, none of them was suitable (too small).

According to Webs, Soft Chunky knits up at 1 st per 1 " or 4sts per 4". That's a FAT yarn.

So i thought, hey, why not get 3 or 4 strands of something smaller and swatching? So i tried 3 strands of worsted weight yarn that I had in my stash (but am not necessarily going to use on this project), and it gave me 8 sts per 4". Then I tried 4 strands and it gave me 7 sts per 4".

Just how FAT is this yarn?

Well, 6 strands of yarn gave me 4sts per 4" that's how fat. While the calculations aren't exact, that's almost 72 ply of yarn (metric)! That's a whole lot of yarn.

So then I went this way, and that way.. and in the end i thought "what if i spun my own yarn"? Yes , I'm considering buying a spinning wheel. Of course, for such a big outlay of cash, I'd need to research it a little bit more.. But the idea of being able to spin my own yarn to the colours and consistency that I want it to be is just too exciting!