Supersizing Your Crochet

Have you ever wondered if you could take a crochet pattern and supersize it? Make it bigger somehow without having to redesign the pattern? Well, you can! By experimenting with the gauge a bit, you can get a completely different result. There are some pros and cons to doing this, but if you use it judiciously, you can make some really fun supersized projects! Since I just finished a couple supersizing projects recently, I thought I'd share some tips with you all about how to make it work. 

The latest supersizing project I made was this giant bunny. I wanted a big bunny for my youngest's Easter basket, but I didn't want to redesign an entire thing, so I used my Beatrice the Bunny pattern (one of the Cookie Pals) instead. As you can see from the pictures, I ended up making the new bunny more than twice as tall as Beatrice, but I didn't change any of the stitches in the pattern. I just used a different yarn weight and a different hook size. The trick is that you want to make sure that your new gauge doesn't leave holes between the stitches, because it won't look very good and the stuffing will come out.

The original pattern uses a size E (3.5 mm) hook, but I ended up using a size J (6.0 mm) crochet hook. With a hook that large, regular worsted weight yarn was not going to work. Instead, I used super bulky blanket yarn. For things like hats, you can use two strands of worsted weight yarn held together to get a bulkier effect, but I find that doesn't work as well for things like amigurumi because it tends to leave large gaps. So a blanket yarn or another super bulky yarn is ideal for giant plushies. Depending on what yarn you have available, you may need to play around with different hook sizes to get the effect you want, but a good rule of thumb for plushies is that you need a hook size at least a couple sizes smaller than the hook recommended on the yarn label (depending on how loosely you crochet, you may need to size down more than that to get the stitches tight enough to avoid visible gaps). 

One thing that I've noticed when I'm scaling up a pattern is that it can exaggerate any shaping, since my stitches tend to be proportionally taller with the blanket yarn (just because of the way the yarn pulls when I use it). As you can in this side-by-side photo, the shaping on the head on the large bunny is way more distinct looking than it is on the small bunny (although, to be fair, the small bunny has been played with pretty hard over the last 4 years, so it's not exactly in prime condition anymore). This shaping difference isn't necessarily a problem, but it is something to be aware of, since it can change the proportions of your final product. 

I find that there are pros and cons to working with the super bulky yarn this way. The pros are that it's really soft and huggable and you can make something way bigger without very many stitches. My kids LOVE the plushies made with the blanket yarn, so they're definitely crowd-pleasers. The biggest con for me is that making tight stitches with blanket yarn hurts my hands; I crochet a LOT and very rarely have any issues with my hands hurting, but I have to take frequent breaks with this yarn because it definitely makes my hands sore (this yarn has a lot of resistance when you pull it, so you have to work a bit harder). Another con is that the super bulky yarn tends to be more expensive, and you'll need a lot more stuffing, larger safety eyes, etc, so your overall cost of materials can be higher per project. And if you're using a blanket yarn like I did, it can also be harder to see your stitches since the yarn is somewhat fuzzy; it's a lot easier to lose a stitch, etc, when you can't clearly read your stitches. 

It's also important to note that you won't be able to rely on the yardage from the original pattern. Changing up the gauge is definitely going to affect the amount you'll need. The smaller bunny used around 100 yards of the main body color while the larger bunny used closer to 175 yds. So you should definitely make sure you have more yarn (and way more stuffing!) on hand than the pattern calls for. You'll also need to make sure you have an extra large tapestry needle on hand (one with an eye large enough for super bulky yarn) so that you can sew any pieces together. 

I hope that this was helpful! If you have any other tips or tricks for supersizing crochet projects, I'd love to hear them! You can reach me in the comments section below, by email, or on social media, and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Happy hooking!

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