World's Largest Knitting Needles

A pair of wooden knitting needles more than 13 feet long is one of the oversized objects that draw visitors to the small Illinois town of Casey, and it was built to bring people into a downtown shop. Jim Bolin, a vice president at Bolin Enterprises, made the needles and a matching crochet hook in 2013. According to a July 2013 report, Guinness World Records confirmed the white pine needles at 13 feet 0.75 inch long and 3.25 inches across, beating a pair of 11 feet 5.8 inches held by Ingrid Wagner of the United Kingdom. The hook, at 6 feet 1.5 inches, became the first record in its category. They were made for The Yarn Studio at 2 East Main Street; to qualify, the shop's owner knitted and crocheted 10-stitch by 10-row tension squares with them in front of schoolchildren. Big Things Small Town, the project's own website, gives the needles as 13.75 feet long and 25 pounds each, and says the titles were held from 2013 to 2017. They are now two of the nearly 30 large works Bolin and his crew have built from repurposed material around Casey, a town of about 2,400, according to Arts Midwest in 2025. In 2013 the set was at The Yarn Studio, and a 2019 Illinois Times article described it in a yarn shop's window; ChambanaMoms and the project's own website place it outside the Under His Wings art studio. According to Arts Midwest, most of the town's sculptures are a short detour off Interstate 70, so the needles pair easily with the rest of the trail.