And now to something completely different

While everybody is waiting for new Beatrix-photos (there will be some new ones coming soon – the back is finished!) here’s what I knitted and frogged the last couple of days:
It’s Bauble from Knitty. The beads where bought at Perlenpaula in Göttingen. It took hours to thread them on the elastic cord but the actual knitting went on quite fast. Frogging went even faster. Why frogging? First I think there are too many „holes“ in my Bauble. The one in Knitty and some others I saw on ravelry where somehow tighter. I will do a second version soon, for a friend of mine, and will use smaller needles this time. Second and perhaps more important, this kind of jewelry simply doesn’t suit me. Once a shop assistant called my wrists a „varicose vein of a sparrow“ which describes them quite well. They are awfully slender and a bracelet like that is simply too much.

Nevertheless I like the combination of the beads and turned them into a „normal“ wristband and a necklace. For the second version I bought different pearls to match a lava-pearls-necklace of my friend. Pictures following soon.

Game, set and match

Wimbledon is finally finished! Some stats:

Pattern: Wimbledon by Alison Hansel
Yarn: Schachenmayr nomotta Catania
Needles: 3.00 mm
Modifications: My gauge was off but that was no problem. I changed the ribbing at the collar from twisted ribbing to normal 1-1-ribbing. I did some increases less than the pattern called for at the collar so it is less curved down than in the original.
Overall I’m very pleased with the result. Love the fit and the little details like the twisted rib at neck and armholes and the light blue edgings. Only one thing to worry about: Maybe this isn’t the best combination of pattern and yarn. This tank is definitely for hot summer days. Catania is a 100% cotton that I like very much but it isn’t very light. The whole garment weighs 300 gram (about 10.5 oz) which isn’t that much but a real heavyweight compared to the normal tanks and tees you wear during the summer. We’ll see about wearing comfort – but I suppose we’ll have to wait until next summer since autumn has reached Germany very early this year.

Speaking about autumn: My knitting kit for Beatrix finally arrived and I casted on immediately: I had to go up in the needlesize from 3.75mm to 4.5mm (that’s quite a lot…) and I had one stitch less at stitch gauge so I will have to make some small modifications. You need a bit of concentration to follow the pattern and it’s written a bit strangely. It advices you to use moss stitch in the first row of the back (the instructions start with the back) – yet the explanation what moss stitch really is is found at the instructions for the sleeves (that’s the last part of the instructions). But, hey, of course I know what a moss stitch is The yarn, Rowan Felted Tweed, looks great. It’s really tweedy (?) with sprinkles of fawn and blue (will look great combined with jeans!). There is also something like short hairs in the yarn (first I thought it was my own hair – it’s everywhere in the bathroom, so why not on my yarn?) and it actually looks a bit felted. A great rustic yarn!