First rows...
First rows are always the most painful of any project. So, why would any pattern suggest a lace stitch that involves putting the needle through three loops at a time on the FIRST row? Well, I
did try...got through three repeats before I decided it wasn't worth the struggle. Instructions be damned, I'm starting on a freakin purl row.
Beach Cover!
It's done! I thought it would be impossible, but it wasn't! It all came together in the end! It took exactly 4 balls of Patons Katrina. I used size 15 (12.75 mm) needles for the skirt, and size 11 (8 mm) for the top part. The i-cord straps were on size 8 (5mm) DPNs. I didn't do any decreasing from the skirt to the bodice as the change in needle size took care of that for me.
Here is the whole thing as is laid out on the floor. The armpits look strange...maybe I should get a shot of the top with it on my body. It does look perfectly natural when it's on!
The bottom of the skirt. I crocheted the scallop edge. It really, REALLY helped bring the finished look together. I was ready to declare it done before I added the border but it just didn't look right.
A close up...this yarn is difficult to photograph as it's ridiculously shiny!
The top. Again, too shiny to see much detail, but all the edges are finished off with one line of single crochet (double crochet if you're British!) and the neckline is one line of a crochet mesh stitch. I thought it could use a bit of lace at the top but I couldn't get it to look right knitted...so that's when I got carried away with the crochet hook!
In the end, this really was a lot of fun. I'm really excited to wear it to Aruba. I still have one entire ball of yarn left. Aruba is very windy so I might knit something to wear on my head to keep my hair in place. A headband or kercheif or something. Not to sure!
Moebius Scarf
This was an impromptu project. The pattern was in Simply Knitting, April 2006 issue. The clever thing about this Moebius is that it wasn't knitted and then grafted in a twist...it's actually knitted in a twist using a special cast-on technique. It was lots of fun! The yarn is Lorna's Laces Lion and Lamb in the Desert Flower colourway. I saw it from across the room and it was love at first sight...sad, but true. It was really gorgeous to work with...
I went to the Get Knitted warehouse in Bristol this past weekend for their monthly open house. I got this yarn as well as 7 balls of Rowan All-Seasons Cotton for £2 each. It is a charcoal colour...don't have one on me to see the exact name! I want to make a cardigan out of it...next on my to-do list is to swatch it and see what the gauge is like!
