Finished: Handspun yarn "Coleus"

Fiber: Corriedale
Color: Coleus
Seller: TheFiberDenn at Etsy

Comment: It's the same yarn as here and here. This one if navajo plied unlike the very first mini skein (2-plied) I made.

Finished: Sewn skirt with ruffles

Pattern: Oops, I can't really remember... I remember using Sew What! Skirts: 16 Simple Styles You Can Make with Fabulous Fabrics It's a nice book which teaches you let your creative juices flow and design your own skirt.

Comments: I like the fabric a lot. The skirt is not too bad either. When I made it I was thinking about something à la Provence. I don't know how old this skirt is. I tried it on a couple of weeks ago and thought it didn't look so bad and I realized that it only needed a zipper. Me, giving up on things that are only inches, nah, milimeters, away from being finished? Ne-ver...

There's a zipper in the back. Instead of using some elastic for the waist I used a long bow/tie/ribbon? (I'm also struggling right now with the right word for it in German... ahem... Schleife? Band?). It's superlong, so I can wrap it around me and tie into a bow.

Colorwise the first picture is probably closest to the true color, although I like how bright and nice the blue is in the third picture. And I really like the ruffles. :)

I have some fabric left to make pouches or bags for my knitting. Awesome! :)



You may have noticed that I fixed my template. The guy who created the first template must have deleted the images, hence, all the error messages. I got a similar template somewhere else at blogandweb.com and spent Sunday afternoon tweaking it here and there. Now most issues have been fixed. The template has been adapted for Blogger and is based on "Integral" from www.freecsstemplates.org. The template is based on "Integral" from www.freecsstemplates.org and was adapted for Blogger. Hm, I think, I should go and save all the images before they disappear again.

Finished: Ribbed Lace Bolero

Pattern: Ribbed Lace Bolero by Kelly Maher
Yarn: Filosoft by Wolle Rödel, 52 % merino, 48 % cotton, handwash at 30 °C, recommended needle size 4 -5 mm, recommended gauge 22 st x 28 rows = 10 cm
Color: white
Price: €3.75? per ball
Amount: 2.5
Needles: 3.5 mm for the ribbing, 4.5 mm for the body
Gauge:
Dimensions:
Modifications:
"Switch to size 8 needles now"

I think I did this a row earlier, so that the stitches that were going to be cabled would be on the needles with a size 8, just like the stitches that had been undergoing ssk and k2tog on the other side had been sitting on needles size 8.

Comments:
I'm convinced shrugs look like very clever constructions (you have a circle/rectangle and sew it here and here and voilà, a finished garment. How easy and clever is that?), but the fit is weird. There are three interconnected issues: collar, back, arms (armhole). Either the collar is too big or you have this bulk in the back or your armholes are too small. I think you will always only get a fit that is ok, but not great. Or maybe it's just my body. Ok, I might also rearrange the back material a bit by turning the collar in a bit more, then it might be acceptable. From the front it looks nice.

Love the yarn. I've already used it in another color, red, but it didn't feel as nice as in white.

Oh my, the combination of bad posture and ill fitting clothes...


I think I like pictures taken without flash better. It's weird how different I look in the picture with and without flash.


I like kitty, but kitty doesn't like me. Hmpf. Supposedly it's a very affectionate cat, but while I was talking to it, its tail was swinging nervously back and forth, as if it was sweeping the street.

Finished: Orangina in pink

Pattern: Orangina by Stefanie Japel (it's actually cheaper when you buy the PDF from Ravelry: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/orangina
Yarn: "Seidenglanz" by Schachenmayr nomotta, 100 % cotton, 125 m/ 50 g26 st x 36 r = 10 cm x 10 cm, recommended needle size: 2.5 - 3.5 mm; one of my friends said that the yarn is now called "Catania". I can't remember exactly how "Catania" looks like, but I think it does look similar. Each ball had a couple of knots.
Color: 158
Price: €1.25, reduced from €1.75
Amount: 4 balls
Needles: 3.25 mm for the body and 2.5 mm for the ribbing. I would have preferred 2.75 mm needles, but didn't have circulars in the right length.
Gauge: 18 stitches (2 pattern repeates) in 9 cm
Dimensions: 9 pattern repeats each for front and back
Modifications:
Made it smaller. I was afraid it would emphasize my shoulders too much if it was too wide. The ribbing is also lower, but that's just because I assumed that with blocking the body would shrink lengthwise, so I knit a couple rows more. It didn't really shrink and I was just too lazy to rip back again and I thought that this piece was already full with mistakes anyway. And also, it looks ok that way. If I hadn't liked the look of it I probably would have ripped back.
I knit the top in the round after the armholes. If you knit in the round, you can reduce some stitches, but be aware - you can not just line the pattern repeats one after another. It will not work where the beginning and the end of the row meet. At the sides you need to keep some of the edge stitches. Trust me, I've repeated this over and over again until I finally understood that my knitting was correct and it just did not work out, no matter what I believed.

After joining to knit in the round and after like 10 cm I tried it on and realized that the armholes are too big. - I just don't know why they were too big! AAAAHHHH! I had measured it! At this point and after ripping back so much I decided to make the armholes smaller by sewing the side seams together.

Comments:
The yarn doesn't seem to be a great quality. Usually I don't block garments inbetween, but in this case I wanted to check the length of the lace part (I turned out to be longer then expected, but just couldn't bother anymore), so I soaked it in water, meaning, I did not wash it with any detergent, just soaked in water and then blocked it. After drying, checking the length, etc, I continued working on the ribbing, and guess what, there is a color difference. You can even see it in the picture.
The edge around the neck curls. The swatch was ok, but here the edge curls. I just blocked it again, but still, it seems like the curled edge is going to stay.
I think I like it, despite the armholes and the curling edge.