Tuesday 25 November 2014

New Beanies for the Winter

Hello all!

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Winter arrived in Germany. This morning my car was iced and the temperatures dropped. I am quite happy with that (except for the de-icing the car) because I like winter. I hope it will snow sometime soon...

My little sister ordered a beanie for the winter. And as the nice big sister I am, I promised to make her one soonish. Of course that meant ordering new yarn. After all I only had hundreds of yarn balls at home and none of them was right. Do you know that feeling? Anyway, there are certainly worse things than ordering yarn.

I got several balls of Katia Maxi Merino (55 % Merino, 45 % Acrylic) and am quite happy with it. It's soft and squishy and easy to work with. The yarn was ordered online at Wollplatz and it arrived within 24 hours - lucky me! :)

However, I wasn't quite as lucky with the pattern I bought. It's the "Mini Shells Slouchy Hat" and can be found on Ravelry. The pattern calls for chunky yarn and a 6-6,5mm and a 8 mm hook which I used. Unfortunately the adult version didn't turn out very large and thus I had to frog the whole thing :( You wonder why this happened? Well, I used the 6,5mm hook to start with instead the 8mm. Sighs. Should have read better. There is German phrase which translates to "Those who can read have a clear advantage". I reckon that fits quite well :P

So I started a second one. Instead of using the 8mm (seemed to big for my yarn), I changed the beginning. Instead of 5 starting rows, I went with 6. Plus I increased to 60 st instead of 54. Oh and I used the 6,5 mm all way through til the border (then used a 5,5 mm). 

My sister is happy with the beanie! Yay!

As mentioned before, I have several more balls of the yarn. Thus I decided to make myself a beanie too. I started with the 8mm hook but I didn't like it. As the pattern increases fast, there were huge holes between the stiches. Not my cup of tea, so I went back to the modified version. As a result the stitch patterns are a lot smaller than in the original pattern but I am fine with that. 


What are you working on at the moment?

Take care
Anne

P.S. I am sorry for the quality of the pics. I do know of course one should always take pics in broad daylight. Well... I usually get home around 4.30 pm-ish which means it is as good as dark here in Germany! I promise to take some better pictures soonish. :-)

25 comments :

  1. What a nice beanie! I love red in all its shade, so I may be advantaged in liking it, but I really think it turned out great! : ) And I know very well the feeling of not having the right wool for a project though there's almost a wool shop around the house, common issue!
    Have a lovely evening! ; )

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    1. I am such a red person too! I love the colour in all variation! In fact most I own heaps of red clothes... :)
      Have a great day!

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  2. Lovely colour! very xmassy :) I still have your beanie pattern on my to make list, hopefully I'll get round to it soon! have a great week

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    1. Very christmas-y indeed! I love the christmas time... Plan to put up the decorations this weekend. What about you?

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  3. The beanie suits you quite well !!! very nice color, so bright red !! well done ! Have a great week !

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  4. The beanie is lovely. Well done on getting the pattern adjusted. I don't like it when crochet is so loose it is full of holes. I have tons of yarn in the house but always have to buy more for a new project. And I often mis-read a pattern and wonder what's gone wrong.

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    1. Thanks for your lovely comment! I am getting better with adjusting patterns :)

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  5. it's very nice, and it's my favorite color. It is perfect for the coming winter.
    I invite you to spend today on my blog, I decided to make a new section promoting your blogs, I hope you like it and if you're interested or have any questions you can contact me anytime. a big kiss

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    1. Thanks for the inventation! I will have a look later! :-)

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  6. I love the red beanie! It's always nice to have some color in the dark, grey winter months! :-)

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    1. So true! I try to wear colourful things in winter too. Otherwise everything gets so trist!
      Plus it's easier for cars to see you. :)

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  7. Nice beanie! I used Katia Azteca to make a really warm winter beanie. Love Katia yarns! I'm working on restocking snowflakes as I sold almost thirty of them at the show on Sunday.

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    1. This was the first time I used Katia yarn but I will certainly try some of the other yarn types of the brand too. Very nice to work with!
      Well done with your market stall!! 30 is a huge number! :-) When will your next stall be?

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    2. Wow! You must have a great design to have sold around 30 hats at one sitting. Well done! You have certainly been a "busy bea-nie" (insert bad joke groan here) ;-) couldn't resist!
      I don't know how you make so many of one thing - I would lose interest after a time. I admire your determination and you were rewarded with good sales. :-)

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  8. Hi Anne! Your beanie looks great! :) I need to make a crochet one as well!!! (Currently on knitting my 3rd hat!) I saw this pattern on my friend Pammy Sue's blog: http://scottys-place.blogspot.be/2014/11/catch-up.html - there is a link to the beanie on that page! I want to try it!!! :)
    Happy crocheting!
    Ingrid xx
    http://myfunkycrochet.blogspot.be

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    1. Thank you for the link! The beanie looks great and I saved the link straight away! Beanie are so much fun to make, aren't they?

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  9. Oh yeah! "hundreds of yarn balls at home and none of them was right" How does that happen? Been there! Your beanie looks soft and warm in the photo. I like beanies because if your head is warm, it is easier to keep the rest of the body warm. Of course, red makes it extra warm in the same way that red makes cars drive faster!
    Finding the right red for a project can be tricky sometimes. There are some nice reds like yours and then there are some garish ones out there too. I am currently working on a scarf with a red 5-ply acrylic even though summer starts tomorrow and it was over 30 degrees C this weekend. Can't help myself.
    Thanks for the reviews of the Katia yarns. I have some European magazines here that suggest Katia yarns. They appear in the local shops once in a blue moon but it is good to know whether it is worth the purchase or not. Thanks and have fun with all the beanie making everyone! :-)

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    1. So true - I only like beanies which keep the head warm, too. I freeze easily and it is so much better when the head is warm. I am thinking about adding some fleece liner. So make it extra warm!

      30 degrees! Woah... More like 4 here. :P

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    2. Quite a difference, ey? :P

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  10. Lovely beanie!!
    Have a great week.:*
    I'm sorry, please translation, my english is bad.:/

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    1. Thank you for your kind comment! And don't worry about your English! I am no native speaker myself. :)

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  11. 'There is German phrase which translates to "Those who can read have a clear advantage".' This made me laugh! :P The beanies are lovely! The colour is delicious.

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    1. I love German proverbs which are translated into English. They sound soo weird. Like: "I only understand trainstation" :P

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