Oh my goodness, darling, I knit something fabulous! I don’t quite remember what inspired it, but I now have the cutest beach wrap, mesh pullover-y thing thing and I love it. Let me introduce the Lakeside Beach Wrap, by Knitatude. One of the main reasons that I love this wrap so much is that in addition to it being a super versatile piece, I used some recycled, really deep stash yarn. This yarn was a ripped out LL Bean 100% cotton sweater. I can’t remember if I ripped out the sweater or if it was one of the Ebay purchases that I bought years ago. The yarn is a natural color yarn and was quite spaghetti-esque because I never soaked and straightened it. I am generally nervous about knitting with the kinked yarn, because it can change the gauge when blocked and smoothed. I figured since this is an all-over lace pattern, and size really didn’t matter, that I was safe to knit as it was. Since the sweater was machine knit it is a 4 or 5 strand yarn. Not plied, mind you, but individual strands. This did make things a bit splitty, but not so bad that you noticed. I had about 600 grams of the yarn and it is a dk/ light worsted weight yarn. I believe their were 20 balls of yarn. The wrap used 245 grams, so I still have a ton of yarn left over. I knit the M/L size and I think it is a really good fit. The pattern called for size US 15 needles. I did cast on using those needles, but I wasn’t really happy with how loose and sloppy the lace was, so I ripped out about 3 inches and started over with size US 13 needles. I found that to be the perfect size. The pattern was very simple and potato chip-esque. The yarn worked perfectly in this pattern and the finished fabric is heavy enough to pull out the lace, but light enough to not be hot and bulky.
The negatives, if you can call them that are 1. the side seams- I need to fix the slit in the bottoms of the seam. I seamed them unevenly and it bugs me. 2. I found it weird that you went in blocks of 12 with either K2tog or SSK. I don’t understand the reasoning for mixing them up. I don’t see what difference it made to not just stick with one or the other. These are very minor issues, though, and I am so happy with my wrap.
I don’t know what justification I would have to knit another one of these for me, but I can totally see knitting this again! Maybe I will knit it and dye it black… hm… I may be onto something there. I will wear this over a bathing suite, over shorts and a tank, or over a summer dress. The pattern pictures showed every variation, and I can see me wearing them all. I think it will be so cute and I can see getting many compliments on it. I am just so excited to rock this wrap this summer!
Loves,
M
Mrs. Collins Makes Stuff 