Christel, Done!

Christel is finally done!

Details, details: Christel is a knitting pattern by Herbert Niebling, found in Kunststricken: Große und kleine Decken, ISBN-13: 978-3897980709, published by BuchVerlag fur die Frau and reprinted in 2004. I bought my copy from Lacis, but I just checked and it looks like they are out.

I used US 00 (1.75 mm) needles for the center, which shows up clearly as the dense center in the blocked photo. Just above the leaves, I switched to US 0 (2.0 mm) needles, and I like how that came out much better. And yes, I am relieved that the dense center didn't make the more open part ruffle up. I've been worrying about that for quite a while.

The vintage thread was 400 yards of Ace perle knitting cotton, about the thickness of size 12 perle cotton. It was slightly discolored (yellowed) on the outside of the ball, but most of that soaked out in clear water.

If I used this weight of thread again, I think I could even go up to a US 1 (2.25 mm) needle.

The finished size is about 20 inches in diameter and weighs 40.8 grams. The pattern called for three rounds of crochet bind-off, but after I finished the first round, I was seeing a lot of cardboard showing through the thread ball, so I cast off.

The remaining thread measures 31 yards. I might have been able to squeeze a second round out of the thread, but I'm not tying it back on now!