My Skirt of Many Colours

Be prepared for many pictures of my glorious skirt! And like Joseph's brothers when he got his coat of many colours, be prepared to be jealous! :) But unlike Joseph's brothers whose dad wouldn't get them a fancy coat too, you can make your very own skirt if you want one...

Once I finished working in all those ends, I got out the advertising board I use for blocking and my blocking wires and stretched it out to size.

I wanted to make sure that it would hang straight from my hips and not pull back in around my knees and cause the mermaid shape. It took a good tugging, but the wool can take it! I also had to pin each of the points on the hem to make sure they were as pointy as possible.

Don't worry--after seeing this picture, I fixed
the right side that is pulling in.

Once it was dry (which didn't take long), I put the skirt over the ironing board and steamed out the creases caused by the wires along both sides. This stuff really does block wonderfully.

Now my biggest problem is what to wear with it. Someone at Red Purl was astounded that I would think I had that problem. She figured with all those colours, "What couldn't I wear with it?!" But I am still having trouble.

Maybe this just means I don't have enough solid coloured shirts. It also has to be something that can be untucked and then hangs at the right height.

What will be an easy decision is what shoes to wear with it. I found these Missoni flats at Goodwill:

They still had the tags on them! I had to debate about the price because it was a little higher than what I like to pay. But I decided to go for it because they would suit the skirt so well. When I got to the register, the worker announced that they were half off! Score!

"What did you do this morning?" they ask me.
"Took pictures of my butt," I answer.

Knitting this project was completely addicting. The pattern was straight forward and with every other row nothing but knit, I always had some "down time" while knitting. I had to force myself to stop when I got to the right length because I would have been happy picking new stripe colours for quite a long time! I am very glad I changed it to a top down in-the-round knit. I see most knitters of the pattern on Ravelry are following suit.

When I reviewed the stats on my Ravelry page, I was very surprised to see that the skirt took two months to finish. I thought it was more like a few weeks! But then I remembered that it sat neglected for some time when I had to sew down the waist band, and then again when I had to work in the ends. (Poor thing!)

Superman pose!

Project Stats
Started: 4 Jan '12
Finished: 10 Mar '12
Pattern: Zigzag Skirt by Sasha Kagan
Materials: Evilla Longad in A-17a Grey, A-30 Orange/Green Purple, A-80 Purple/Yellow/Green; A-8 Blue/Browns, Green from raveled American Eagle vest, Black from raveled RL Polo sweater ($41.44 for materials not leftover from other projects)

This is me picking the burrs out of my skirt. I noticed them as the shutter snapped. One of the hazards of taking pictures in the wild. Burrs are especially bad, but really everything likes to stick to wool. This is sturdy stuff though; it can take it.

In conclusion, all I can say is love love LOVE it!!!

Ends and Beginnings

I finished the knitting on my ZigZag skirt on leap day. Here is a glimpse of the garter band I used to finish the bottom.

It came out a little longer than I was planning but I just couldn't stop! (Just one more colour, I kept thinking.)

And then I got attacked by the Pink Tshirt and didn't pick up the skirt again until tonight. I'm sure it had nothing to do with the many inches of ends facing me:

Two ends to work in for each stripe. It would have been more if I hadn't used the grey all the way down.

Tonight I started at the bottom and worked in the half that need to be sewn to the left. I don't know if this looks any better:

but that is only half as many to sew in. Once I make it to the top, I will flip the skirt over and work in the other half in the opposite direction. It's a good way to feel like you're making more progress and you don't have to flip the skirt over all the time.

Tomorrow I am meeting Isaac at the airport and I realized that I did not have a suitable project to bring along. Oh sure, I could have worked on the second (thicker) hat for Troy that I bought yarn for last week, or I could have worked on the cowl I was designing but then dropped like a hot potato. I could have even started some cotton dish cloths that I need to make. But no, no, no.

Instead, I search Ravelry tonight and bought a new sock pattern and gathered up some tools so I could start them tomorrow. I'm using my first Malabrigo sock and have high hopes for them.

It's a little risky to only take one project along (if you hit an insurmountable road block, you're stuck with nothing to do!) but I'm going to take that chance. Troy thinks I'm a gambling knitter; I may as well live up to his expectations!

Skirting the Line

I was going to write about Troy's lined hat which now is not only finished but also photographed, but my zig zag skirt just up and butted in line. Ok, ok, so I might have shoved the hat out of the way to make room. I'm allowed; I'm the bouncer of my own blog and the hat just didn't cut it today!

So on to the skirt which has just sashayed its way into the VIP lounge.

I had stopped knitting on it at least a week ago because I knew it was getting close to the right length but couldn't tell for sure until I did the waistband. Late this past week, I finally got to it and over a few days got the waistband sewn down with a Kitchener like stitch. (It's exactly like Kitchener except I sew it to a previous row instead of live stitches.)

Once that was done except for a 2 inch gap, I inserted a piece of 3/8" elastic. (I found a random piece just the right length in a box full of miscellaneous notions!) It has tamed the waistband nicely and I don't think I will need a drawstring, which I was considering.

The skirt before I tackled the waistband.
You can see how loose the waistband (on top)
was without the elastic and how narrow
the bottom was with the needle still inserted.

I finished inserting the elastic last night just minutes before I had to leave for the evening. I tried to put the skirt on "just to see" and quickly learned that both my legs would not fit through the end where I had the knitting needle still inserted. Gah!

Not caring at that point if it would making me late (and thinking it probably wouldn't anyway), I threaded a cotton crochet thread through the hole in the end of the circular needle and pulled the needle out. This got my live stitches on the cotton thread and, most important, I was able to try it on. I didn't have a mirror, but it looked and felt like success. I then jumped out of the skirt, back into my jeans and out the door. (And I was still two minutes early even though I had to turn around after getting a mile down the road to come back for my bowling ball, which I had forgotten.)

Anyway, before putting the stitches back on the needle and getting back to knitting, I had to try it on again today and look in a mirror. And I had to take some pictures:

The length is getting pretty close but I think it can stand a couple more inches before I do the final garter stitch band. I also hope to block it so that it hangs straight down from my hips and doesn't give such a mermaid look. (That's a euphemism for not making my hips look so huge!)

This will stretch the skirt width-wise, which will steal some of the length. So I need to knit it a little longer than it looks like it needs.

I feel obliged to explain that I did not dress up for this photoshoot, but happened to still be hosed and booted up from my church outfit. My only proof is that I would never pair brown argyle tights with a grey striped skirt. QED.

Skirting the Issue

I have been really enjoying working on my Vogue skirt (introduced in this post). It just goes round and round, and I delight in picking out each stripe. I seldom "get stuck" and seldom doubt my choice. (Except the wide grey stripe at the top. Trying to make myself live with it. Or convince myself it will be covered by whatever I'm wearing on top.) In any case, it's been fun.

It also feels like the stripes should provide me with a calendar/map of all the things I did and places I was when I was working on the skirt:

I know the skirt may look upside down, but it's not. I'm knitting it from the top down,
so the top of the picture is the top of the skirt.

I wish I could say all the labels were accurate, but I'm just not that good. (I did knit at the Harpeth Rising concert, though. I must have been a sight with a big mass of stripes on my lap and an overflowing bag of yarn because a man sat down to my left and said in his best ironic tone, "Gee, it's really too bad you don't know what you're doing..." I thought it was a great opening line.)

Since I first wrote about it, I did buy two more skeins of the Evilla colour-changing yarn, both because they had colours which pop. I went in looking for a cream, but rejected it for the blue of this ball:

and the yellow in this ball:

The purple from this one has also been a good.

The only overall constant of the skirt has been the grey which started light, moved to dark grey and then back through medium to light again. I wanted the skirt to end on dark, and I removed what was left of the the light grey so that I would get to the dark "on time." (Some time before it turned into a floor length skirt!)

I tried it on the other day Red Purl and the women there said I was on the right track. At that point I figured I only had a few more inches to go. I don't think I'll be able to make a final judgment of length, however, until I finish the waist so it can sit where it's going to sit. When I tried it on, there was a 3 to 4 inch range of where the waist might sit. That will make a big difference!

So although I've been knitting on it this week, I have been holding myself back since I know I have to do the waist first. And I haven't had a chance to sit down and tackle that. But I'm starting to get excited because this could very quickly become a "finish."

In which I have strong opinions--completely, absolutely, utterly, obviously, unquestionably

Although I didn't make a lot of hand made gifts this year, it's still a time of hustle and bustle and and trying to get things done. I needed to finish some slipper socks, as I recall. And working on my final (and finally mine!) Honey Cowl from the Kidazzle. It always seems appropriate to have a little recovery time after Christmas.

I let projects finish up as they do when you work on them and then didn't start any new ones. It provided a restful lull at the end of the year when I was concentrating on getting work done on my new kitchen and making sure not to dive into something too hastily.

But there is a strong pull for new beginnings at the beginning of a new year...

For the trip we took between Christmas and New Years, I did pack along some new yarn and work on a personal design for a cowl. I knit on it infrequently both because I didn't have a lot of knitting time and because I knew it wasn't going to work out. By the time I got home, I was willing to face up to the fact that I had to rip it out and swatch like a big girl.

I swatched up a few versions of the stitch I had in mind and there this project has sat for at least a week:

I'm pretty sure I'm going to go with the middle version--the one with the biggest visible holes. Each stripe is a different way to make an eyelet pattern on a background of garter stitch (with one variation with no holes).

I really like the colours in this variegation. It's very berry. Incidentally, this (right) is what it looks like when you have to rip out your knitting when you were working from both ends of the ball and then it sits at the bottom of your knitting bag for over a week while you carry it around everywhere.

It's a bit of a mess, but still recoverable, I believe. When I'm ready, I'll cast on a big loop cowl and see how it turns out on "take 2."

The next item was more of a necessity item. One of those cases where you're inspired to cast on when you or someone around you is cold, even though you may very well no longer be cold by the time it's done.

Troy has lost his big [fake] furry hat from Russia and his head gets cold. He was looking quite jealous of my new and much-loved subway hat. But he thought his hat would need to have two layers of felted wool, and on and on he went about how he thought it needed to be improved.

I said, "Put on my hat, go blow the snow outside and tell me if you think it needs more."

He did as I said and came in and said, "No this is fine. My head didn't even know it was outside."

"Yes, that is what I thought," I thought.

So I nabbed some black wool/acrylic blend (I know, I know, but I had it on hand) and started knitting. Start at the top with 10 stitches, increase 10 times around every other row until you have enough stitches. I stopped at 100 and that's about where I am.

A little note in case you are confused--the long bamboo needles
are just being used so Troy could try it on. I'm not actually
knitting the hat with them.

About 2-3 more inches and then I will have to decide what to do about covering the ears. After that, I will search for a suitably warm, fuzzy, yet manly felted sweater to line it with.

Let me say I hate working with these cheap, too short, metal dpns but I am too cheap to go buy good ones. How bad is that? Just a little bit? Not at all? I don't know. I just thought I'd say it out loud here in case you are working with tools that you hate too. You are not alone.

The most exciting project, by far, that I have going is a skirt from the latest Vogue Knitting. For the last few months I have been irresistibly drawn to knitting a skirt. And just before the VK issue arrived, I had queued a few patterns in Ravelry, one of them almost exactly like the Vogue one. But after some comparisons, the Vogue pattern won out. Not that it was too crucial as it is only a starting point--I am making plenty o' changes.

Let me first show you their picture, completely inspiring:

(I leave it open on my lap while I knit just so I can stare at it.) I do love their colours, but I wanted to use up my grey variegated and other "on hand" yarns. I went through what I had and picked up this assortment

From top left, I have the black wool raveled from a Ralph Lauren sweater (already used in my Circle Socks); green wool raveled from an American Eagle vest (already used in these socks), the grey variegated (left over from this vest), the orange, green and purple variegated from the same company (used in this vest), and black wool raveled from a ruined Gap sweater from a friend (used in my Mariah cardi). I'm not sure I'll use the last one. I also have a red American Eagle vest just like the green one that I haven't raveled yet. I think I will for this skirt.

A very different colour pallette, I know. I'm thinking I'll need to pick up a white or light cream for a few shots of brightness.

Here it is so far:

(I'm absolutely hoping for something Missoni-ish.)

I'm making it at a different gauge than the pattern and have had to adjust the pattern because of it. (Notes are all on Rav if you're really curious.) And although it may have the least effect on the final product, the biggest modification I am doing is knitting it in the round and from the waist down. Vogue Knitting is completely devoted to bottom up knitting in pieces. They knit this skirt from the hem up and in two identical pieces for front and back which are later seamed together. That is utterly bass-ackwards and I don't know why they keep insisting on this construction.

Obviously this should be knit seamlessly and from the waist down so you can
1. try it on as you go (which I did and it fits around my hips perfectly--hurray hurray!),
2. decide on the length as you're knitting.
Plus it's easier and faster to knit this way (no purling!) and more forgiving if you're running out of yarn (which I don't plan to do, but have a habit of doing so better safe than sorry). I could go on and on but I'll stop there.

Ok, I'll add one more thing. I hate knitting in the round and would love nothing better than to knit this on my favourite bamboo straights, but I'm not because it is unquestionably the wrong way to make this skirt. Ok, now I'm done.

I am prepared for this skirt not to be everything I've ever wanted from a knitted skirt, but I am loving it at the moment.