Skirt Knitting

For many knitting moons,  I have thought about knitting a skirt.  Days and days   of pattern searching have occupied my knitting hours from time to time.  My ravelry favourites is full of pictures of skirts other knitters have made and my ravelry library is full of potential patterns.

Then I saw this one - Tink's Twirly Skirt  (scroll down)  - and immediately purchased the pattern.  Part way to commitment, I thought.  A summer skirt, knit in some summery fibre such as cotton or linen would be a good first skirt.  It is not a straight, or as they call it today,  pencil,  skirt that I worried might stretch out of shape when spending time covering my  lumps, bumps  and rolls. Instead, this  pattern fits loosely, less likely to reveal or stretch as it covers the hills and dales of the over-the-hill figure. 

A road trip with some knitting friends to Spinrite Factory Outlet in Listowel for their May sale put yarn in my hands that I couldn't resist.  Price, fibre and colours were all perfect.  Various cottons in shades of ivory, caramel and darker caramel, highlighted by some turquoise for that summer punch of colour.  My fibre-shopping friends that day commented that it would take me 'forever' to knit a skirt.

"I don't think it will," I said.  "I want it about 22 inches long - for me, that 's  the same as a sweater."

"But much fuller around." they said.   Yes, that is true - but there are no sleeves -  a balancing factor I  think  thought.

And indeed, it hasn't taken  long to knit it.

 

As you can see,  I am almost at the 22 inch mark.  The yarn was purchased May 6 and here we are, just over  are a month later, with Cinnie complete and the skirt almost so.

There are three tiers in this top-down skirt.  Each tier, sees the   number of stitches increased by 75%.  That means  the bottom tier contains way more stitches than the top tier.  Which gives a sense  means those bottom tier rounds are  very slow going.  Now that I have knit it once and know the  stitch count for a skirt that fits (or hopefully,  will fit) me, I think next time I might knit it bottom up. That way the finish line, in the last few days of knitting when finish lines grow in importance but seem ever improbable to achieve, would  approach more quickly.  It's a theory that could  work.

On the needles, I love this skirt.  Will it wear well?  T.B.D.  Cotton - will it stretch?  T.B.D.  Will it be, as cotton tends to be,  too heavy?  T.B.D.  Will it look hippy-like and homemade? T.B.D.   Will the colours remain bright and summery through washings?  T.B.D.  The only thing that is sure at this moment, is what I told Doreen, when she laughed and said " I want to see you wearing that."
You will, I said.  The goal is to wear it on Thursday, June 13 - World Wide Knit In Public Day in Meaford.  If you didn't previously have a reason to come - you do now.