Friday, December 6, 2013

Post Christmas Knitting

If, according to my knitting needles, we have already hit Boxing Day, then this next project is my 'post' pre-Christmas knitting.  This afternoon, I am going to wind the wool and hopefully cast on for this great sweater.

Since the day the pattern first  appeared on ravelry, I have been thinking about this sweater.  The stars were slowly aligning and finally, yesterday, I  purchased the pattern  and today, am anxious to get started.  Mine will be cardigan-ized so will look more like this version.

The first star  hopped into place  at  the Church garage sale and auction last June.  One of the members, a lady somewhat more of a certain age than I am,  donated two Scottish, pure  wool, pleated skirts for auction.  I loved them both.  One was in shades of green and one in shades of brown.  I tried them on and they both fit.  The decision was strictly colour.  I chose  the brown and was winning bidder. 
 
I love it.  Old fashioned, yes.  Classic, yes.  My colour, yes.  My size, yes.  Nothing better - except the sizing.  Today, despite weighing several pounds more than  I did at graduation, I still wear the same size  -  10 petite.  Vanity sizing is such an ego stroker.  The tag on the  skirt, sized  a generation ago,  reads 16.  I might just have to remove that.


Being June, and in no rush to wear a wool skirt, I hung it in the closet to  let the idea of what to wear with it start to percolate.  Sure, I probably have a cardigan or two that together with  a white blouse would look nice.  But I wanted to take this skirt over the top.  It had been lovingly cared for by a lady I see frequently.  She only donated it because she is no longer a size 10.  Or 16.  Like getting out the good china for company,  or shaving my legs mid-winter, I want her to know that it is special to me.

Another star fell into place when I went stash diving.  I have lots of these yarns.
 They are  perfect compliments to the skirt and will make a great, non-matching, matching sweater.  But still I felt they needed a pop of colour to take it over the top.

Oct 2, the last star  fell into place.  That was the day that my Collingwood knit group and I, along with knitters from Southampton and Meaford  went on our Wool & Wine Tour.  We stopped at Riverside Yarns in Owen Sound and there I found this colour of Cascade 220 Superwash DK. 
DK is  a perfect weight.  By double stranding the tweed cobweb weight and knitting it together with a single strand of the One Of A Kind yarn, I hope to achieve DK.  So the Cascade will work perfectly.  Every so often, I will throw in some of the limited supply of dark brown.  
 

The perfect colour combo for a great sweater for my skirt.
 

A swatch is probably in order.  My fingers though will have to take a tranquilizer as they are itching to get started.

4 comments:

Sel and Poivre said...

Well congratulations on showing the "stuck on hats" problem the door!

Jan said...

Oh those colours are perfect!

Sandra said...

I love it when a plan comes together! Those colours will be the perfect complement to the skirt - a classic all around!

Anonymous said...

wow, the stars were aligned - great colour combo for your pleated skirt!

GinaC.