Of Skirts and Shirts

Skirts

When I was in high school (lo! those many years ago!) I preferred dresses over pants because my body was never made to fit junior clothes. And though pants were easier to wear, I’ve always loved skirts.

The first skirt I knit was the Luna Flickering Flames from the Elann.com site in their Luna rayon/cotton yarn.  It was probably the first project where I realized how much I like knitting lace.  And although it was a lot of knitting, I enjoyed making it. I’ve since made Sasha,  Elderflower and Indigo Ripples.

I was looking on Ravelry for a new skirt and came upon Wry Punster‘s version of the Show-Off Ruffled skirt from Lace Style. I was inspired, so I started the skirt in some stash Elann Luna in red that I’d ordered to make another Flickering Flames skirt (I said I liked knitting it…). Once I got going on the bobbles, I actually enjoyed making them since I got to backward knit and was doing fine till I dropped the stitches that make the “lace.” Luna was not made for the Show Off Ruffle.  I think it is just too fluid.  I didn’t like the look of the “lace” and wasn’t convinced blocking would improve it, so I frogged it and went in search of another pattern.

Indigo Ripples was really a fast and satisfying knit, but I didn’t want to make it again for two reasons: 1) I wanted something different and 2) Evelyn asked me to knit the same skirt for her.  I’m not much for making things multiple times so three just wouldn’t work.  But I did like how Kat Coyle did the shaping, so I did a little math and cast on. I searched several books for lace patterns and settled on “Dainty” from Barbara Walker’s Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns for the main knit panel and “Daintier” for the bottom ruffle. To make it flippy like Indigo Ripples, I used the same cast off, and I have a new red skirt.

It was a pretty fast knit, if you don’t take into consideration how many times I had to redo the lace foundation row, after knitting the second lace pattern row.  There was over 200 sts, so reknitting at least three times was no small feat.  Still it was done in a week, and I wore it yesterday.  It’s a comfortable, “swishy” skirt.  I may have to get more Luna for more skirts.

Shirts

Last year I sewed Tom 25 shirts. The promise was for one a month (I have A LOT of fabric for shirts stashed).  I had hoped to do at least one shirt a month this year, but it just hasn’t happened – only seven so far, with the lastest in July.