Eleven Stitches

A Skirt!

I've been wanting to knit a skirt for years.  And I finally did it!  I'm not sure why I waited for so long, but this skirt (Ravelry link) finally put me over the edge.

Pattern: Drops 118-14 Skirt with Lace Pattern
Needles: US 6
Yarn: Rowan Lenpur Linen in Ignite, 8 skeins
Time to Knit: July 7 - August 21

The pattern was pretty straightforward and easy to execute, except that the charted lace drove me a little bit crazy.  The decreases were not symmetrical (they were all k2togs or p2togs) and on one row the placement of the decreases was not symmetrical when it could have been.  I should have looked at this from the start and fixed it, but I knit one repeat before I realized what was going on, and then I didn't want to rip it out or have it look too different from the others.  So I compensated a little (symmetric decreases using some ssk's and ssp's), and gritted my teeth through the badly placed decreases on that one row.
Other than that the pattern was fine.  The elastic was easy to put into the waist, and the skirt fit the way I expected it to.

The yarn was interesting to use.  It's 25% linen and 75% lenpur, which is made from wood pulp.  It's soft, kind of splitty, and seems to make a good fabric for the skirt.  I think the skirt has stretched somewhat lengthwise since I put it on this morning, but not to a horrible degree.  The label says that the yarn should be handwashed, but I put one of my swatches through the washer and dryer and liked it better than the hand-washed swatch.

 

The skirt is swingy and fun to wear.  It doesn't cling to my hips, and I feel like it's flattering. I did line the skirt because the lace section does go up pretty far.  I used some knit fabric that I had in my stash and traced the skirt's outline to make a simple pattern.

 

I'm so pleased with how it came out.  I'm definitely encouraged to knit more skirts, and I think I'm ready to also tackle a knit dress.  Maybe in time for Rhinebeck?

Two Knit Dresses

During my blog break, a lot of things happened.  I made up the class I missed last year when I had swine flu.  I finished all of my internship assignments for my Montessori certification and I passed the practicum, which is where I had to give a lesson in front of people who were critiquing me. The certification paperwork is in the mail!  I made lots of dresses.  I got my hair cut even shorter, and David and I got a new car!  Our previous car was 12 years old, and it was finally Time.  We had been wanting to get a Prius for such a long time, so it was an easy decision when we found out the old car had problems that were too expensive to repair.

Oh hey, I'm also wearing one of my new dresses in that photo!  It's Simplicity 3775, which I've made before.  Only now it's 2 sizes smaller, which fits much better. The fabric is from JoAnn Fabric, and it's a comfy blend of 95% lycra 5% spandex. 

 

I added a little modestly panel to the dress so it would be easier to wear to work. This is one of the most comfortable dresses I own, and I love it.

In fact, I love it so much that I decided to make another one with the same pattern right away!  The other great thing about this pattern is that it comes together so quickly.  Instant gratification can be so satisfying.

 

This one is a cotton knit from Michael Miller Fabrics.  I bought it at my local quilting store, and I was so excited to find knit fabric there!  This dress also came together quickly.  It has a different feel to it because the fabric is a little heavier. 

 

I've been wearing this dress with a little green necklace that I "made" myself.  It's two strands of seed beads and one fancy bead strung on some stretchy thread.  Another very simple, but very satisfying project.

I have to say that knit dresses are my favorites to wear.  I'm finally getting used to working with knit fabric, and I'm so glad.  I actually cut out some fabric that was not for the pattern 3775, and I hope to show that to you soon.

Running Out

I realized when I was getting to the yoke of my striped cardigan that I would soon be running out of yarn.  Out of all three colors of the yarn.  Since I started this sweater without much planning, I cannot say that this was a huge surprise.  It was inconvenient, however, because I really did want to finish the sweater.  Since the brown yarn was commercially dyed, I hoped that the color would not be too different between dye lots and ordered a skein.  (Fortunately, I was right!)  The pink and orange yarns were more problematic, since they were hand dyed by indie dyers. I decided that the corrugated ribbing had to go.

 

Since I started knitting up from the ribbing, I couldn't just frog it.  Frogging knitting from the wrong direction is fiddly and No Fun.  So instead, I snipped the yarn at the top of the corrugated ribbing and started un-knitting it.  I captured the orange loops from the row above on a needle as I went.

 

This was also fiddly, but I had a row of nicely picked up stitches at the end, and also a button band that was easy to frog.

 

I carefully took out all the pink and orange yarn, washed it, and knitted it into the yoke.  I didn't have quite enough to finish the entire yoke, but I'm OK with having a larger stripe of brown at the top.  I redid the ribbing at the bottom in solid brown, with a twisted 1x1 rib.

 

And now the sweater is ready for steeking!