Skirt Weather Will Be Here Soon Enough

Although there is still snow on the ground in Chicago, I know that eventually spring weather will be here. With that in mind, I cast on one of the skirts that I bought yarn for waaaaaaay back in October. The Chelsea by Cecily Glowik MacDonald is a just what I need to start out skirt weather this year. The flirty hand-knit lace at the hemline is a wonderful juxtaposition to the all business herringbone tweed of the skirt itself.

My yarn for the skirt is Wool of the Andes Tweed in Claret. I have already knit through one skein. I have a couple of different choices of lace weight yarns for the trim. A pale pink Silky Alpaca Lace which I was using for a lace project since frogged or a pale lilac Shadow Tonal that I bought on sale from Knit Picks. But I think that I will wait until the last second to decide on the lace. Perhaps I will knit a few inches of both of them and decide which I like best.

The pattern, once I figured out what the author meant by RLI (Right Lifted Increase), was easy to learn. My confusion was easy to understand as there are two ways to describe the RLI: 1) Insert right needle tip from back to front into stitch below the next stitch on left needle; place this st on left needle and knit; and, 2)  Knit into the back of the stitch (in the “purl bump”) in the row directly below the stitch on the needle, then knit the stitch on the needle, and slip the original stitch off the needle. In the 1st instance, the lifted increase ends with one stitch on the right needle, in the 2nd the lifted increase ends with two stitches on the right needle. So for the herringbone pattern directions of:


ROWS 1 and 3: (WS) Purl.
ROW 2: *K2tog, k2, RLI (see Glossary), k2; rep from * to last st, k1.
ROW 4: K1, *k2, RLI, k2, k2tog; rep from * to end.
Rep Rows 1–4 for pattern

If you use the 1st "definition" of RLI on ROW 2 you get

K2tog = 1 stitch on needle
k2 = 2 stitches on needle
RLI = 1 stitch on needle
k2 = 2 stitches on needle

a total of 6 stitches.

But, if you use the 2nd "definition" of RLI on Row 2 you get

K2tog = 1 stitch on needle
k2 = 2 stitches on needle
RLI = 2 stitches on needle
k2 = 2 stitches on needle

a total of 7 stitches. Since the author gave the pattern repeat as 7 stitches and I was using the 1st definition, it took looking at the notes by other knitters in Ravelry and asking questions in Knitting Paradise's forum before I figured it out. Good thing the knitting world is large and gracious in sharing knowledge.

Gotta go, I have a lot of knitting to do! Happy Knitting!

A good long yarn.

Little Flirt Skirt

I have been trudging along on the Avocado Carnaby over the last couple of weeks. Projects of this size take time for me. I am not a fast knitter, so I don't have much to blog about when I am in the middle of a project. However, I do have some more yarn to show you.

As long as I am ordering yarn for one project, I may as well order yam for a couple of more projects in order to save money on shipping. Along with the Wool of the Andes that I bought from Knit Picks, I also purchased Full Circle in Cardinal and Wool of the Andes Tweed in Claret. And I already have the (free) patterns picked out for these yarns!

Chelsea

For the Full Circle, I have selected the pattern Little Flirt Skirt. This pattern, by Faina Goberstein, is an A-line, knee length, pleated skirt. The skirt has a beautiful eyelet row through which many on Ravelry have used to thread a ribbon.

The Wood of the Andes Tweed will be used for a pattern by Cecily Glowik MacDonald called Chelsea. This pattern, like the Carnaby, is a wrap skirt. I love the piece of lace at the hemline. My thought is to use a few yards of lace that I have in a pale lilac. Yum!

Happy Knitting!

My current project: The Carnaby

The Carnaby, designed by Nikol Lohr and published in the Fall 2010 online Knitty, is a skirt reminiscent of the prep-school tartan. This skirt is knit along its length in a two panel pattern. One panel is in box stitch, a 2 X 2 checkerboard pattern that lends huge texture and meatiness, the other panel is a short row stocking-stitch forming a long, thin pie wedge. This combination gives the skirt a natural increase from the waist to hip without darts or increase/decrease shaping at a side seam. It also adds a fun and flirty A-line look.

I have lengthened the skirt just slightly to just-above-the-knee length, so that I can wear it to work without worrying about professionalism. The wrap styling is one of the best features of this skirt, but I plan to make only the top two buttons functional and close the remaining ones permanently. This will lesson the number of button holes that I have to make and make the skirt less likely to open at inopportune times. Big, fat, wooden buttons are what I have in mind. I will have to go button shopping closer to the end of my knitting when I get to the button hole row.

The yarn I have chosen is Wool of the Andes by Knit Picks in a beautiful, creamy avocado color. I like this yarn. I used the Wool of the Andes Bulky when I did my Chocolate Diamonds last fall and decided to try it in the worsted weight. I am glad that I did since I am getting the same good stitch definition that I got with the bulky version. The color is great and is a direct result of my love of the fruit, too!

Well, since I would rather be knitting than blogging. . . Happy knitting!!!