we are on spring break here and its quite extra ordinary because Mr Sun seems to be shining too. it is rare indeedy for spring holidays to also have spring sunshine. of course it does not mean this here Mossy Shed has warmed up, no sirree! it will take more than a few hours of beaming from Mr Sun to warm Mossy Shed's old winter bones. i am daring to once again go baring my old pins. it is not a pretty sight, the old legs are looking rather frozen chicken like and either i keep running outside to find a sun spot every 10 mins or i will have to give up and don some woolly tights again.
and so we have 'thing two', the knitty knatty knotty thing which stopped me in my 'shoulder cozy' yarny tracks. that being said, i am quite delighted that on friday i gave my procrastinating knitting backside a quick kick and did nothing else but work on my cozy, for it needed to be done.
i wore my 'egg cozy' as i now call it, to work.
it did indeed fit rather well despite doubts it would. at times it does its own thing, rides up, swivels around and what not, but on the whole it does just what a cozy should do, keeps you warm.
thing two:
and so it happened last tuesday when it was a little quiet in the shop i started to study the knitting patterns we carry so i may be of help to dearies coming in and asking about the patterns we carry or perhaps asking for suggestions. it really is incredible just how many lovely patterns and books we carry and i am often left dreaming of owning the things that i see. most are out of my reach, i am hopeful one day a dearie in the shop will adopt me and wish to knit me lovely things, i fear this hope is pie in the sky hope
well as i was flipping through things, i came across a simple knitted skirt. oh said i, then i read the pattern, oh again, for it was so simple and so do-able, even a knitty numpty like me could make it. i pondered the pattern for the rest of the morning. i noted the yarn they used was fingering, i noted it was fuzzy and soft, i noted i would not wish to knit in that yarn so i thought in my head i would swap it out with another. i then pondered further and noted the skirt did not have any increases and thus was a knitted tube. i do not do well with tube skirts preferring an a-line fit for my hips. upon further pondering and consulting with my yarny buddy Veronika, it was apparent the skirt i wanted in my head was not actually this skirt at all and therefore i was left with little choice but to make the skirt in my head.
i was gun ho! i was riding high! i was going to knit a skirt!
ummm, until i came back to earth with a crash... knitting a skirt is one thing, knitting it on size 3 needles when you are not a knitter of the utmost kind, is a completely different thing. after swatching with fingering on size 3 needles, and making a big fuss about it due to cramped fingers, loosey goosey stitching etc, i switched to dk weight on size 5 needles and continued to still be a fuss pot and moan about things. i am not sure i will be allowed back to stitch circle, they will probably put me in the naughty corner if i continue upon my fussy complaining path or worse still, ban me entirely.
after a day it became most clear a knitted skirt would drive me to the funny farm, i would go nutso without a doubt. i decided a knitted crochet skirt would be more fitting for me and so i planned to do a knitted rib and then some stockinette with eyelet holes for a cord all in dk weight and then pick up with a slanted shell crochet pattern and fingering weight yarn. (crochet makes for a thicker fabric, thus this makes the weight stay the same through the skirt). i would need to increase and i would be doing the whole thing in the round. it can be tres tricky to increase in a crochet stitch pattern and so far i have not figured it out quite yet. hence if i do some rows of stockinette i can increase on those rows and then just go straight into the crochet without doing increases.
are you with me? have you fallen asleep yet? i would not blame you in the least
so for now, i have a swatch
(and i noted my swatch fitted my constant yarny companion quite well last night)
it is all washed and dried
 |
| pants colour, more like the colour with Little Olive in the picture |
and ready to take to stitch circle to start doing the maths to figure out how many stitches i need to cast on and how many i need to increase by and at what point in the skirt. Veronika said she will help me, i am thankful for that as counting gauge on a swatch, let alone maths, is not my forte!
my cunning skirt plan is all in the pipe line so i have a yarny project for my travels next week thus distracting me from all the things i wish to be distracted from when traveling on my own.
