Lacy Skirt: May 2007 Archives

I had to do it. The yarn looked so bad that I just couldn't wait any longer to wash what I had knitted.

It did even out just like I had hoped. The increases formed small holes before washing, but they're all filled out now that they've been washed. Phew!

I'm excited to continue on now, knowing that it's going to look good when I'm done.

BTW, I've started DVRing Knitty Gritty. It's a little hoaky but there's some good content in there too. A recent episode with Lily Chin was better than I had expected. She shared a bunch of easy little tricks to help both new and experienced knitters.

My favorite? To keep track of which needle you used to knit a swatch, knit the needle size into the swatch by knitting in as many eyelets as the needle size (US 5 needle, 5 eyelets in the first row). There are several other good tips too -- like the one on how to deal with running out of yarn when doing a long tail cast on, and how to simply (and without math) determine how to space buttonholes evenly. Check it out if you have a few moments.

I've been knitting on the intermittently all week. Now that I've got a rhythm going I can (mostly) knit by touch. The linen can occasionally get splitty, but it's not too bad.

The hardness of the yarn makes for a very uneven knit, but I'm hopeful that it will behave like the swatch and look all nice and even after it's washed and dried (she says with just a hint of concern).

As for mods (you know I had to, right?) I'm knitting this top-down. I want to be able to try it on periodically, and I'd like to stick to the yarn I have so this will be the best way for me to do that.

I didn't expect to pick a handpainted yarn but the color just drew me in. It's Claudia's Handpainted Linen in plumicious.

I'm hopeful that the coloring will blend and look like it's swathed with color, but we all know it's a big guessing game for now. And that's par for the course for my first knitted skirt.

After my last experience knitting with linen I decided to go the more traditional route and knit with the yarn as is and wash and dry it after it's knitted up. The swatch I'm going with starts out as 6 spi before washing and after comes out right at about 5.25 spi (exactly what the pattern specified) after it's been washed and dried and stretched out a little bit (using 3.5 mm / US 4 needles). I'm trying to mimic the way the skirt will behave when worn. If I'm right I'll get a skirt that fits nicely and doesn't look baggy and saggy after being worn. If I'm wrong, well, let's just say I won't be taking any pictures if I'm wrong (but I'll be sure to post about it).

I can't wait to see how this looks once several inches are knit up. I'm sure I'll do a test wash similar to Swiss Dot just to make sure everything behaves as expected. I hate that feeling I get when I'm knitting and I'm concerned that it's not going to do what I predicted. Plus, once it's washed I can try it on for real and see what it looks like.