Friday, July 24

It's been knit: Juliette Skirtie

It's ridiculous how much I love this thing! I broke down and bought a skirtie pattern last week. This is my first from it (Juliette Skirtie) and I am so dang happy I did!

The pleats directions are fantastic! I have seen generic ones here and there but they were always vauge and not to my liking. This one is just perfect (as you can see). I did modify mine a bit and did all but the last increase round since I was running out of yarn.

The soaker is another favorite part of mine. I do not like soakers. I do knit the Curly Purly one since I do like having that option of going under clothes but really....I don't like how many fit. Either too low and baggy or a lack of shaping or too dang long (which on my short kids is never good). This one is shorter than the pattern (not by much)but there is a very good reason for that.
I had to knit the waist and undersoaker twice. I was all done and grafting when I thought the yarn I was using (a dark brown) was "familiar". I hopped up and grabbed a lighter and sure enough I had been using acrylic. I took both out and reknit them in the white/cream wool. I was using scraps for the whole thing and was VERY unsure of the amount I had. I did the undersoaker first and knit it to the length it would/should be if the waistband had been in place. I then knit the waistband (bottom up essentially). My original one had 16 rounds. This one had 12 or 13. I barely made it.
I also did the waist as 1x1 ribbing out of habit. :) The pattern calls for 2x2 and I wish I had done it (I like the look) but that's ok. This one is a tad short in the skirt for my wee one but that's ok. She's almost potty trained and I had already sworn off knitting her more covers as a result. She just needed a legit skirtie though so this doesn't count. :) The stripe on the body has duplicate stitch on it. The single round of darker green was also brown. Instead of frogging all the way to that I just covered it once the knitting was done. It's not the best looking one but it was late and I wasn't concerned about reaching perfection (which is good because my duplicate stitch is far from it). It is looser in a couple spots but it honestly looks more like loose knitting/gauge than anything else. I am considering adding cuffs but this is one of the few that I am ok with not having them. It fits nicely and no prefold pokes out. Not too often that happens.


Stats:
Pattern: Juliette Skirtie
Size: Small
Needles: 5 and 6. The pattern calls for 7's but I don't own any and I got gauge with these (checked long after the fact).
Yarn: Knit Picks Wools of the Andes: Pampas, Avocado, Ferm (?), and an unknown Cream/White. I thought it was Wool of the Andes based off ball size but it would be Cascade 220. All scraps.

Mods: Pleats only worked til second to last increase round and then knitted til desired length (definitely wanted to make longer but ran out of yarn). Waist done in 1x1 ribbing and slightly shorter than pattern called for.

Wednesday, July 15

Note to self

When you have a new pattern and are excited to get started make sure you double check your supplies. In lots of cases your yarn may be missing a ballband which indicate what the fiber content is. When in doubt, check. Having to reknit the entire bottom portion of a soaker because you grabbed acrylic on accident will piss you off. Lots.

Monday, July 13

Ahh retail therapy!

I never understood the appeal of it until today. :) I got a paypal gift so I decided to spend it. So without further ado...look what is coming to me!


First up is "Tumble Into BFL". Some lovely BFL. I've only spun BFL once and knit with it a couple more times but boy is it lovely! I cannot wait to see what this turns out like. These are not "my" colors but I have someone/something in mind for it so it doesn't matter. :)

This is called "Coi". Some Falkland wool. Again, someone else was in mind when I got this. It seems like a more mature/adult version of the one above. Also not my colors. :) I don't think I've ever spun Falkland but that's ok. It's wool! :)This is "Safari" merino. I have seen varaitions of these tones and everytime I am insanely jealous. It's just a nice colorway and looks well with most things. Again, I have plans for it that don't involve me. Seeing a trend? :)This may be one of my favorites. This is "Black Coffee" superwash. I have some plans for socks that I might keep for myself. Still deciding.Oh I hope shipping is fast. I'm entertaining myself currently with some random stuff I have. I'm already a third of the way through it so I'm thinking I'll need to find more to do until it gets here.

Friday, July 10

Remember the infernal shorties?

The bum is now oh so purtty. :)


It's been done and waiting on me to get things finished (like weave in ends and lanolize) for awhile. It turned out so dang easy!!! Amazing what following a chart can do for you. ;) I hope it doesn't sit too low on the intended. I tried them on my wee one and it ame down low but there is a year difference between the two. Hopefully that helps. :)