Last May, and while working on several projects, I decided that I need to add one more project on my needles. Summer was coming and I wanted to remake a skirt I had previously made in 2011.
It was a nice, lightweight skirt, but there were two issues: the yarn over increases & pattern did not allow me to wear the skirt without leggings and the buttoned up side bunched up the skirt making it shorter just for that part. It was wearable, but I wanted to make it better.
That’s why I decided to frog the whole skirt up to the first row. Instead of working in rows first for a buttonband, I worked immediately in rounds. I replaced the yarn overs with kfb increases and worked endlessly until I reached the desired length. I worked it with 4mm needles instead of 4,5mm, so that the tension would be tighter.
It ended up a little wider and because of a different density of increases. All these combined resulted in the demand of an extra skein. I was very lucky to find a skein from the same dye lot and amazed to realise, that the yarn colors of the skirt had faded only very slightly. This is a skirt that was worn all year round for 5 years and washed in the washing machine quite often.
The yarn that achieved this feat is Bella Batik by Alize. It is 100% cotton, sport weight and offers generous yardage per 50g skein.
The new skirt does not feature buttons anymore and because of the pre-added elastic, it can only be worn from over the head. It also does not feature a crochet edge. Because I wouldn’t be able to find more yarn for the green and pink I used on the edge, I knitted them in order to save on yardage. Crochet is a great yarn eater and it can also be witnessed here. The skirt was wider, but by knitting the edge in linen stitch, I was able to use just the amount of yarn I had.
It was a great, relaxing project. The new result is roomier and can be worn a lot easier, wether that’s summer, autumn or winter. My only issue is that I am not so into the colors anymore. I might try over-dyeing the skirt with tea or something one day. 🙂
