I finished my skirt (Rav link)!

Finally! Finished!

and I really, really love it. See?

I am dancing a jig!

It’s super swingy and comfortable.  I put elastic at the waist and could probably cinch it even a little tighter, but it’s totally wearable as it is. I’m wearing a (borrowed) slip in these pics, and I think I’ll definitely need to wear a slip with it, but I don’t mind at all.

The body of the skirt is the Sawtooth Skirt, and the lace at the bottom is from the Indigo Ripples pattern. I sort of chickened out on the lace in the Sawtooth Skirt pattern, but this worked out perfectly.

The yarn – Berroco Linen Jeans – seems like it’s going to hold shape pretty well.  I soaked and blocked it and the yarn felt really strange when it was wet, but once it dried, it’s nice and soft and comfortable again. I have to admit – I love the result, but I did not love the process of knitting this skirt. It’s just so. much. stockinette.  I’ll probably wait a little while before trying again, but I bet I’ll knit another skirt in the future. Now that this one is done, I can concentrate on some other summer knits. and baby knits, for all the babies that are on the way in my life.

And maybe some big boy knits for Charlie, who is no longer a baby. OMG when did this happen?

totally a toddler.

Suddenly he is walking! and running! and wanting to be outside ALL THE TIME. We got some family portraits taken a few weekends ago (and we used ZoomWorks, who were aawesome), and he was all over the place – walking towards the camera, toddling around outside, and laughing a lot.

fun times.

silly schmoo.

I’m looking forward to summer and hot weather and taking lots of fun weekend trips with my family!

I have been trying to knit a skirt for YEARS. Seriously. I’m totally inspired by all the lovely skirts that Diana of Bestitched has made – so wearable! so flattering!  I’ve tried several times using some Euroflax Sportweight that I’ve had in my stash for ages, and every time I knit it up, it comes out too big. Even if I do a gauge swatch. (which I sometimes, um, skip. ha.) So, last July, I found the perfect pattern and yarn to make a skirt – the Sawtooth Skirt, using Berroco Linen Jeans.  I swatched! And started knitting!

Fast forward to this week – I’d finally picked it up again to finish it, and the waist was looking huge. I pulled it on just to see if it would fit, and it looked GIANT. Sad panda. I decided I was going to rip it, because this yarn is beautiful and I didn’t want to waste it.

Then a friend suggested trying some elastic in the waistband. I was planning to use elastic for the waist, so it seemed like a good idea to at least TRY before ripping all those hours of knitting … and guess what? IT FITS! (see a tiny preview pic to the left. bonus shot of my toilet included.)

I am so so excited about this, y’all.  I don’t mind ripping things out when they aren’t going to work, but I have been wanting to knit a skirt for so long.  I’ve decided to do the lace from the Indigo Ripples skirt pattern at the bottom of this one instead of the lace from the Sawtooth Skirt pattern, because I am lazy. (The Sawtooth Skirt pattern has you knit the bottom separately and sew it on.) Now I’m knitting like a crazy woman because I can’t wait to wear this skirt! Right in time for warmer weather, too. Hooray!

We had such a nice weekend. The weather was amazing here – sunny, breezy, warm. We went to a birthday party for our friend Hayes on Saturday and Charlie had so much fun playing outside.  Hayes got a water table for his birthday, and those things are FUN.

water table!

On Sunday, Charlie got to hang outside and watch his dad do yard work – one of his favorite activities.

Charles in charge.

I hope you had a lovely weekend too