now i really HAVE done everything

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i was hell-bent and dertermined, in the interest of full disclosure, to make sure to photograph the results of the sweat test for those among you who remain skeptical about the viability of the handknit skirt.
so determined in fact, that i did not stop, even once, to think about how it would look to the neighbors (in my case, a doctor’s office), for me to be standing in my backyard snapping pictures of my own butt.

no! so focused was i in fact, that my (pea)brain completely bypassed that particular mental image in favor of bringing you, dear readers, the most accurate and up-to-the-minute images of what a handknit cotton skirt looks like after being ridden 10 miles by bicycle to and from class on a hot summer day.

and so, (drum roll) i bring you the results:

those post-college-age boys with the loud cars, who live on the third floor of the place next door, must have just busted a gut ROTFL. i’ll leave them to your imagination.
moral of the story: if at first, you can’t be humiliated by a saggy skirt, you are sure to find another way.

other than being the merest bit flattened where the fabric sat between me and the saddle, i think it fared well, don’t you? i even took it off and laid it on the floor flat to see if there was bubbling

i don’t see any . . . and so it is with great triumph and greater embarrassment (oh, the highs and the lows . . .) that i put this matter to bed for all time, to hear no more about the futility of knitting skirts. and if this process encourages even one knitter to take up circular needles and make one for his or her own, so much the better. my job here is done.
(note to self: buy big awning for yard . . .)

in other news . . .

i am ZOOMING along, for a change, on the new shrug, even though i had to do some pretty intense surgery last night as i watched the last stage of leTour. here’s what happened.
i noticed after five inches of knitting the shoulders from the top, that the one front did not match the other. (i don’t have pictures of this—wish i did, but it was after 1am). those three vertical columns of faggotting in the fabric were off by 2 sts on the one side.

after soundly swearing for a few minutes (i had ripped it out twice before on earlier occasions for similar problems—and hey, didn’t i do that on the black one too??), david, without moving anything but his eyeballs, looked over, as if to say “what’s up??”. (far be it from me to get a stronger reaction). “nuthin”, i glared silently back, ” just this stupid shrug!”

i definitely did not want to rip out a whole evening’s work—again. so i sat and picked out the parts that were wrong down about 12 or 14 rows, and reworked those areas without ripping back. as i reworked, i moved the the pattern over 2 sts to place the faggoting back in the correct positions. and, for once, it worked! (and i SO wish now i had pictures—darn!)

of course this took an hour, and i had STILL not gone forward, being smack dab in the same place i was in the last posted photo. so, since i was wide awake, i stayed up, knitting away, and got to the underarms by about 5 am. ooops. i had to be up early to go teach today!

to class i took my briar rose autumn spiral socks, which i need to finish because i’m sure we are all really sick and tired of looking at them! (of course, not you chris)

but, i have a feeling they will go fast from here out—they are at the point at which i have renewed interest in getting them done. two more classes and a session in front of the TV should do it, i think!

oh. and then there are those socks i brought down to my desk. just look at the progress
i’ve made

yeah, heh. we sorta had a little “regrouping”. i had this greeaaat idea to start them over in a stitch that showed off the iridescent quality of this yarn to better advantage—something textured that would catch the light in different directions, like mermaid skin. (the colors say “mermaid” pretty clearly to me.)
yah. that didn’t go so well. still searching for a good restart. will keep you posted.

10 thoughts on “now i really HAVE done everything

  1. Haha! I would have enjoyed seeing a picture of you taking that picture. What a sight! But the skirt held up wonderfully. And I somehow missed the post with all the photos of the skirt leaving on its trek. It’s wonderful. Love it!!!!

  2. Now you had me thinking… what was the yarn you used for the skirt… I’ll have to go back and see from the beginning…
    It really looks good; the yarn, the shape of the skirt and the knitting pattern meet in a very nice way… like the skirt was made for you!

  3. If I could find a yarn light enough I’d get going on a skirt right now, so inspired am I by your success (although out here the roars of amusement would come from rabbits and the occasional fox, not to mention the giggling dogs). I say light because as I recall, anything like a skirt (or a long coat) can get really really heavy. Still wondering about trying that hairpin (or broomstick, can never remember which is which) crochet skirt which gets gradually wider as you go down. But you definitely couldn’t ride a bike in that – far too many loops to get caught, Isadora-Duncan style.

    And ‘mermaid’ is absolutely right for the socks. Some yarns have to be knitted in just the right way to show off their qualities and colours. After all, the dyer probably took a lot of trouble getting them that way…
    Jo
    celticmemoryyarns.blogspot.com

  4. Your skirt is a real inspiration. Can’t remember did you make up the pattern yourself? Wonderful socks too. Sadly I can’t knit in this heat; my hands are just too hot.

  5. Well, Anne, I hate to tell you this terrible news, but have no fear, I have a solution…the doctor’s office had me sign a petition this morning to have either all of you yarn (handspun included) and needles removed from your house OR have that skirt removed from your house so they never have to let their elderly patients get all in a huff this way again. That poor doctor was writing inhaler prescriptions all morning for these patients and let me tell you…..their spouses were pretty heated!! I told them that their was no need for all this fluff and nutter. I explained that if we take the yarn and needles, you’ll grow your nails and use them to knit grass if you have too so I decided to take your skirt for them…see, I am such a big help 🙂

  6. Hehe, I get a chuckle out of picturing you picturing you. Glad to hear your skirt held up under the stress test. There may be a rash of knitted skirts appearing all over blogland in the future.

  7. You are TOO funny! 🙂

    I can’t believe you sat up fixing the knitting ALL NIGHT. I am useless with the needles after, say, 11 pm. Anything I may try to fix will end up in worse shape than when I began!

    I never get tired of autumnal-colored socks. Or sweaters. Or anything in that general palette…

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