A Mention, Sorta

HI, your lackadaisical hostess Velma here (I still haven't ordered my yarn for this project yet; WTF?!?). I ran across this article on Venus Zine about Knitty and Amy Singer, via Knitgrrl (if you spin or knit with handspun, you really need her new book, Spin to Knit, IMHO). While not mentioning "our" skirt in the article, the author did include a photograph of it and a reference to designer Ashley. Just thought I'd let everyone know we are obliquely in the news!

Happy Halloween, all!

Hello!

Hi everyone, my name's Claudia. I kinda fell in love with this skirt the moment I saw it, and I knew that it must someday adorn my curves. I don't have yarn yet; I'm considering Wool of the Andes from Knitpicks because it's approximately the same as the Peruvian wool from elann.com that the designer recommended as a substitiution, only even cheaper (as in, the skirt will only cost about $30 in yarn). And it has more colors available at the moment. I just have to pick one. There are several shades of brown I'm considering.

I have a tendency to start projects and never finish them, so I'm hoping this KAL will motivate to keep working on one thing until it's done. As soon as I finish my friend's baby sweater that I started in April. Ha. Haha. I'd like to get this done quickly, because my boyfriend's leaving in a week or so for Korea for a year, and I want to make him really, really regret going. Because I will be hot in this skirt. (Me, vengeful? Noooooooo!) But I'm in grad school, so I won't always have knitting time. Anyway, enough of my rambling. Nice to "meet" you all!

Royal Blue Ornaghi Filati Bamboo

It's here! I do not usually get particularly worked up over the arrival of yarn (until you've swatched you just don't know if it will work) but I thought I would post about this because Bettina was expressing some dissatisfaction with the color selection in the SWTC bamboo. This Italian yarn is very silky in feel and sheen and is plied with a little bit of texture (I know that is an inadequate description for those of you who spin and ply your own) that should make it more forgiving of any uneven stitching. I got mine from: One Fine Yarn There is another Czech made bamboo yarn called Cloud, that comes in a more conservative palette. It can also be viewed at One Fine Yarn. Anyway, I should think that Bettina should be able to find either of these fairly readily in Europe.

I'm scrambling to meet a birthday sock deadline (and getting really bored in the process), but will make an effort to get a swatch made, photographed and posted, so you can see this yarn for yourselves.

Hello, I am happy--I think-- to join you ladies!

Hi,

My name is Page, op, opcola, whichever you prefer. I have a lovely daughter, Laura, you can meet on: http://www.caffeineandcrochet.blogspot.com
who fell in love with skirt and emailed me (she is in San Antonio getting ready to move back home to Virginia where I am) to inform me that I was joining this KAL and making this skirt for her. All my yarn is in Virginia where I am heading tomorrow from Pensacola, FL where we have lived since retiring from the Navy in '99. My parents in law are feeling elderly and need assistance so we are going home to look after them --altho we are not giving up our home in Fl. Just leasing it to our son and his friend. We just got it rebuilt from Hurricane Ivan and could not face getting it just like we wanted it and then selling it, so we will hold on to it for our next retirement. I have some horses and a covered wagon, that I love to drive around, we --my best friend and I-- do parties and events, festivals etc. My next wagon will be a chuck wagon and then my wonderful husband is building me a hearse that I can do transports from funeral home to cemetary with, I cannot wait! Business should be good for that one!

In the meantime, I knit a LOT, socks is my new passion, and I have a circular sock machine, from 1902 that cranks out socks! I have three or is it four spinning wheels, an electric carder that was hand crank and I broke my shoulder falling out of the boat, so my husband converted it to electric the first time I had him card for me! Love that man! We have been together 30 years, only because he was gone to sea about half of that!! HA HA!! He came back from Desert Storm broken and we are still working to repair him.
I am ordered around by an African Grey Parrot named Zorro, who is 20 going on 2! His vocabulary is awesome and his ability to duplicate sounds is phenomenal! His partner in crime is a little chihuahua named doll baby that we call Dolly! They travel with us everywhere, we just got back from Texas and now we head to Georgia tomorrow and then on to Virginia where I will finally be back to my horses!

I have several projects going right now, some dish cloths with the KAL, Selfish Sunday Knitters, and the Sheep Shawl KAL, now the skirt. I will probably use handspun wool for the skirt, it will be chilly in Va. for Laura who has been in Fl or Texas for the past 18 years. Lord help us when she gets on the road in the first snow storm!! Well, my best friend in high school was named Velma, in Socorro NM!
Happy to meet you all~~ op

size question

I have a question about how you all are deciding which size to make. How much stretch does one want in the hip? I am making this skirt stealthily for my SIL (so I can't ask her to try it on as I go), but according to her waist measurement she should be wearing an XS, and her hip is slightly wider than the M measurement. Should I make a small (since it sits lower than the waist I think this would still fit) and add a few more shaping rows? How tight is too tight do y'all think?

Actually, when I get around to making a second one for me, I'm going to have the same problem--my waist measurement would be two sizes smaller than my hip as well (of course, I'm not starting from the XS). Tips? Thoughts? Anyone?