Knititude

Selva Skirt Backstory Part II

I always planned to work Selva in the round, especially since I had not originally included a slit.  Since the skirt was quite fitted, I realized this would require that it be above knee length; but after calling to tell me that Interweave wanted to use the design, Eunny Jang, the editor, told me she thought it might require both a slit and a zipper closure.  This got me wondering whether I should work the skirt flat and then seam it up the back, thus easily allowing for a slit and a zipper-- but I decided against this, mainly because I thought it would be significantly slower knitting.

A bit of good news:  Eunny wanted me to use Filatura di Crosa Zara, the exact same yarn I had used for the swatch (very unusual, in my experience!).  Unfortunately, not expecting this, I hadn't bothered to take any notes on the gauge of the Hearts of Oak swatch I had sent to Interweave, so as soon as the yarn arrived in the mail, I swatched again.  After blocking, the swatch seemed a little too loose to me, so I did another one on smaller needles, and decided to use the smaller needles for the skirt to get a slightly denser fabric (trying not to calculate how many extra stitches I would have to knit to finish the thing!).

My 2 cents on swatches:  I've decided that patterns which include stitch patterns other than stockinette stitch should give gauges both in stockinette stitch, to make it easier to find substitute yarns, AND in one or more of the pattern stitches used in the design, since working cables or lace or garter stitch, or whatever, might cause changes in yarn tension among different knitters.  In future all my patterns will include at least two gauges (I can't imagine myself creating a design using only stockinette!).

Back to Selva:  First, I decided I didn't want to have a facing around the slit; this meant that I would have to find a way to make the edge of the knit fabric itself look finished.  With no facings (meaning that working in the round and then steeking was not an option), the skirt would have to be worked back and forth for the length of the slit, and then joined to work the rest in the round.  After some experimenting I came up with a modification of the Hearts of Oak pattern which looked adequately finished at the edges; I also found that having a 2-stitch stockinette edge was important, to keep the edge fairly straight.   I started knitting, only to realize after several inches that I had no idea whether the Hearts of Oak pattern worked on circular needles would show a jog at the beginning of each round!  At this point, I just kept my fingers crossed until the skirt was about 7 inches long, joined for working in the round, and...no jog whatsoever!  In fact, I found that the increases and decreases in the stitch pattern caused the beginning of the round to move in and out along the edges of the "overlapping scales" (as described by Interweave), which is why I set up the chart for rounds (at left) the way I did.

Next and final post on Selva:  waistband issues and sizing.

Selva Skirt Backstory Part I

In one of the comments on my last post, Janet asked if I could direct her to some posts about the Selva Skirt.  There is a category for it (look on the lower right hand part of the page), but there aren't many posts to be found, simply because the Selva Skirt pattern was created for publication in a magazine, and hence was unbloggable before publication.

Well, it's after publication now, and since at least one person is interested in how Selva came about, I thought I would provide a few details.  I often look through stitch dictionaries for inspiration, and in this case, the skirt was absolutely inspired by the stitch pattern, Hearts of Oak from Barbara Walker's Fourth Treasury of Knitting Patterns.  I thought the texture of this stitch pattern was fascinating, and after swatching, I thought its density would be perfect for a fitted knit skirt that would hide a few posterior, shall we say, imperfections.  (Plus I hate wearing G-strings-- not required for Selva, ladies!)  Also, as I recall (the themes that Interweave provided to designers for the Winter 2007 issue are no longer online), one of the suggested themes for that issue was tailored, fitted garments, which seemed perfect for Selva.  Above is the wrong side of the swatch I sent off to Interweave Knits with my pattern submission, back in February '07; the photo is crap because it was an afterthought, taken with my cellphone camera in my car just before I put the submission materials in the mail.

While swatching, I also found that the Hearts of Oak chart has a number of errors.  The most important part of the chart, the pattern repeat, is correct, but the outer edges of the chart are not.  Always be aware that errors may be (and probably are) present in published charts and patterns!

In the case of this stitch pattern, I debated which side to use for the right side; both sides are really cool.  One reason I decided to go with the "right" side was the waistband.  As I was swatching, I had started to think about how I would do the waistband decreases, and had concluded two things:  first, that working the decreases into the stitch pattern would require a better mind than mine, and second, switching to a less dense stitch pattern, like stockinette or ribbing or, well, just about anything, would mean losing that nice tight fabric just when it would be great to have a bit of a girdle effect, across the tummy and hips.  So after examining both sides of the swatch, I decided that the V-shaped knit sections on the right side were just begging to be extended into long ribbons to form the waistband, and with some experimenting, I came up with what you see at the top of the above swatch:  the ribbons include decreases and increases, and thus retain at least some of the density of the Hearts of Oak pattern.

Next:  The evolution of Selva's design after she was accepted by Interweave Knits for their Winter 2008 issue.

Selva Skirt, Winter IK 2007

I know a knit skirt isn't everyone's cup o' tea, but isn't the Hearts of Oak stitch pattern super-cool?  And it's crunchy enough to hide the panty lines--yes, I am wearing them.

So che una gonna fatto a maglia non e la tazza di te' (??) per tutti, ma non e' il Cuore di Quercia disegno super-cool?  Anche e' abbastanza croccante (??) di nascondere le rughe  delle mutandine--si, le sto indossando.

(I've decided to rename the Dragon Skin Wrap for women the Wyvern Wrap--a wyvern is a type of dragon, according to Wikipedia--to avoid confusion with the juvenile version.  I hope to finish the pattern tomorrow; however, daily life threatens to delay me for a day or two--patience, please!)

(Ho deciso a ribattezzare il Dragon Skin Wrap per donne il Wyvern Wrap--un wyvern e' un tipo di drago, secondo Wikipedia--per evitare confusione con la versione giovanile.  Spero di finire il modello domani; pero', la quotidianita' (amo questa parola!) mi minaccia di ritardare per un paio di giorni--pazienza, per favore!)