Snapping Grey Turtle Skirt = Hexagon Math Goodness

Between the fantastic trip to New York with Double Vision, a sad going away party for close friends, and the madness that continues to call itself my house i have been finding bits of time here and there to … knit!  Not really much of a surprise as i have needed all of the relaxing and meditative activities that i could find to help keep me sane over the last few months, and weeks even more so.  What have i been working on?  Another skirt!!!  I am super excited about this one as it is six hexagons knit from the outside into the middle using spaced decreases and four rows high. It's a math skirt!

Here is a picture of the Turtle skirt keeping a park bench in Central Park warm a few weeks ago.  I am really enjoying the skirt as it is a fairly easy knit without a pattern to carry around, but it's not plain.  I am not just knitting back and forth, back and forth.  I am knitting hexagons that are 18 stitches wide on all sides to begin with and all of them end up as only a single stitch on the needles after all of the decreases.  I love you geometry.

Now that i have finished nearly the top two rows of hexagons i decided it was time for some dress form testing.  So far so good…  I was pleasantly surprised that the skirt seems to fit.  The hexagons are bubbling a bit in the centers, but nothing too weird that the blocking won't fix.  I love the Star Skirt that i knit a few years back and am looking forward to having more hand knit items for day to day wear.

Skirt Madness, and the aftermath...

Well i can proudly say that the skirt is NEARLY done. I've been super busting my ass lately and it's really paying off. I've got about 8 more pattern rows and then 8 bottom boarder rows. I'm shooting to have it finished by the end of the week so that i can get elastic and completely finish it off over the weekend.

Unfortunately work has been trying to thwart my efforts to finish the skirt by giving me tons to do. I do not like this sam i am! But it paid for the yarn, so no real complaints. Work has to be done by close of business tomorrow, so tomorrow will be typing, typing, and making a few screen shots here and there and trying to emailed advice from my boss about what he "wants". This may sound easy, but it's not, especially when the boss is on the other side of the states at a conference all week. Arg! Oh well. Here i come better judgment.

I'm really liken how the skirt is turning out. I can't wait to start the first pair of socks and get back to my vegas shawl in the coming weeks. Also looking at a pair of legwarmers (damn i need to show T patterns). It will be nice to knit something for someone else, it's been awhile with Christmas having been such a bust. Look out skirt...this is your week! : )

Death Note and Star Skirt-ness

Here is a picture of the current progress on the Star Skirt. I've finished about 5-1/2" of 23". It's going pretty fast, just watching movies to keep be interested. It's difficult as 95% of the skirt is K, K, K, K, K... you get the point. Every now and again i get to do this crazy thing where i knit 5 together, don't release the stitches, K5tog, and again to make the beautiful fun stars. The problem is doing this even once is crazy hard and doing it 3 ties in a row 8 times around the circumference of the skirt is not great fun. But apart from missing some of the sub-titles for the Live Action Death Note movies the skirt has been a pretty "blind" knitting adventure, letting me catch up on some media.

I'm sooo happy i bought a cheap stitch counter to use with this project. It's tons easier then marking or writing down my progress here and there all over the pattern. Good $2 : )

Skirt "Star"-ted

Last night i did my duty, and did swatches with the yarn i chose (2nd Time Cotton) for the "Star Stitch Skirt". I just could NOT get down to the gauge the pattern called for. I was 10% off. Light bulb! I thought "This is cotton yarn and i'm going to WANT to wash and dry this skirt with the T-shirts and jeans ... lets put the swatch through the wash/dry and see what happens". Well this great idea both proved that i CAN wash and dry the skirt without injury - AND - i mostly have the gauge (off by like 2%).

Tonight i got home and cast on all my 156 stitches and went to it. Damn does it take a while to get through all of those stitches! Well after two hours of going round and round, i put it down for the evening. I'm thinking this will be a great "couch movie/anime time" project as most of the time i just knit, knit, knit...

Needle Note: To hit the gauge with the 2nd Time Cotton I've moved to sz 4/3.5mm (WB) and sz 6/4mm (Body)

Pattern Change: The pattern calls for 1/2" elastic, but i think with the added weight of the yarn and my general bad luck I'm going to go for 1-1/4" elastic and casing. This should ensure it can support it's weight, and that it doesn't pinch in too much on my shape either.