Springboard - My Perfect Knit Skirt

Welcome to Springboard. 

As I was sorting through my stash,  I found a bag of Rowan Denim. It sparked the idea to create a knitted version of my perfect skirt. This favorite jersey skirt was a thrift store dress that I had cut across the empire line where I stitched a narrow casing for elastic.  

I searched through knitting patterns and found Hibiscus, by Amy Christoffers of SavoryKnitting.  The recommended yarn is Modern Cotton, a blend that behaves similarly to my cotton, the shape through the hips was just right, and the 4-panel design is the shape I was searching for. 

Now for the measuring and math. The pattern gauge was firmer than my beautiful swatch. 

Working stockinette in the round, my gauge was a nice even 20 stitches to 4"/10cm.  

See blogpost for a great way to swatch, and be sure to use the very needles that you will knit your project with.

The pattern gauge is 24 stitches to 4"/10cm or 6 stitches to 1"/2.5cm, my swatch was 5 stitches to 1"/2.5cm. The pattern is written for 6 sizes, which offered me a lot of options for adjusting the numbers.

I measured my hips and my skirt at the widest point.  I also thought about the density of the Denim yarn as compared to the jersey skirt, which is a blend of very stretchy fibers. 

I added 1"/2.5cm to all measurements. 

The next thing was to measure my waist, where the knitting begins. That measurement multiplied by 5 (the number of stitches in 1"/2.5cm of fabric lined up with the 3rd size. I used the provisional cast on and went right to a knit 1, purl 1 rib for the 1"/2.5cm of casing fabric, worked the turn round and skipped the knit together, preferring to sew the fabric together for the casing.

The increases are made at each quarter of the fabric, and I used my favorite [knit, YO, knit] into one stitch and stacked those spacing them on the 4th, then 5th, then 6th, then 7th... adding 1 more round between each increase round to 13 rounds between the final increases and creating a 52"/132cm hem.

I continued even to the depth I wanted 21"/53cm - then I worked an extra 21 rounds, which Rowan Denim recommends to offset their predicted shrinkage in length.  Those rounds are worked in this 

Textured Border which is - 

Purl one round, 

knit one round, 

*knit 1, purl 1* around, 

knit one round.

Bind off on the purl round.