Owl invasion skirt

[kathleenalice]

27/02/2008

Woohoo! All finished!

I had a day off work yesterday, so I glued my pins to my hands and worked like a demon! I'm so so happy with it. I did go for the i-cord in the waist, using the same yarn as for the owls and I love the way that's come out.

So, my firsts were:

1) It's a skirt
2) It's a skirt I designed myself
3) It uses coloured cabled sections
4) I did the seams properly
5) I used i-cord

And here it is in all its glory! Lots of pics here, so I've reduced all the others to thumbnails.

400 points to anyone who can spot where these photos are taken.

Also featuring: my owl gloves, my owl shoes and my owl bag. Oh, yes. Owlie Kate they call me.

Anyway, I just love it. It's just the right length on me, I love the way it hangs and moves (it usually hangs straight down - it's super-windy here today) and it just feels so right. Yumyum.













And finally, this is my beautiful cat, Sabbath, claiming the skirt for his own.



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This is the first knitted skirt I’ve ever attempted, the third time I’ve used anything cable-y (the first was my owly handwarmers, which were originally going to be my entry for this challenge. that post is now here: http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=223034.0) and the first time I’ve brought together cables and intarsia. And because I’m super-clever I thought I’d just wing it this time and I’ve been making up the pattern as I go along. This is also - in terms of the number of stitches and the amount of time it takes to make - by far my biggest ever knitted project.

I started this a few weeks ago, after finishing my owly gloves and wanting to do something else with owls on. I bought the pink yarn last year meaning to make a skirt, but I thought seeing it with owls on would just make my life complete.

The main part of the skirt is being made in four panels, which taper in towards the top. I then plan to join them at the edges and carry on working a ribbed waistband.

At the minute I’ve just finished the owly bit on the third panel. Those sixty squillion bobbins are nearly killing me!

Anyway...wanna see some pictures?

The yarn before I started:



and a close-up of that date



The fourmillion bobbins of doom



The first owl to emerge (note the rather stylish peacock-print seventies kaftan I'm sporting here)



And the first finished panel

[HSG]

That is amazing! Cannot wait to see the finished skirt. Love the colors, too. 

[Flowers and Lemons]

Yes, I'm curious as well how it will turn out. The cabled owl looks really nice!

[MinorPunk56]

So intarsia and cabling works?!?  I thought about doing that for my wings on my back sweater, but i was worried about it falling apart, so I didnt even try...now I wish I had...

[kathleenalice]

Aw, thanks guys!

And MinorPunk56 - yep, the two totally work together! You just have to remember to do your twist before you put anything on the cable needle.

Well, here's a progress photo:



I can really see now how it's going to look when it's all done. Though it's far too tempting to go to six panels and make a full circle! My girlfriend already thinks it's gonna be too full. I think she's wrong wrong wrong.

The thing that's mostly annoying me at the minute is that I can't take it anywhere when I'm doing the owls, so that slows up progress. But I've only got one more panel left now before stitching it all up and putting it on circs to do the waistband. Woohoo!

[HSG]

This is the most incredible knitted skirt I've ever seen! Cannot wait to see it complete and modeled.

Rockin'!

[kathleenalice]

aw, bless you! i'm blushing now.

[kathleenalice]

Over the weekend (mostly on Sunday) I got the whole final panel of the owl skirt finished! I'm now ready to burn those bobbins in some form of ritualistic sacrifice.

Also, I did some sewing up, using matress stitch for the first time and oh my gawd in the name of all that is holy why didn't I start doing this earlier? Well, I know why. I thought it'd be hard work for something that wouldn't make that much difference. But you know what? My seams are INVISIBLE! Even up close there is no seam! Oh yes! VICTORY! And it's so satisfying when you do a fow loosely and then you pull the wool tight and it all zips itself up!

So, anyway. All four panels are now finished, sewn up and on one pair of smaller needles and I'm just working on the waistband now. I need to bring it in a bit more and then do a couple of inches of ribbing and then I'll be all done! It's quite heavy so I'm thinking I might need to figure out some form of belt-like contraption. Perhaps pop some y/o holes around the waistband and then make an attempt at learning how to do i-cord.

beautiful invisible seam...



the first three panels all joined up...



all those loose bits neatly woven in...



all 4 panels on 1 needle. not shown - my lovely plastic orange needles bending under the strain.

[HSG]

This is an incredible piece of of knitting. Love it! 

The way you have the owls on the raised part really sets them off. As for the weight, I bet this skirt will keep you uber warm, too!

[Rainkeltoia]

That's beautiful!

[kathleenalice]

This is an incredible piece of of knitting. Love it! 

The way you have the owls on the raised part really sets them off. As for the weight, I bet this skirt will keep you uber warm, too!

It really does! It's soooooo windy today here (can you tell from my face in the pictures?!) but I feel nice and snuggly.

[Nven]

Wow, the skirt is beautiful.

And I love your action shots =)

[Miss Morwen]

First off I have to say that I'm so impressed at how quickly you finished the skirt.

And secondly: How cute is that skirt on you! The fit, the lenght, the design = Just perfect. And the action shots? So much happiness. 

[hatch_handicrafts]

Egads, that's super cute. LOVE the kitty cat too ^.~