A knitted skirt

I'm going to be working at the Ideal Home Show in the Chef's Kitchen Theatre for the next month, so I thought I'd leave you with some pics (thanks to Laurence) of my new Noro skirt before I depart. I'm hoping the weather stays cold for a little while longer so that I can wear it some more before spring really arrives!

It's based on the 'snapping turtle skirt' from Norah Gaughan's Knitting Nature. I used 9 balls Noro Kureyon (from Twist Fibre Craft of course!), 4.5mm needles, and knitted the smallest size. I added an extra row of hexagons to make the skirt longer and knitted a waistband in 1x1 rib decreasing at the point of each hexagon in the row below. Once knitted, I threaded a few strands of elasticated nylon through the waistband to stop it stretching out too much. I'm glad to say that this did the trick, because there was no plan B! Very happy with the way it turned out, and amazed at how much better it looked after a good blast of steam from the iron. The modular construction (one hexagon at a time, picked up from the edges of the existing ones) means that each chunk is very manageable, and there's no sewing up at the ends. The original has the purl side on the outer face, but I decided to have the knits on the outside because the picked up seams looked a bit messy when using variegated yarn.

So I have a huge bag full of knitting to take to London with me, even though there will probably be very little time for knitting. I just don't like the thought of being stuck without any though so my case is half full with yarn! Here's a sneaky peak of things to come...