Silly Frilly Flamenco skirt....

About a week ago... a new yarn store opened in Calgary, called The Loop. The news of a new LYS was greeted with exuberant anticipation. Of course, this meant YARN CRAWL..... my local small group of knitters organized a trip on the opening day and at the last minute, I was able to go..... While we were there, enjoying all kinds of fibre goodies, we saw a ribbon yarn called Rizos, by Katia. I'm not normally a big fan of novelty yarns, but I thought this one was pretty.... It had been knit into a ruffle scarf and was quite lovely and we immediately began discussing other options for the yarn. Although I didn't buy any that day... I couldn't get the yarn out of my head and made a trip back a few days later with Chey to see how she liked it (she doesn't really like skirts much... they say they make her "too attractive... to attractive to homework")..... Once she agreed that a ruffle skirt would be worn, I purchased a couple of balls and started to plan.

My first three attempts were total failures.... Firstly, I didn't know how to knit with the yarn. I treated it like regular yarn and knit it as a big wide ribbon... this didn't give the neat ruffle that was intended and made the skirt really bulky... and after several inches, I frogged it.  I did a google search and discovered that I was using it incorrectly (this is the correct way to knit with this yarn, although I knit into every loop, rather than every second loop). Once I ammended my method, the next attempt was much better..... sort of..... knitting with Rizos row after row created a look that resembled a clown collar... not quite the look I was going for in a skirt.... so I ripped and started again.... My third attempt was MUCH nicer, but my sizing was WAY off... I didn't realize how off, until I cast off and tried the skirt on Chey (it fit me, actually)... it was terrible... I mean UGH-LEE.... I frogged the whole thing and started again.. this time, I started the skirt from the bottom (my other attempts had been top down) and alternated it with another yarn. This allowed the ruffle to lie much flatter and reduced the bulk and weight of the final skirt....

Final Result:.... AWESOME!

I'll work out a pattern and release it very soon......