Knitting -- it's all my sister's fault

Actually, it's her husband's fault. Once years ago, he asked me why people didn't knit bottomwear. He meant skirts and pants.

Well, they do. If you go over to the DROPS site, you'll see mostly miniskirts.

And on freevintageknitting.com, you can find skirts in fingering weight yarn, flared, ribbed, and straight.

This pattern should fit you if you have a 40 inch bust and comparable hips. I am pear shaped and it was a little large around the waist, so if you are apple-shaped, the stitch counts may still work for you.

This has to be worked in fingering weight yarn. A linen or blend like Lindy Chain is best because it is a fairly hard yarn and won’t wear out in the seat so fast. All the skirt patterns on freevintageknitting.com are in fingering weight.

I needed 10 skeins of yarn to get the skirt to mid-shin. There are 180 yards in 50 grams of Lindy Chain.

Use a size 1 needle with a 32-inch tether to allow for flaring the skirt. A hard-spun wool yarn should be worked on size 2.

Use pit (Irish cottage) style knitting for this, even if you haven’t used it before. Once you get used to it, you should be able to knit quicker than either Continental or English style.

I have a mid-back elevation after the waistband to deal with the fact that I have a butt.

This skirt starts with a side closure, then joins up four inches below the waist and from there it is knit in the round.

Cable on 320 stitches.

Work seed stitch (K1/P1) to the end, turn, work one more row seed stitch. This counts as your first two rows.
Turn. You are now knitting on what will be the left back of the skirt, and you will start working the flap that will be tucked inside at the closure.
Do 2 seed stitches, K18, set a marker for the end of the flap. Finish this row in seed stitch.
Turn, work seed stitch to the marker, P18, 2 seed stitches.
Repeat these two instructions for a total of 10 rows for the waistband.
Turn, work the flap as you have done, KF/B to increase at left back, K74 to the middle back, set a marker, and do your elevation:
Knit 19 stitches past marker, turn, wrap yarn
Purl 39. Turn, wrap yarn
Knit 58, turn, wrap yarn
Purl 77. Turn, wrap yarn
Knit 96, turn, wrap yarn
Purl 115, turn, wrap yarn.

K74 past the middle back marker, in stitch 75 KF/B, set marker for righthand “seam”, KF/B, K74 to center front, set marker, knit to and including 4^th stitch from last, KF/B in 3^rd stitch from last, set marker for left side front (this will be on top of the flap when you use the tab to close the skirt), 2 seed stitch.

From this point you are going to finish the flap while increasing the skirt.

Turn, 2 seed stitch, purl to end, 2 seed stitch at end of flap.
Turn, 2 seed stitch, knit to end, 2 seed stitch at end of row.
Repeat the last two instructions one more time and then on the next knit row, work KF/B at the left front marker, left back marker, and one on each side of the righthand marker.
Repeat working stockinette and increase rounds until you increase at row 37. Work 1 purl row.

In next row (39), bind off the first 19 stitches on the flap that you will tuck inside.

Turn, purl the last stitch of the flap together with the seed stitch at the end of the other needle.
Turn, wrap stitch, knit around to complete the first solid round of the skirt.
From this point you will not work seed stitch again until the hem.
From now until round 100, you will knit 5 rounds and then do an increase round.
Round 100 should be just at the bottom of your butt.

Now decide how fast you want to increase in the rest of the skirt. Pick one:

1)         Knit all rounds without increasing for a straight skirt;
2)         Knit 11 rounds and then 1 increase round for a wide flare like a poodle skirt.

For a 25-inch skirt, work a total of 270 rows;

For a 31-inch skirt, work 310 rows.

Work the last two rows in seed stitch for a hem.

Go back and sew the inside flap to the inside left front to prevent stress on the joining stitch.
Sew a tab at the top of the closure.

As you can see from the photo, the flare is very slight.

 

I tried it on over shorts I was wearing at the time and the stitch counts worked out. It is quite loose, which you want in a lightweight summer skirt. I can always add belt carriers and a thin belt or set the tab far enough beyond the inside flap to keep it from feeling like it will drop off.

This took a month. Sewing a skirt goes much faster and you have a wider range of options for both skirt design and fabric pattern. Still, the proof of concept was worthwhile.