“What I've started I must finish. I've gone too far to turn back…”

“…Regardless of what may happen, I have to go forward.”

I have finally done it. I have finally finished my Carnaby skirt.

It took over a month of knitting (including spells of not-knitting) but I am finally wearing my first knitted skirt.



I finished knitting the button hole band on Saturday evening, and it fitted nicely when lightly stretched. I then cast off and crocheted two lines of slip stitch along the waistband as instructed.

Now I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to get a crochet hook into black stitches surrounded by other black stitches in a dim light, but it’s an absolute delight. I wouldn’t say my stitches were tight at all, (but then I guess I don't have the loosest of tension) but long story short it took a lot of perseverance (and a lot of swearing) before my task was complete. And so I bound off, and swung the skirt around my hips and – it was far too small. The skirt no longer fit but had a gap of about 3 inches. So, after a little more swearing, I unpicked the crochet waist band I had painstakingly added, and ta-da! the skirt fit me again.

I immediately blocked it, getting it away from my sight, hoping it would dry quickly in the hot weather.

I didn’t get a chance to buy buttons until Monday so that evening I cautiously returned to my skirt which was dry as a bone and now smelt lovely. The wool felt softer and moved better, and it had stretched nicely (I didn’t want a mini-skirt after all). I then threw it around my hips to work out where the buttons should go.

Maybe you can see what’s coming next, I certainly didn’t.

It was far too big. Five or six inches too big. I almost lost it right there, right at the final hurdle.

I was set to just sew the buttons further in and have a huge overlap, but CB suggested I try crocheting again. I thought it was a very good suggestion but I didn’t want to do it because it was such a nightmare last time…

But he has been right about these things in the past and I didn’t want to be disappointed every time I wore my new skirt. So. Monday evening, I angrily re-crocheted the waist band of my skirt.

And it worked. It now fits quite nicely around my hips. I only did one line of slip stitch as it finally fit and I didn’t want to tinker with it anymore in case I ruined it, so I quickly sewed the buttons on the buttonband and threw it on.

I love it. I really feel as if I earned this skirt, but I do love it.

*Quote from Michael Ende