It’s been a rough couple of weeks. I’ve been forced to drink cup after cup of hot tea and hold a sleeping newborn baby tucked up under my chin for literally hours on end. The only way I’ve been able to cope with such hardship is by knitting around the clock. A rough life indeed.

Until yesterday, I focused exclusively on my cardigan. I’m pleased with the progress I’ve made and I was excited to share it with you – until sometime on Sunday afternoon after my fourth cup of tea and 18th nursing session when I realized that the cardigan’s progress wouldn’t be a very exciting blog post. It’s hard to write that much about a sweater that’s grown four or five inches in length. Oh, if only I had another project on the go.

And then I remembered the belt/shawl/skirt.

The Belt/Shawl/Skirt

This is a project that I started last summer. For some reason, I thought it would be fun to knit a skirt so I found a pattern, impulsively bought some yarn and cast on.

Now, you have to understand that while I’m great at starting new projects, I’m not actually that good at finishing them. I get bored. Or I find a different pattern that I think will suit the yarn better. Or I get distracted by other projects that have newer, prettier wool. What can I say? I’m a yarn floozy.

Knowing that there was a good chance I’d never finish off the skirt, I told my friends that I was knitting a belt. Clever, right? Yeah, except that I didn’t fool them for a second. Especially since they could clearly see the pattern that I was knitting from.

The “belt” was finished off quickly; I upgraded my project to shawl-status and kept working away. Once I finished off the bottom three lace tiers, I tried it on over my shoulders – it really did make a beautiful shawl (well, technically a capelet, but you know what I mean). I was legitimately tempted to bind off and call it a day. The only thing that stopped me was my pride.

Unfortunately, I was starting to get tired of the pattern. Keeping track of the lacy stitches and working in decreases at the same time was starting to overwhelm me – I was also pregnant at the time and I had a hard time focusing. When I started the fourth tier, I decided that the pattern was just too much. I pulled it out and reknit it in plain stockinette instead.

Determined to get it done, I knit row after row after row after row. Finally I reached the top – and then I was stumped. My pregnancy was starting to show and I wasn’t certain if I should add a stretchy panel so I could wear the skirt through my pregnancy or just tuck it away until after the baby was born. I put the skirt aside for awhile so that I could figure out what to do and then I promptly forgot about it. As I’m known to do.

When I pulled the skirt out last week, I was delighted to see find how little is left to do. The pattern is long gone, but I’m fairly sure I can figure it out on my own. Right now I’m working on the hemmed waistband. Once I’ve finished that, I’m going to block it and then add elastic to the waist. I’m a bit nervous about how it will fit – the skirt is pretty heavy and the top is still super wide, despite all the decreases. If the elastic doesn’t actually keep it on my waist, the skirt might need to be downgraded to cowl. Or possibly pillow case.

Hopefully I’ll have the waistband hemmed and the loose ends woven in by the end of the week. After that, I’ll have to put the skirt on hold again for a bit while I start knitting Christmas gifts and my cardigan. And then who knows how long it will be until I remember it again?

Find more works in progress at the Yarn Along with Ginny at Small Things and Keep Calm Craft On with Frontier Dreams.