The guests arrived and we had fun and now they are gone. We have had 2 lots of friends to stay so there was too much drinking, too much food, plenty of fun in the sun (sorry to those of you who are living in slightly damper areas), days scrambling, a day sea kayaking, beaches, pubs and tea shops. All in all a perfect weekend.
There was time for knitting though, and the cardigan is progressing apace. I am nearly at the armholes now, only another 10 rows or so to go. This weekend I am going to the hen do, so I have 6 hours on the train to progress this.
But I have a distraction. A really really really big and important and urgent distraction. Here is a picture........
Yes - that's tartan. That's 3.7m of Strome double width Graham of Montrose Modern tartan. And yes, I am making a kilt for the husband. The above photo is the really scary cut the tartan to length tear - there is no hem on the bottom of a kilt so this bit is quite important. So, I have torn 2 lengths that are 58cm long.
Here I have assembled the tools of attack - pins, tacking thread, notebook, calculator, tape measure and a print out of the instructions that I found on the internet. I am not doing this entirely blind, the secretary at work used to be a kilt maker and she is giving lots and lots of advice, and has shown me a half finished kilt so that I know what it looks like.
And here I have made a bit of exploratory progress. I have cut the front apron and pinned some pleats. If the pleats were straight then everything would be nice and simple, but because the desired waist is 77cm and the desired hip measurement is 90cm, you have to taper each and every one of them. These are also a little bit to wide. I am doing 2cm pleats (each one taking one repeat of the tartan - so about 20cm) and the pattern has to match up. Nightmare.
Off to bake brownies and make some supper.
2 comments:
That is quite a project to make a kilt. I look forward to seeing the cardigan you are knitting.
Oh my, a kilt! That is a project and a half. I have only tried pleats once, just three of them, and they were straight ones but not easy. I am very impressed and look forward to seeing the finished kilt.
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