On the 13th of January 2007 I started working on Lelu's version of Victoria's Secret skirt.
If you're a faithfull reader (which I don't even doubt) you're aware that I bought some 24 pounds of a yarn of unknown nature and quite poor quality (first times on e-bay... you live, you learn) that I decided to wind up into variagated balls.
I did eventually find a yarn winder at a decent price (around 15 euros, that is less than 15 US dollars... on e-bay, mind you) and winded two strands of that red thread with one strand of a nice light pink rayon thread I had... Which I now think was a big mistake (the fire engine red just kills the light pink, and the soft shine of the rayon thread is just lost in translation ) but now that I've got almost 3 pounds of it, I'm gonna use it up!

So the skirt is the first project to help me get rid of benefit from my new fingering weight yarn.

I'm using a 2.5mm crochet hook ( USA size C according to this chart) and already used one 250g yarn ball :

As you may have noticed... I changed the pattern.

Sorry.

I just thought it needed a slit and a belt, to be able to put it on easily... looks like it didn't but, hey, now it's done... and I also noticed around diagram 2 that I had 7 stitches per repetition that shouldn't be there...

7

THAT'S AN AWEFUL LOT!

So I changed the pattern to let them fit in, and then I thought "as I'm going to have to line it, why bother with a solid stitch pattern? let's make it lacy!"
Which I did... And I think it looks ok... besides, lacy patterns crochet faster. And with less yarn... It's all good! Wait. Less yarn wasn't the goal...

Never mind.

I'm on the last rows now and the fabric is curling

I tried making the last row, it didn't help so I decided to skip it (intended to anyway) and steam-block : it worked!

here's the finished skirt:

Ok, so here are a few more details about my Victoria Secret Skirt experience.

First I must say that it was a very bad idea to change the pattern
. Although the result is not ugly, I did it in a very untidy manner which ends up giving a very untidy look.
When I modified the second section I did it improvising as I was going : bad, very bad idea !
I modified the third section of the skirt in a much more satisfying manner, I drew a graph and tried to figure out how it would come out before starting to crochet.
However, I didn't try to design this new part of the pattern in a way that responds to the other modified part, thus I end up with something looking like a bunch of non consistant designs instead of a silky finished garment.
You live... you learn.

Here you can see the changes I made :
skirt pictured with 3 skeins of yarn used up and picture of the graph I drew


Here you can see why I had to block and how I did it : steam block ( I had a duh! moment : pin the skirt on something you can move or be sure you can use the iron where you pinned it! I had to pin her twice because the iron couldn't reach it) and it worked great! :


1, 2 and 3 skeins of yarn used up
   

I somehow wish I didn't mess up with the original pattern this way, next time I'll be more cautious (or I'll just follow the pattern... why not? )

Stats :

• HOOK : Ariel aluminium 2,5 mm (US size C).
• YARN : homemade variagated fingering yarn, WPI 22, red with light pink, rayon and something, probably acrylic. Used almost 800 gr.