Summer Solstice and Skirt Seam

Help.

 

The pattern for this skirt is written with a front and back, but I am knitting it in the round. It has been going swimmingly until I got to the block pattern, and I need your input.

Picture an imaginary line coming down from the blue stitchmarker; that's the half-way point or side seam. The pattern is written as P4, knit block pattern (k10, p10, repeat to last four stitches) and then K4 (for both the front and back pieces). But seam or no seam, where the front and back sides come together looks wrong. 

Vogue is no help: every picture of this project in that issue is the exact same one, so you can't see the side seams of the skirt.

I've emailed two very kind knitters on Ravelry who made this skirt, and one sent a photo of her side "seam," and it looks as if there is no differential at all -- the blocks go all the way around without this K4P4 block. Obviously I need to rip it out; I think I'm going to have to figure out how to do K10P10 blocks all the way round, and ignore the seam part. What do you think?

For the gardeners, I am excited to post my first-ever window box-grown lettuce:

 

Unlike my poppy seeds, which didn't make it, the lettuce is a success! I'm encouraged about trying other container-grown vegetables next year on the deck, and maybe someday building a fenced-in garden so that I can really do it right. Guilty secret: I don't like tomatoes, except in spaghetti sauce, so I won't be growing those. Garden fantasy: a raspberry patch!

In my last post, I mentioned summer solstice. The longest day of the year is one of my favorites, with its soft summer evening light, and this year's solstice did not disappoint.

Beach chairs, books, and dinner in a bag, as we watch the sun set...all photos (c) Chris.

 

Families enjoying the evening.

 

Yours truly, walking along the beach.

 

I don't have words for this.

 

 This either.

 

It was amazing to be still, to watch the sun slip behind the sea before our eyes. It made us breathe a little more slowly and deeply, forget all the day's clutter, and simply savor this shared beauty. It is so healing. We need to do that more often. What part of nature has slowed you down and helped restore you this week?

Comments

[2paw]

Could you do K9 P9 instead?? Or maybe add 2 stitches at each side seam so there are 10?? I am not sure of your stitch count so I can't work it out properly.
I love walking with The Labradors in the bush at the dam. Today it was sunny and crispy cold and very wet underfoot. There were little drops of water on the ends of the leaves.

[jillian]

Looks like maybe a sizing thing? Depending on your stitch count, perhaps determine a multiple of K and P blocks that will work evenly around, not worrying about how they line up with the bottom part?

[betty]

It sort of makes sense, the way the pattern is written. My guess is, for different sizes, is it a different number of stitches on the end (e.g. K6...P6, or K8...P8)
I know it looks odd to you because you think of it as a seamless skirt, but if you think of it as seamed, it makes sense. It's sort of like sewing a skirt with seams that has a block pattern, where your blocks are narrower at the sides because you have to cut it that way to achieve your size

[Kristen]

I would fudge the numbers so that you had an equal number of knits and purls in each square. Looking at the pattern photos, each tier appears to be a section unto itself and there is nothing that needs to align with the tier above or below. "Pletynka's" photos on Ravelry give a good view of the side seams, and all her squares are equal.

[Sarah]

The salad greens look lovely! Did you eat them as is or make a special dressing?

[robin]

I think the reason for the mismatch is that the original pattern allows for one stitch on each side for seaming (as most patterns do if they are knit flat.) Usually this makes no difference to the look of the design (if it were in normal stockinette, for example) but because they are building it in to the pattern, I think that's why it's throwing it off. If you eliminate one stitch at the end of each side where the seams would be, would that make it line up? I don't really think it's worth ripping unless there are other designs later that also will be thrown off by the presence of the two seaming stitches.

[Lynne]

I really love those beach chairs. I have one, and have been after JR to make a pattern from it so that I can always have a few on hand...then I can switch out the fabric every summer if I want to!