How My Slanted Skirt Took Shape

Slanted skirt plus Tanja's lovely top and shawl. Shaping is achieved entirely via the slant in the fabric!

Mitts version one

Mitts version two

Mitts two thumbhole

Schlampersocken

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Designs don't fall from the sky, all finished and ready. They are built up out of knowledge, memories and inspirations. Innovative as it may be, each crochet pattern uses crochet stitches. Not all designs have a history that is easy to unravel. To give you an impression of how small design elements wind their way into becoming a pattern, I'll tell you how my slanted skirt came into being.

My first step towards designing clothes was a tiny one. I realized that back loop only sc creates a stretchy fabric. and I needed wristwarmers. My design approach was modest: chosing back loop only sc for stretchiness, I made a simple rectangle and closed the seam, leaving a hole for the thumb. One of those, made in a lovely merino/cashmere blend, is still my favorite pair of wristwarmers.

The next step was boredom. A friend had admired my pair and I needed a gift for her – but I was tired of making the same simple thing again. So, I turned the rectangle into a proper parallelogram, letting it slant to the other direction for the second one – and voila! -- simple again, but way more interesting to crochet.

I worked the same concept a few more times, reducing the number of shaping rows, so the slant was less steep. That way, the lines winding around the arm looked more natural. My next use of slanted lines was for a gift. A friend expected her first child and I needed something quick that would fit into an envelope so I could send it to her.  In a store, I saw very cute baby socks, but of course I decided to make them myself, with nicer yarn. The main problem was sizing. I had a little idea about the circumfence, but none about where the heel would sit. And there was the growth issue: wherever I put that heel, I feared it would fit for something like three days and then the baby would outgrow it. Instead of complicated schemes, I decided to make it simple: no heel at all!

I had a vague recollection of something called Schlampersocken, which are essentially socks without heels. And if socks without heels worked for knitting, they would work for crochet. They did, of courseTransition to an adult version of those socks proved to be harder: I played around with different stitches (sc, dc, hdc), all back loop only, and they were too short, too long, too tight, too sloppy, you name it. I got a couple of nice socks to wear at home but not “the” pattern. Which I'm nearing by now, with a completely different approach, but that is another story. Diagonal lines kind of ran into a dead end with socks.

My first slanted skirt was a byproduct to match a top.  For inspiration, I looked at the store-bought skirts I like to wear. They had a tendency to be knee-length and pencil-shaped. It all came together: I wanted to take up the slanting lines of the top, wanted to avoid shaping, and, geometrically, there is no difference between a small tube for the wrists and a large tube for the hips. Again, I decided to make it simple: a parallelogram, just bigger than for wristwarmers and socks. And I knew from my sock experiments that slants can accommodate a heel – so I was confident they would go nicely around my curves without me having to do extra shaping. Thus, the only measurement I needed was the biggest circumfence the skirt should span. The rest would be done by stretchiness. And it was.

My second slanted skirt followed the same pattern; I just made it longer, to cover the knees – and it looks awful on me. Thus I learned that length is important, and my length is above the knee. Still, it is a comfy skirt to wear around the house. When I made the third skirt, it was due to an admission of unwise stashing: I had bought a sweater's worth of sock yarn (more, actually) and it took me some years to admit to myself that I would not wear a sweater made from sock yarn; it would just be too scratchy to my skin. As I had already discovered the wonderful world of slip stitches, I made it in back loop only slip stitch. Very easy to do, and, to add some interest to the same old pattern, I added in a short row ruffle. Due to stretchiness, it does not show much, but I know it is there and, most importantly, I had fun making it. 

Incidentally, by now I've made a fourth skirt for myself, with slanted lines but a completely different pattern.

Design inspiration can be triggered by so many sources: a certain stitch pattern, a yarn --- this skirt arose from a vision  of ribbed texture and slanting lines.