The Knitting Fiend

I have made a couple of skirts with side seam shaping and encountered unsolvable problems, because the skirts started to have longer peaks hanging down on the side seams that could not easily be fixed with anything but ripping.

Since then I have not made a skirt following that or a similar pattern.

Any tricks you know?

The problem Angelika is describing is fairly common, and is noticeable when a person knits a long, flared skirts. I snapped a picture of a page from "mon tricot special: knit and crochet."¹ Notice the knitter is perplexed because the sides forms droopy downward facing points? Ick!

Why does this happen? One common theory you will find posted on web pages is the side seams stretch. The other is that the sides seams are too long in the first place. The best solution to the problem comes from understanding that both stretching and being too long in the first place contribute to the problem.

Let's start by examining a flat pattern of flared skirt designed by someone who insists it's important to "keep it simple" and not make things "too complicated." A typical design is shown to the left and outlined in black. Notice the skirt is a trapezoid; the top width should be a bit wider than than the wearer's actual waist. How much wider is a matter of preference; if it's too small to get over the hips, a zipper will be required. Also, if you make the waist very tailored, you should add interior darts for a good fit. If you do not use a zipper, the skirt must be wide enough to pass over the wearers hips; for a flared skirt, the lower portion continues to widen.

In a "keep it simple stupid" (K.I.S.S.) design, the hem forms a straight line.

Ok, so why might the edges droop on a skirt knit following the K.I.S.S. design rules? Let's look at the geometry.

I illustrated the length of the skirt along the center front with a green line, and the length along the side in black. Notice the length along the side greater than the length down the front. When the skirt flares a lot, the side length can be much greater than the center length. While the hem looks horizontal on paper, when worn, the skirt will drape down from the wearer's hips, and the length at the sides will be longer than the length down the center.

Ok, but sometimes the "keep it simple stupid" ( K.I.S.S. ) method works and there are no droopy point. Why?

Let's consider a straight skirt shaped above the hips, but unshaped below the hips. I illustrated that in red. It's pretty easy to see that the red line illustrating the length of the new side seam is longer than the green line; this is due to the shaping above the hips. However, that's ok.

Why is it ok? Well, if you were to put an elastic band around waist, and a second around your hips, and measured from the waist down to the hips, you'd find the distance measured along the hip is greater than the distance measured along the waist. (Well, you'd find this if you have a sufficiently trim figure to make your hips poke out more than your tummy.) And, quite often the difference in the body lengths is pretty close the different distances on the trapezoid. So, it works out ok-- or at least it's good enough for knitting.

Ok, so maybe you just rushed to the closet and measured these two distances. And maybe you thought: "Hmm.. I have a J. Lo butt; maybe I need the back to be longer than the front." If you were a dress maker working with woven fabrics, you'd do that. When pattern drafting for woven fabrics, you want to make sure the skirt length is "just right" along the front, back and sides, and you do a bunch of other complicated geometric things to make sure the grain hangs correctly etc.

We don't need to go that far with knitting because knit fabric stretches. When knitting a straight skirt, the K. I. S. S. ("keep it simple stupid" ) design shown in red works just fine for most figure types. Droopy sides usually only arise when the skirt is flared and fairly long.

What's the solution? See the purple diagonal lines on the bottom of the skirt? When you knit a flared skirt, you want to work short rows to lengthen the center while keeping the sides a bit short.

Now, I know you are all thinking: "Hey, I bet Lucia's going to write a calculator telling us how to chart this all in advance. I can just cast on knit the short rows, then work up toward the waist, and it will all work out."

No! I could do that, but it's not the best solution. Do you remembered the other theory for side droop I mentioned? The sides seams stretch more than the center? Well, they might. Or, the front might stretch more than the sides. Fabric does stretch under the weight of gravity. All fabric. And knit fabric stretches more than woven fabric. Heavy fabric usually stretches more than light fabric. Loosely knit or woven fabric stretches more than tightly knit or woven fabric.

So, we have no idea exactly how much the fabric will stretch under gravity until after we create it.

Luckily, that's not a problem. In fact, recognizing this makes the solution to the "problem" easier. Here's what you should do when charting. ( I will assume you knit this in two pieces, although it's even easier if you knit circular.): (Click "more" if it appears. :))

1. Chart the skirt as though you are going to knit it using the "K.I.S.S" method. (Read the full directions before charting, because I'm going to give some warnings at the end.)
2. Start one piece, knitting from top down, but try it on occasionally to test the length.
3. When the side length as about 1" shorter than you want, stop knitting. Put the live stitches on a string and set that piece aside. Knit the other piece. (Note: If you'd been knitting circular, this would be easier, wouldn't it?)
4. Hang the skirt vertically over night. The skirt will stretch and lengthen hopefully less than an inch . It may also become more narrow. Baste the side seams together.
5. Now, test fit the skirt. Decide if you like the side length. If it's too long, you'll need to rip a few rows; that's why I suggested stopping when you thought it was a little too short! If it's too short, you'll need to knit a few more rows. But, don't do that yet. You'll need to take some measurements.
6. Have someone measure the length from the floor to the side seam. Call this H1. Now, have them measure the length from the floor to the center. Call this H2. The difference (H2-H1)= DH is the depth of the short rows. That would be the distance from the horizontal dashed purple line and the black hem line in the sketch above and to the left. Write this number down. You'll need it for the calculator I provide below.

   (Yes. I know what you are thinking. "I have a rounded J. Lo butt, and flat J. Lo abs." Yes, you can take separate measurements for the front and back. But calculate them one at a time. )

7. Now, fill out some numbers in the calculator below, and I'll give you directions to finish your hem.

That's what you do to work your hem and get it to hang level.

But, do you remember I warned you to read the whole thing before charting? There's a potential problem when knitting skirts. When you test fit the skirt, it's possible the skirt got a lot narrower. (Or you got fatter, but that's not a knitting issue.)

Hopefully, the skirt hasn't gotten too narrow in the hips. Machine knitters who make lots of these things learn to leave plenty of ease in the seat and waist; you should too. How much? Beats me. It depends on how much you expect the fabric to stretch! Some designers knit unshaped yardage the length of the skirt and then determine the gauge after hanging the fabric vertically over night. This is worth it if you make 200 skirts by machine! You could try to estimate how much your fabric will lengthen or narrow by knitting a swatch and letting it hang with some light weights attached overnight. Unfortunately, it's difficult to be precise, but you can at least see if it narrows 2% or 20%. If it narrows down only a little, you only need to add a little extra width through the hips. If it narrows down a lot, you'll need to add a lot or there is some risk the skirt will be way too snug around your hips.

Anyway, Angelika, I suspect this is more than you needed to know. But, good luck with your skirt.

1. My copy of the "mon tricot special: knit and crochet" workbook includes the number 0 D17. I've searched for the copyright date, but I can't find it. I probably bought my English language version in 1980 or 81; I definitely bought my French language version between September of 1979 and May of 1980. I also searched for "Mon Tricot" on Amazon.com. I discovered three copies of their out of print stitch pattern book were available, but nothing else came up. They were great books; it's a shame!