Modern Love--Mirto's Skirt

Mirto's skirt, modeled by her daughter

Last month I walked into Stitches West (a fiber convention with classes and shopping here in the US), and right away I saw a woman wearing an amazing, colorful, crocheted skirt.  It was made in the Russian style of Irish Crochet and I stopped and complimented her on her skirt.  After I walked away, I thought, "hmmm, she looked familiar" so I went back and asked if we knew each other.  We did!  It was Mirto.  We had met in 2011 at Maire Treanor's Irish Crochet Workshop at Lacis!  It turned out we were both taking Myra Wood's awesome class on creative crochet shawls.  We spent the day together and promised to meet again.  She is very kind to share her process and photos with us here on the blog!

As a template, Mirto used a skirt that was flattering to her figure.  She started with the waist band sizing.  She wanted it to hang just below the waist.  She used a repetitive rhythmic design that she improvised as she went along.  She pinned her motifs right side up, and used Garden 5 Nazli Gelin yarn, Crystal Palace Panda Silk, and Araucania Lonco in reds.

She wanted to keep the motifs in a repetitive pattern until she got below the hips.  Her design at the waist of repeating small motifs is a very flattering design and creates interest without distracting from the pattern below at the hemline.

Mirto created nine gores (sections of the skirt).  In each section she placed a leaf pattern with a long stem leading to the hem.  She wiggled the stems, which she created with the Romanian cord method, so they had pleasing contours.  She placed her motifs in between the stems.  Mirto says it took her 4 hours to connect all the motifs of the first gore.  The subsequent gores ended up taking about 2 hours each to join.

Creating the sections and placing the lower motifs.

The skirt in progress, placed over the slip with which it is to be worn.

After she finished the body of the skirt, she added a bit more to the waist line, tapering it in a little, and adding a thin elastic cord.  I love how the hemline is irregular, following the contours of the motifs.

The finished skirt.  Amazing!

Modeled again by her lovely daughter!

Mirto writes, "It probably took me about a month to do. I set myself up for a deadline to show it at the 2012 Reno CGOA/TKOA fashion show-and nearly didn't make it!!"

Mirto, thank you again for sharing your beautiful skirt with us!  Do any of you have any projects you would like to share?  Please email me if you do!

~~Kim