NOTE: This is a re-post from last July because I’m crocheting another skirt just like it–but in chili red. Yes, I really am crazy. . . I will post more pictures as I get farther along.

I’m a self-taught knitter and crocheter who know just enough about both to be dangerous (to myself, mostly). By dangerous I mean I frequently get into projects that are well over my head.

Last April I decided I had to have this skirt I saw on beautifulcrochetstuff.com

If I would have stopped and thought about it for a second (I didn’t) I would have said, “No way!”

Instead, I looked online for the yarn (well, thread would be more accurate) she recommends: Alize Forever cotton. I found the product for sale in Latvia. Seriously. It cost less than $2/skein and only took a few weeks to get all the way to the mountains of Northern New Mexico.

Here is what it looks like when compared to both a spool of sewing thread and serger thread (finer than normal thread):

Scary, huh?

I began crocheting the granny squares last April. I wish I had taken photos, but it didn’t occur to me what a monumental task this project would be (told I didn’t think things through…)

All of the squares looked wrinkly and oddly-shaped and . . . weird. But I just kept going. I made about 10 squares and then put the project away until November 2016, when I finished the squares and began to join everything together. Each row took about 2 hours, not counting the time it took me to undo mistakes I made. Since I worked on this while streaming movies with my husband, I frequently crocheted entire rows that were wrong.

It looked like the skirt wasn’t getting any bigger, even after a few months of working on it 4 or 5 evenings a week. But persistence paid off and so did the fact I wanted it finished for my conference in LA this March.

I was crocheting the frill on the bottom and feeling like it would never be quite long enough when I decided to see if I could press it with an iron and maybe “flatten” it out a bit.

Whoops!

Yes, this was exactly what the granny squares needed to become beautiful and flat. In fact, the skirt became plenty long after I pressed it. It was beautiful . I LOVED it. Unfortunately, once the fibers have been ironed it’s almost impossible to weave in all the loose ends on the garment.

So, live and learn. And also live with dozens of loose ends you are too afraid to cut and cannot weave in. . .

Anyhow, here are some pics of the finished product:

A close up of the bottom:

One of those pesky granny squares:

And the waistband, which you crochet with thread and elastic thread:

So, there is the skirt. I would make one and sell it for about a million dollars…