Lanesplitter Skirt

 I have been enviously eyeing some of the wonderfully colourful and varied "Lanesplitter" skirts on Ravelry. The skirt appeals to the "hippy" side of my nature which has been rather suppressed by my suburban life so I'm not even sure I'll ever end up wearing it! 

I had some Noro Kureyon in my stash that I had bought with the intention of making a felted bag, however I never got round to that project and decided I would rather have a Lanesplitter skirt.

The image below shows how far I got with one skein of Kureyon...I think I'm going to need three in total.

The skirt is knitted on the bias and I'm alternating my Noro with some black Cascade wool. I have to admit that I'm still rather lukewarm towards the Japanese yarn brand Noro which has almost reached a cult status within the knitting world. True, the colours are vividly gorgeous and the combinations and the way they shade into each other is fascinating, certainly makes knitting a lot of fun however, the quality of the yarn is not great. Overall the yarn is very stiff and scratchy, even after washing. It's expensive. As a slubby yarn, you do expect variations in thickness but I have found that it often becomes perilously thin in parts and I fear that sections of my skirt may not hold up to much stretch without breaking since the Noro yarn, being a kind of single ply, is also very week.

One advantage or disadvantage, depending on what you are trying to achieve, is that this Noro Kureyon does felt very easily - even the swatch I knitted and  gently hand washed in lukewarm water felted a little. This may help me with the integrity of my skirt because some of the very thin sections of the slub yarn will gain strength by fusing with their thicker neighbours.

 It's really enjoyable watching the different coloured stripes appear. This is working up pretty fast so I may get to finish it in time and wear it before the weather warms up too much.