Why I haven't been laceknitting....

It has been a bit crazy lately... I've been trying to keep up with emails, work, house, life... haven't gotten in as much knitting on the lace KAL's as I should.... Instead, though - I needed to take some time to make a Christmas tree skirt. See, this year, I finally managed to buy myself a new Christmas tree. Wanted to, and tried to, last year. But they were sold out of the tree I wanted....

Anyway - new tree meant, new skirt. I had an old one - that was bright red, with white trim. Storebought. Sort of a fleecy material, but cheap fleecy. It did its job for the twenty or so years I had it. When I bought it, it was a solid circle. I guess they figure you put it on the floor, then put the tree on top of it. Which, I guess, is fine - but I wanted to cover the ugly stand and hide the cords for the lights... so I had to cut it. Cutting resulted in the white trim ravelling over time....

This year, since I now have a white tree instead of a green tree, it meant, time to get serious about finding a blue/silver tree skirt. I have been trying to find yarn to make one - a few years ago, I had seen some blue yarn with metallic thread running through it, but didn't buy any then. Regretted it since, because I haven't seen it in the stores again. Found a close substitute last year, then tried to crochet a skirt. Remember, I blogged about it back then? Gave up on it, since it wasn't turning out at all. And, I think I would have run out of that yarn before it got very big, anyway.... Well, while wandering around tidying up shelves at work, I came across some discontinued yarn, blue, with glittery bits running through it.... Novelty yarn, eyelash type.... and there were five balls. I grabbed them - and, just in case, I also bought four more of another clearance yarn, that was white and sparkly eyelash yarn. Figured I'd alternate them, and see how big I could make it. Turned out, that I'd missed seeing there were more than just the five balls of blue... I bought two more while the skirt was in progress, and I now have one ball leftover. No problem, I love this stuff!!! I'll find something to trim with it... I also have nearly three full balls of the white... I had to use a few yards off one ball, to finish casting off with. Again, I love this sparkly white stuff.... I'll find something to use it on!!! Before I post a picture, though - I want to mention... I was also at the grocery store, and they had the tree skirts out - There was a gorgeous rich blue shiny one, with white and silver beaded snowflakes on it... I almost bought it and saved myself some trouble, except they had ruined it by putting a gold braid around the outside edge. Why gold??? I mean, they got the blue and silver part right on the main design - why not a white or silver braid? The gold just plain made it ugly. I know, I could have bought it and removed the braid, but then, what if there were threads hanging out? What if it showed up that I'd altered it? What if I had to try to find more braid to recover the spot? What if is became far more trouble than it was worth? Why not just carry on with knitting my own tree skirt? Which, of course, I did - so, without further ado:

Based more or less on the idea of a pi shawl, but done in garter stitch rows... 12 rows blue, 4 rows white, until "big enough" and following the increases as per the pi shawl. Knitting into the front and back of the stitches, rather than the yarn overs, for a more solid rather than lacey effect.