Flaming Bumblebee Crochet Skirt.

If you're one of my facebook friends, you probably know that I have been talking a LOT recently about trying to crochet a 25 yard skirt. Despite finding out for certain that a 25 yard skirt - by definition - has a bottom hem of 25 YARDS (AKA 75 feet AKA 900 inches)!!! - I still really want to try my hand at crocheting such a skirt. To my knowledge, no one has ever tried it before, probably because it is a huge project that will take a LOT of time and effort.

SO... I decided to make a test sample out of worsted weight yarn and an 8MM hook. Starting with a partial skein of red yarn that was originally 1LB, but was probably about half that or a little more at this point, I foundation single crocheted 75 feet. It took me between 4-5 hours!!!

And then I followed that with a row of double crochet. When I ran out of red, I pulled out 2 half
pound skeins of worsted weight yellow yarn. By my best guess, each skein of yarn was around 400 yards. This mean that by the end of the red and the yellow yarn - I had approximately 1200 yards of yarn worked into a 25 yard long strip about 4 inches (give or take) in width.

The next thing I did was grab a goldish colored yarn so I could continue the experiment. Note: the last row of yellow just before I ran out, was my "tier" row, in which I literally crocheted 2 stitches in one for the entire row until I had a seriously awesome ruffle effect. I continued on with the gold, but barely had enough to finish the rest of the row.

So - knowing that I wouldn't be able to finish this skirt in any sort of coordinating colors, AND that it would probably use up every scrap of yarn I have and totally look ugly and clash with itself - I decided to stop the experiment. Besides, the finished skirt would have been seriously heavy and bulky. So not fun to wear, and definitely not easy to dance in!

I took a progress pic at this point.

Well, not really the type to tear up all my work if I don't have to or want to use the yarn for something else - It's been just sitting in my stash for over 2 years - I decided that I wanted to make something out of it that resembled a circular shawl. So I undid the goldish color yarn. After that, I used it to sew the ruffle together in a spiral.

The very center had a big hole in it because to get it to sew together smoothly, I couldn't make the inside of the spiral too tightly wound. I figured that I would just make a center doily motif to complete the shawl when I was done.

When I was done, I held it up and discovered something that I hadn't expected. It totally took me by surprise! I was expecting a circular shawl and I got... a skirt!!!

As you can see, this is not suitable to use as a shawl. The way the spirals go together created a definite tube, and that would just stick out if trying to wear it like a shawl, so I have a strange little skirt, lol! You want to know the most ironic and surprising thing of all?

IT FITS ME!!!

Please be nice and not point out my flabby tummy. I'm self-conscious about it enough as it is, and I tried my best to crop that part out without losing too much of the top of the skirt.

So there you have it, an unexpected flaming bumblebee skirt made from the test swatch made for my 25 yard skirt. I can totally tell you right now that this skirt will probably never be worn again because I am really not into wearing skirts that end before my ankles. However, I do think it's cute, and maybe someday, someone else will think it's cute enough to wear too, lol :-)