My trip started in Bogotá. I would love to say I started crocheting right away, but that would be a lie. I was still getting used to the routine, and I kept forgetting to keep my crochet in hand.
Our first stop would be Cartagena, 981km north from Bogotá. It took us 5 days to get there. All I could do with my crochet was to finish my swatch and make the calculations for the skirt in a nice hostel in Santa Cruz de Mompox.
The Plan
My plan is to make the skirt first, since I always struggled to find skirts that fit me properly on my waist and my hips at the same time.
Thats why the front panel will be slightly different than the back panel, because our bodies are not perfectly round and our butts need more space than our fronts.
Within this post I’ll only explain the front panel, that’s where I’m starting. With the easier one first.
The measurements we need are:
- A- Half of the Waist +3cm (of positive ease)
- B- Half of Higher hip (across the hip bones)
- C- Full Hip (widest point, including the butt)
- Cf- Front half of measurement C
- Cb- Back half of measurement C
- AB- distance between measurement A to B
- BC- distance between measurement B to C
You can use the seams on your pants as a quick guide for measurements Cf and Cb, those two should add up to measurement C.
Measurements A and B are the circumference divided in half equally. But for measurement Cf and Cb the division is not the same, I measured again only the front half, and the back half.
My measurement C was 106cm, my front panel was 48cm and my back panel was 58cm.
Transforming cm into Stitches
With our measurements in hand we just need to know how many stitches are the equivalent for that, and to do that we need a gauge swatch. Yes that’s what they are for too. (btw I use cm cause that’s what my brain is used to. You can use inches, no need to convert.)
After you have crocheted a slightly bigger than a 10X10cm square. Count how many rows you have to get 10cm, and how many stitches to get 10cm.
For example, mine was 28st and 24 rows equals 10cm. Or to simplify the math 2.8st and 2.4 rows equals 1cm. Still count the stitches over 10cm and then divide, it will give you a more accurate number than counting the stitches over only 1cm.
I decided to start with measurement B, not A. I’m still gonna see if that was a mistake, there’s an effect I have in mind. We are trusting the process for now.
Future Angela came back here to say: It didn’t work, at least not completely. As you can see on Part 5 of this adventure. with that said, please ignore the previous paragraph. Start the skirt panel with measurement A (your waist measurement divided by 2 plus 3cm of positive ease)(the positive ease will determine how low the back cowl neck line will go, if you want it higher leave a smaller positive ease). But instead of making rows with the same number of stitches to get from A to B, we will increase the same way we did to get from B to C as I will explain next. You might have a different ratio of increases from AB compared to BC
Getting to the math
So we need to go from measurement B. To measurement Cf.
For that, just transform measurement B and Cf into a number of stitches. And measurement AB and BC into a number of rows.
I need to start with 118st, that equals my 42cm (42×2.8=117.6). First we need to get from A to B, for me 19 rows was needed or that (8×2.4=19.2)
After that, we need to get to 136st, equivalent to my Cf measurment. In 48 rows, which is the distance between my point B to point C.
That being said, my 136 minus the 118 from the start, equals, 18 stitches that I need to increase. And doing an increase row with increases on both sides, means, I need 9 increases rows. Over 48 rows, 48 divided by 9, equals 5,3333… So we can round it down to one increase row every five rows.
Rounding the number of rows down means the width will grow faster, which is good in that case.
For the number of increases, it does need to be a pair, so round it up if you need.
For me this all results in:
- 19 regular rows with 118st. (that will get me from measurement A to B in length)
- Then 45 rows between measurement B to C with increases in every 5th row.
After that keep going until I’m happy with the length.
Future Angela here again. What I should have done was: start with 110 stitches, and make 8 increases over the 19 rows. Being 4 rows of increase over 19 rows, I would end up making 3 regular rows, an increase, and an increase row every 5 rows until you get 19 rows.
Now back to past Angela.
And since that will take me a while, especially with the amount of crocheting I’m actually being able to do. I’ll be back here on another post to ramble about the back panel.
I hope this makes sense, math sometimes can be scary, but we are just transforming one number into another one. If you feel like making this dress and need help with your numbers feel free to reach out.
If you’re making this dress, I’d love to see where your stitches take you. Whether it’s a quiet morning on the porch, a bustling café, or a view that makes your heart feel full, share your crochet moment. Tag me and use #CrochetingWithAView so we can celebrate the beauty of handmade, wherever you are.
