Skirt of Destiny

It’s time to reveal the final pattern from Knitting Wester Ross: I’m still sad that I was ill at the point in the schedule when this particular design landed, but it’s better late than never.

Club members will have already read my essay about Kay Matheson who, with three of her student friends on Christmas Day, 1950, stole Scotland’s Stone of Destiny from Westminster Abbey.

In Scotland, Kay is an important icon of non-violent political protest. She’s also someone who led a very interesting life in Wester Ross, promoting the Gaelic language as well as campaigning tirelessly for an independent Scotland. Kay also taught domestic science to local children (which included skills like knitting and sewing) for several decades, and one of the great pleasures of working on this project was encountering Kay’s crafty signature in various places around Wester Ross. For example, at the old Schoolhouse in Inverasdale – now a fantastic community exhibition space and tearoom – there’s a collection of tiny mittens and socks knitted by some of Kay’s young pupils, while the Gairloch Museum holds a small collection of garments knitted by Kay herself. I was able to go behind the scenes at the museum to explore this collection with curator, Karen.

Karen had told me that Kay was well-known locally for her hand-made suits and skirts, and indeed I discovered that her collection included several such smart outfits. The skirts and petticoats were particularly interesting: the piece Karen and I are examining above, for example had been crocheted by Kay in a dense yet lightweight herringbone stitch, and included a contrasting hem worked in hand-dyed indigo yarn. When Karen suggested that I might like to design a Kay Matheson skirt for our collection I felt rather daunted. A skirt? I had never knitted one, let alone designed one, but I was definitely up for the challenge, to honour Kay.

So I went away and spent some time thinking about skirt construction and design. There was a lot to consider! The fabric had to be flexible, yet sturdy; the garment had to be fitted to the waist while being hip and arse accommodating; the skirt had to be graded across a similar ten-size extensive range as my sweaters, and it also had to be easy to adjust to a particular knitter’s length requirements. Finally, this skirt had to be simple, stylish, and look great. I needed to get cracking!

When I say I thought about this skirt for “some time” what I really mean is that I thought about it for some years. I began talking to Karen about the project back in 2021, and the majority of my Kay Matheson research took place in 2022. By 2023, I’d decided that Kay’s Skirt of Destiny (could there be any other name?) was going to be knitted sideways, and while vertical garter stitch would fulfil all my sturdy-yet-flexible fabric needs, short rows were the answer to all my shaping questions. But I had never designed a sideways anything – let alone a skirt – in which short rows did all the shaping work. And so I whipped up an experimental hat:

The design that, in time, became Little Venice is constructed from side to side. . .

. . . with short rows doing all the shaping work.

I worked out several things with Little Venice, such as a way of finishing the “hem” of my as-yet-non-existent skirt nicely (with a corded, braided edge), as well as a method of joining two live rows with a bind-off that maintains the seamless continuity of alternating garter stripes. And I then found that I’d been bitten (as I often am) by a design bug which compelled me to continue exploring these themes on my needles . . .

Several other experiments followed. I explored how to place short rows on a sideways knit to create different kinds of curve . . .

. . . and how to calculate the placement of each sideways ‘turn’ using a similar kind of mathematical formula to those which I deploy when grading garments whose construction is more conventional.

All of this took time (knitting does take time) and produced several different design ideas, all of which are among my favourites of recent years.

In the process of creating Little Venice, The Gallivant, Slippers Bellew, The Tiger in the Smoke, and The Goff Place Mystery Shawl for our Mysterious Knits book I was also learning a lot about about how to knit and grade a sideways skirt. This is one of the things that I love most about knitting: that the craft is always different, while remaining so consistently itself , and that I learn something new with every experimental project I cast on.

I incorporated several years of knitting and learning into the design that became the Skirt of Destiny.

And, four years after the seed of an idea for this design had been planted, we finally shot these photographs on the machair close to Kay Matheson’s family croft at Inverasdale. . .

Karen’s modelling the Skirt of Destiny, and she looks (as she always does) completely fabulous.

A figure of ease and strength, elegance and capability. . .

. . . all qualities which suggest those of the inspiring activist woman for whom this design is named.

The Skirt of Destiny is knitted sideways, in two contrasting shades. Short rows turns, worked in three places, add interest to the fabric while incorporating gentle shaping.

The hem is edged with a slipped-stitch braid which adds stability, as well as a nice finish.

The sideways garter stitch, meanwhile, creates a flexible fabric in which the wearer can move easily. . .

. . . but which is also substantial enough not to require an underlayer.

I’ve graded the Skirt of Destiny across ten sizes (taken from the skirt’s measurement at high-hip). If your measurements fall outside this range, or you wish to adjust the length from the dimensions given in the pattern, I’ve included instructions on how to do this (by adjusting the number of cast-on stitches and / or working more, or fewer short row ‘wedges’).

As those of you who have participated in the club will know, this project is all about the human stories of Wester Ross, and I find the story of Kay Matheson – a school teacher, who loved knitting, but who was also a mischievous political activist – is a deeply inspiring tale. Knitting is always political (sorry not sorry to those who feel otherwise) and political animals are also often knitters.

It seemed entirely fitting, therefore, that Karen, wearing the Skirt of Destiny, standing proudly in the landscape to which Kay Matheson was so profoundly attached, should be pictured on the cover of our Wester Ross book.

If you’d like to knit yourself a Skirt of Destiny, the pattern is now available to download on Ravelry and there are kits in the shop.