I fell in love with this dress, printed in the Spring 2007 Interweave Knits. It would be perfect for my niece Lady Lindsay. But, (would you belive this?) there are no shops in my area that stock Interweave Knits. I was flabbergasted. Rather frustrated, I decided to just buy a subscription and got this for my troubles- “Your curent issue is Summer 2007, expect it in early May.” Grrr.
Not one to be put off by such trifles, I decided to design one myself. Had I managed to get the pattern I would have re-written it to be seamless anyway. Let’s think of it as cutting out the middle-man.
Here it is- a top-down raglan using EPS. Fit for a princess. US sz. 6 needles, 5 sts/inch. Red Heart Super Saver in colors Ocean and Lavendar. Obviously, I am not a fiber snob. Mostly I want Lindsay to wear this as much as she wants with no worries about washing.
A couple pattern notes so far- 140 is a perfect 100% for top-down knits. The neck started at 60%.
I wanted the sleeve to puff a little above the cable band, but not below. The cable bands are knit with the full sleeve stitches. After the band I decreased 1/5 of the stitches (K3 K2tog) for a smooth line before increasing again for the bell. At the bottom of the sleeve I did a row of eyelets (my first lace BTW) so the cuffs can be cinched up with a cord for eating, handwashing, pottying, mud-pie making, etc.
I’m doing a panel of K2 P1 ribbing down the front, both for decoration and ease. I had started off with a lovely brocade design down the front, but it was pulling up too much and you couldn’t really see the design in the varigated yarn. So…. I changed my mind. And that meant ripping out and re-knitting a 36 stitch panel 6 inches tall. Grrr again. Oh well, that was better than ripping back to the neck and starting over.
Now it’s just the skirt portion left. I have 2.5 skeins left so I’ll just knit it as long as the yarn supply allows. All my love to you Miss Lindsay!
hello peggy,
saw your post on zimmermaniacs. omigosh is that a lovely dress! i want one for dd! please post when you finish. the interweave knits one is great, too, but i would also want to make it seamless. and also, even though i like the yarn on the ik sites, i don’t think the cables show up so well in a varigated yarn. i think you’re wise to use acrylic. that’s some lucky niece you got there.
cheers,
caroline b.
peggy, your knitting creations are truly beautiful. such talent and perserverence (sp). lucky all the little ones, and the big ones, too. love, dot