The Tale of the Dress

This may scare you but the colors in yesterday's post were dead on. They are exactly that bright.

Today I've got another story of knitty angst. I suppose we all go through periods like this and you just suck it up, work through it, and hope that the next project is a happier one. Or you send it to the frog pond. Thankfully this story is heading for a happy ending.

There are lots of small people in my life these days and I just love knitting for small people. Small people - small clothes. Yay!

Unfortunately, I've had a really hard time finding patterns that reflect what I have in my head. I want to knit a few little girl dresses but scouring the internet and my books haven't revealed anything just right. Everything seems too fussy, or it has buttons, or sleeves, or it's in the wrong weight of yarn. Overall I've found that their really isn't a huge selection of patterns for cute jumpers. Sweaters - yes, but not jumpers.

I finally found Summer Breeze by Zabeth Loisel-Weiner in one of those little Vogue Knitting On The Go books. It wasn't perfect either - the all over lace was a bit much for me - but overall it worked for me so I chose yarn (KP Shine Sport in Green Apple and River) and a size and got to work.

I started taking notes because I chose to use a second color on the hem and edges and incorporate a garter row for a smoother transition between colors. I kept taking copious notes because the numbers they give for the 3 year old size are all kinds of wonky. If you try to follow then then nothing lines up and it's just off. I suspect that the other 2 sizes are probably written fine. Sadly I'm not knitting one of them.

After lots of frogging and frustration I've finally finished the back of the dress and I'm very happy with it. The yarn is super-soft and I adore the colors together. I'm pleased with the stockinette skirt and feel like it makes the lacy bits pop more. I'm hoping that knitting the front of this dress will go faster because I won't have to do quite as much figuring. I'n case anyone else wants to try this dress, I'm putting all my mods on the Rav entry.

Of course, now that I've totally committed myself to Summer Breeze and I've struggled through half of the pattern, the new Knitters appeared in my mailbox. And look what it has inside! This is called Bluebells & Shells and it has to be one of the cutest little girl dresses. I will totally be making one of these. It is just about exactly what I was loooking for - a simple jumper that will look great by itself or over a top for multi-seasonal use. No buttons to irritate me and enough cute design to make it interesting.

For those of you who don't get Knitter's or haven't seen the new issue yet, there are a few nice things in it this time around. So many magazines are hit or miss these days so I love getting bloggy tips on good stuff. These are Party In Pink on the left and Glazed Carrot on the right. I'm not sure about orange but both of these look very practical and usable.