Miss B's Second

The daughter of a good friend had a birthday recently so, naturally, I knit. I had it in my head to make a dress for her and searched through Ravelry and my personal library for just the right pattern. Then the summer issue of Knitter's appeared with a pattern by Rick Mondragon called Bluebells & Shells. It immediately grabbed my attention because it was sweet and simple and totally different from the dress I made for my niece. This is key when knitting for 2 similarly sized little girls with birthdays about a week apart. Avoid bordeom and knitty monotony at all costs.


The shape of the dress is simple with a flared skirt that ought to be perfect for twirling. The interest comes from the use of 2 different versions of slipped stitch. There is a controlled, and subtle version on the bodice and a bolder, playful version at the hem. Both were fun to knit. What wasn't fun was knitting in all of the resulting ends afterwards. Ugh and double-ugh. I thought that I'd never finish.



Although the KP Shine is softer, I went with Elann Sonata for this dress. Both yarns are cotton and come in great colors but Sonata feels more sturdy. For kid stuff I want a yarn that can stand up to a bit of abuse.

As this point in the post I'd love to offer a modeled shot but... my model wasn't up for that. I was happy that she tried on the dress and it fits perfectly.

I don't take it personally that she couldn't get it off again fast enough - you'd have though that it was on fire. By the time she put it on it was about 8pm and Miss B is 2. Tired toddlers are not good models. Not at all.