Monday 23 July 2007

Late Blossom

It's another knitwrong from before Knit Wrong!

Pattern: Blossom by Melissa Wastney from Magknits, size 6-9 months.
Materials:
Rowan Wool Cotton, shade 903/ Misty (4 balls); DB Cotton DK, shade 34 (scraps); Addi Turbo 4mm.
Cost: £18.00
Adaptations: I made two lengths of i-cord for the tie, rather than using a ribbon, and I made a buttonhole loop to hold the tie in place. I put running stitch around the edges instead of embroidering lazy-daisy stitch. I forgot to go down a needle size for the garter stitch edging (it shows: see curling in photo). I made a mistake and performed a brilliant rescue, described below!

The Blossom pattern makes a great little dress. Whether it's the best way to get to that dress, I'm not sure, but the finished object is sweet and practical. The wrap style gives it lots and lots of growing room: Maddy can still wear this dress at 14 months, and it looks likely to be a part of her wardrobe for a little longer, perhaps as a wrap-top rather than a dress as it is now bottom-skimming rather than knee-length.

Actually, I had some trouble with the length. The dress is knit from the bottom hem of the back section, in one piece, and somehow or other I misread the pattern and made the back panel about 2" too long. I didn't check This didn't become apparent until I had completed the front panels and was ready to seam, so I was faced with the prospect of frogging back to the beginning, or taking up scissors. Armed with a circular needle and Maggie Righetti's instructions, I made the cut at the point above the back decreases where I wanted to take out the length. Incidentally, this was one of the most pleasurable moments in my knitting career: watching the secure fabric revert to little live loops, and catching them as they appeared, was a minor thrill. Then I knit back down, working increases in place of the decreases. I felt pretty pleased with myself about that.

I would love to make another; I would also love to revise the pattern, heavily, for a completely seam-free construction. It could easily be worked in one piece from the bottom edge up, and grafted together at the shoulders. I appreciate the need for fold lines to make a piece like this hang right, but seams could easily be faked by slipping the "edge" stitches every other row. (Seahorse thought the same.) Lastly, I love the yarn: it's such a perfect gymslip grey, it's soft, and it's wearing very nicely, despite the various abuses it receives through crawling, toddling and eating. It's really too much to have spent on a baby dress (and since then, I've got pretty good at stocking up on my beloved Wool Cotton from eBay), but it was worth it this time.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a PRETTY dress for a PRETTY little girl! Well done you, I was going to knit a dress once but then changed my mind. Might have to re-think.

Sarah said...

Some good knit righting in there to correct the length. The FO is very lovely and wrap baby clothes do seem very sensible.

darlene mcleod said...

Adorable. Oh, and the dress is sweet, too. I particularly like your adaptation to add the ribbon detailing: very smart.

weblet said...

Wow, your daughter is looking georgous and big!

Seahorse said...

Gorgeous, even with such a curious construction! The one I made was the most appreciated item I've ever given to a non-knitter :)

Nice save on the length.

Linda said...

Lovely dress, and well done on the scissor trick! You are braver than me.

florencemary said...

It's a lovely little dress and your daughter is just SO cute!

I agree about the grey - so much more interesting than the usual 'little girl' shades.

Still not sure though, about the chopping. I think if I had to, then I would frog, but then I'm a chicken (?).