This was one of the most complicated patterns I have followed. It is knitted in the round using circular needles, I had used circulars once before to knit a hat, it involves stripes which I have never knitted before and stripes in the round are even more complicated. I consider myself to be a competent, confident knitter with a few years of experience, I love to try new techniques provided I can find the help I need.
To knit the stripes in the round I had to ensure that I carried the yarn up that I was not knitting, I chose to do this on every other row. The stripes were six rows wide, so a carried up in rows one, three and five. When you are knitting in the round you are actually knitting a spiral so when you change colour you can see the join, I had to learn a new technique to hide the join, the jogless jog. The pattern provided a link but I could not make sense of it at all and I still had a jog, I consulted my knitting book but it made no mention of it. A google search gave me a few websites with descriptions that I still could not make sense of so I looked on YouTube and found the perfect method, simple, easy to remember and it worked. You knit one row in your new colour, the first stitch of row two you slip purlwise and knit the rest of the rows as usual.
I wanted wooden buttons but I was unable to find any in the very small size I needed in the time I had, so I settled for some orange ones. After blocking, this dress only just fits. My daughter must be very big for her age, or the pattern writer had a small child as I knitted the age six size and it only just fits, my daughter is three!
She has only worn it once so far, but I think I will be trying to ensure that it gets worn as much as possible as it will not fit next winter, although with the weather we have had for the past few summers she may want to wear it in June!
If you want to knit one you can find the pattern on ravelry and it is free!
Joining in with Nicole for Keep Calm and Craft On.
That is such a lovely dress.
ReplyDeleteI am still a a novice knitter, having only knitted Booties and hats and gnomes (!) so far but I hope to be able to knit something as lovely as that for my girls one day!
Happy New year x x
You did a great job! I've never understood that carrying the yarn up business.
ReplyDeleteIsn't YouTube wonderful? I've been using it for all my knitting questions lately!
What a cute dress - well done!
ReplyDeleteAnd thank you for the jogless stripes tutorial link, so useful :o)
Thank you Gina, Tara and Hannah for your lovely comments.
DeleteWhat an adorable dress you knit and way to plan ahead! I need to start my Christmas knitting much earlier next year.
ReplyDeleteI hope she gets lots of time to enjoy wearing such a lovingly knit item :)
What a lovely dress! You're right, we are so lucky having so much knowledge available to us now...no excuse not to learn new techniques and the like x
ReplyDeleteGreat dress! I'm still knitting a scarf I started last January...
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your search. I never even knew there was a way to hide that "jog". I will be doing that in my future projects for sure. Thanks again.
ReplyDeleteThe dress it very cute- it's too bad it will only fit her for one season, I hope she is able to wear it lots! I use a different jogless stripe technique that I learned awhile ago :)
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