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| Adriana in her new sundress |
I want to share with you one of the projects I have done in the last few months. It's a small one, but I really love it! The pattern is called Miss Jenkins Dress by Diane Conroy, a lovely designer and a personality I admire. This was a test knit - I saw the prototypes she had done on Ravelry and instantly liked the dress.
So, here is my review.
About the pattern:
I think this is a well written pattern. All instructions are clear, the construction is simple and smart, the lace design is beautiful, nicely integrating increases as the dress gets longer. Super easy to memorize and pleasant to knit, even when watching a movie. I found myself knitting only the odd rows of the pattern a couple of times (I am not used to knitting lace in the round and missed the purl row), but that is just my lack of concentration, since I got to work on it after 22:00 usually.... I would say this is a pattern for an intermediate knitter in general. It's a fairly fast knit and can be done in a couple of evenings. Oh, and more good news: there is also a matching hat to this dress! ;)
About the yarn:
Diane had used - and recommends - a cashmere/cotton mix (50% - 50%) or a ramie/silk mix (also 50% - 50%) by Colourmart. I have recently purchased cash/cotton yarn and it is really nice, there is just one But - for places like Greece (think 35-39`C) this would make the dress too warm for summer months (but perfect for fall/spring). The ramie/silk option is more summery, but I can't really tell much about it, as I have not done any projects with this one.
I chose 100% cotton for this dress, for two reasons. 1) I wanted to cast on asap and thought ordering from Colourmart and waiting nearly a week for delivery would be too long; 2) the cotton available in our LYS is fairly good quality and has some seriously beautiful shades. I could get it the same day and at a good price, too. (If only I knew I'll run short 4 rows before cast off... and will have to wait 3 weeks for a re-stock!)
I will very likely knit this dress again. I really love the design as is, but I am also thinking that the lace pattern would look very interesting with long variegated yarns. I am thinking of Wolle's yarn collection.... she has some amazing colorways! And I keep wondering, just how difficult would it be to block out the purl rows in the lace pattern in order to make it out of merino wool for winter? With some steam, perhaps? I love layering outfits, especially for kids. Let me know if you have tried it!
We did an amazing photo shoot with Adriana today - here are some of the photos:
