April 14

Gauging and deciding size. Gauge is right on 3.75mm needles, but I’m not sure I like the fabric. I will make further tests.

Ok, so I will knit the Medium size, aiming for a Small, possibly adjusting the bust, as I am an E cup.

April 27

Wow, it’s been a while… well, I’m casting on 144 sts.

April 28

I am surprised at how smoothly the knitting is going, the yarn just glides on the needles! It’s the first time I use Scrumptious yarn, and I’m in love with it!

Gauge: 26 sts x 36 rows.

Modifications: 22 rounds after joining the hem, increased one round, now increasing every 8th row.

I didn’t knit many rows in the beginning because I’m rather short. I’ll knit more rounds after the increases if I deem it necessary.

May 2

Knitted 33 rounds after last increase (tried it on and I like it to be long, right above the knee).

Started decreases as per pattern.

Joining in second skein on second row of second decrease. =)

May 5

Worked one extra decrease after trying it on.

Worked 11 rows after last decrease.

Beginning increases, casting off as per pattern. I have 4 stitches missing in the front. I will make one extra repeat, possibly two if necessary.

May 6

Worked 10 increases and 2 extra row.

Beginning armholes, distributing 4 extra stitches evenly.

Knitting 32 rows instead of 28.

Tried it on after grafting the arms, and it’s a TRAGEDY! It really is too small on the chest. Damn boobs, I hate them, standard patterns never fit me. I followed the measurements on the pattern, and the dress was right, but I shouldn’t have trusted that. I should have tried it on more often as I knitted it. But it was difficult to get a good idea of how it fit on the chest before finishing the arms… so I had to unravel, actually, to cut to pieces the arms, as it was too difficult to unravel with the cast off and decreases and slip stitches, it was all tangled and knotted… I never had to cut through my knitting like that, it was so traumatising!!

Luckily, I still have lots of yarn, and it’s not a big deal to redo the upper part. I will add a repeat or two, AND knit a lot of extra rows on the chest. Hopefully I will be able to make this work.

May 9

Finished redoing the upper part.

Modifications: knit 4 rows less per side (8 rows total per strap).

I-cord bind off: picked up 60 sts instead of 54, but did it very tightly. I love this technique! It looks neat, and it prevents the strap from falling off the shoulder.

May 12

I don’t know how I found the will to finish it, as I was getting really bored, but I made it. I didn’t like the lace pattern very much, but I didn’t have the will to figure out a better one and test it. I used a thinner lace yarn, and perhaps my gauge was smaller, because it’s not very wide, but again, I didn’t want to do extra repeats, I was too bored.

Cast off with 5.5 mm needles, and uses Jenny’s super-stretchy bind-off. Nevertheless, it still wasn’t stretchy enough, not enough to block it properly anyway.

But the dress looks really great on me, and now that it’s blocking I trust it will stretch a bit, providing that tiny bit of ease that I need.

I am please on how it came out, but I wish I had used real summer yarn (cotton, silk, linen, bamboo etc.), as it’s still too warm to be worn during the day here in Rome. I will keep looking, and if I find the right yarns, I will knit it again! ^_^