This thing and I have gotten off on the wrong foot. Between twisting the 460 st cast-on twice and messing up the lace too many times, I haven’t found much to like. Now I fear the gauge may be way off, but since the pattern doesn’t give me the lace gauge, only the stockinette gauge (though I don’t think there is any stockinette…), I have no way to tell. :P I’m gonna burn this thing if it doesn’t fit!

Used US 7 for first 2 repeats. 6 for third. we’ll see how that looks. Might have to go down to a 5.

Will have to go down to 5s. :P Swatch, people. Always swatch. Even when you aren’t given gauge for the pattern stitch.

22.4 sts/in unstretched should be the pattern gauge. I’m getting it on the 5s and 6s, so I’ll keep using 5s.

The woes never end! Moving markers (gaps in jump rings are the devil), unclear directions (I misread, but the pattern could have been written entirely differently and better to avoid such a misreading), totally fudged and effed up corrections to fix the results of the unclear directions, and I’m still not sure I’m totally in love with the way the yarn looks knit up at this gauge. ~le sigh~ I’ve told it that it cannot and will not break me! It will become enough of a dress that I can wash it and see what happens to my tension. Then I will decide if it has beaten me after all….

Note to self 7.7.13: 5 more repeats to waist ribbing. 21 3/4” long (that means I’m not beaten yet!).

You cannot knit the Armhole Shaping section as written! It asks you to knit 35, place 40 in holder, knit 70, place 40 on holder, knit to the end. The next row then tells you to cast on stitches for the underarms, but you can’t do that because the only way to continue knitting after putting stitches on a holder is to join under the armholes! There are two options: knit 75, then place last 40 on holder, repeat and knit to the end or knit 35, put 40 on holder and cast on 20, then knit 70, put 40 on holder, cast on 20 and knit to the end. I will do the second option. This pattern gets more and more frustrating by the day!

Blocked, each repeat is 3/4 of an inch in length, so the row gauge is about 32 rows/4 inches. I will do 9 1/2 in from underarm to waist instead of 10 1/2 because I’m short. Almost there!

Things I did in a nutshell:
-Shortened the skirt by 2 inches and the bodice by one.
-Didn’t really do the decreases in the skirt as written on the lace rows, just didn’t add the accompanying yarn-overs when decreasing, more or less.
-Didn’t do the increases for the sleeves in stockinette, but worked out how to continue the lace.
-Only picked up 25 sts under each arm and finished the sleeves with three rows of garter st, not ribbing.
-Grafted the skirt to the bodice marker to marker (instead of shifting the skirt end-of-round marker under an armpit as written). I didn’t like the look of a triangle at the front.

I won’t even attempt to write down all the things I would change about the pattern itself. I hope I already have. :)

I will make a sash, find a champagne slip, and either buy or make a tulle skirt to wear underneath. I’m getting married in this thing! YAY!!!

Tulle skirt and story.