Russian fairy is a seamless yoked dress, knit in the round from the bottom up, inspired by the amazing costumes of the Ballets Russes. The A-line body is shaped with gradual decreases as you go up while the sleeves are knitted straight, but with a tightly gathered cuff which gives them their sweet balloon shape.

Once you have knitted the body and sleeves, a few stitches are put on hold under the arms. The body and sleeves are then joined together on one circular needle and the striking Fair Isle patterns are worked evenly around the yoke, with the addition of a steek at the right side, for a button fastening.

The beginning ‘star points’ of the yoke design start off with a small purl-sided bobble at each point and are then worked using the Intarsia technique as the motif is too large for it to be worked in Fair Isle. Y As soon as the star points end, the first decrease is made and you can start to work the rest of the yoke using the Fair Isle technique (each size has its own yoke chart that appears on a separate page each time so you don’t have to print out the ones you’re not using).

More decreases are made evenly as you go up the yoke to fit the dress to the shoulders. The back of the neck is raised by using a few short rows. The dress is finished off with small purl-sided bobbles at the neck and cuff edges. Lastly, the yoke is cut at the steek and button bands added. This side fastening means the dress can be worn fitted close to the body. The underarm stitches are then grafted together.

Level of difficulty and skills required

Advanced. Pattern requires chart-reading skills and knowledge of the Intarsia technique. Pattern also assumes knowledge of the Intarsia and Fair Isle (stranded colourwork) techniques, cable cast-on, ribbing, stocking and garter stitches, making buttonholes and grafting. Under ‘techniques’ (next page) you will find a description of how to do small bobbles and short rows.

Materials

1 size 2.75mm circular needle (US 2, UK 12) (40-60 cm / 16-24 inches long for knitting the body)
1 size 2.75mm circular needle (US 2, UK 12) (at least 80cm long, for ease of working yoke stitches)
Set of 2.25mm dpns (US 1, UK 13) (or preferred needles for working sleeve cuffs)
set of 2.75mm dpns (US 2, UK 12) (or preferred needles for working sleeves)
or needles to get gauge and then 2 sizes down for the ribbing.
Yarn bobbins (can be made from cardboard with slits in them to secure the yarn) for the intarsia star points.
8 stitch holders (or waste yarn)
4 stitch markers
4-5 15 mm buttons

Yarn and gauge

Look for a super fine (1) or fingering-weight yarn that knits to 25 sts x 30 rows in stocking stitch over 10 x 10 cm / 4 x 4 inches on size 2.75 mm needles (or size required to get gauge).

My sample dress uses 2 strands held together of Z. Hinchcliffe & sons Lambswool yarn, (2/17nm; 2-ply; 100% wool) When held double this yarn is roughly 212 m to 50 g (similar to Jamiesons Spindrift held single). I used ‘Catkin’ (mint) (discontinued colour, the new version at time of publishing is ‘Springtime’) (MC) and ‘Linen’ (CC), as well as ‘Picalilli’ (mustard), ‘Tiger’ (terracotta), ‘Tartan Red’ and ‘Indigo Melange’ for the Fair Isle designs. I love this yarn for this project as, since it is a yarn designed for professional machine use, it has a clean flat finish that, once washed, blooms and tightens, making it a really perfect knitted fabric for a dress.
Available on 250 g cones at Uppingham Yarns (wools.co.uk) but you will need a yarn-wider to make balls of 2 strands held together.
size 2 Y

Meterage needed

MC : 640 (740, 890, 1030, 1220) metres
CC : 200 (250, 300, 440, 520) metres
and approximately 40 metres of each Piccalilli (mustard), Tiger (terracotta) and Indigo Melange and 10 metres of Tartan Red.

Make sure you see my blog post on this pattern, which documents the process step-by-step!
https://www.sophieochera.com/blog/2020/5/9/knitting-russi...