August 05, 2012:

First of all, thank you very much, Anett (Fadenstille) for designing such a beautiful dress/tunic/shirt and for putting the pattern at our disposal totally free of charge!

When I discovered Annet’s gorgeous Lavinia dress some time ago I knew that I had to knit one for myself, but first I wanted to complete at least one of the various WIP’s that I had on my needles.

After completing Levanto I could not resist buying the yarn for Lavinia on last Thursday. I did not find any cotton or silk that seemed suitable to me, therefore I opted for a thin rayon ribbon yarn. It has a wonderful sheen and I hope that the dress will have a beautiful drape and hold its shape better thank silk.

I want the dress to be long - very long… this means that I will have to add a lot of rows. At the same time, I do not want it to be too “A-shaped”, therefore I will have to try it on quite often to check how to place the increases.

The yoke is completed, the armhole stitches are bound off and now I am working on the back, increasing one stitch on both sides of every 2nd row for the armhole shaping.

September 11, 2012:

I finished my Lavinia dress some days ago and have worn it today for the first time. Working on it has been my main occupation during my holidays in August. I wanted to finish it as soon as possible in order to wear it a few times before Summer is over…

It has grown about 5 cm in length after washing (this doesn’t matter to me at all, because I wanted a long dress), but it has shrunk a bit in width; I put the dress on before washing it and it was clearly wider than it is now. I really hope that it will “grow” back to its initial width as I wear it or at least that it will stay as it is and not shrink anymore.

If I remember well (I didn’t write down anything), after finishing the arm hole frames I made paired increases four times every 25th row, then once on the next 50th row and once again on the 65th row. I had 340 stitches on the needle when I started with chart C. As expected, I had to add many, many rows to reach the right length, but I think that it has been worth the effort.

I am happy with my dress; it has a wonderful drape and shine and luckily our weather here in Spain is still summery and warm enough to wear it! My only fear is that I could get caught on something with it, as the yarn is very delicate and splitty (I don’t think that I will knit with it again).

Note to self: Next time, use another bra!