Having gone crazy for flutter / ruffle sleeves or yoke or neck garments, I found this pattern after googling for ages for ruffle cardigans and fell in love with the cuteness.

I expected 3mm needles to give gauge, but the gauge was just a little tight and the fabric felt a little firm too. I think this dress needs some drape. Knitted a gauge square with 3.25’s and gauge was spot on.

There seems to be an error in row 169, buttonhole row. I have 27sts which is in line with the pattern (row 143 -- 27 sts). Row 169 only uses 26sts! So I started that row wirh k3 rather than k2.

Once I’d cast off the first piece, all ready to do the i-cord edging, then ruffles, then skirt… my piece was so curled over on itself I couldn’t really straighten it out enough to make the rest of the project simple to handle. As this is the smallest size it is very narrow in places, eg the bottom of the yoke where it extends under the armholes, and being stocking stitch… it’s curling! So I washed it. A pause now whilst I wait for it to dry. Last photo shows bodice before washing and adding ruffles.

I had trouble picking up for the skirt the number of sts indicated in the pattern (169) but finally managed 161. When starting the skirt, I worked a knit row (RS) before doing the 2 purl rows, trying to get a little definition between the bodice and the skirt.

I found attaching the i-cord a long process. I’ve done attached i-cords before and there was no problem. But that was mainly on straight or near straight edges. In the case of this dress, the straight areas were fine, but the i-cord on the shaped edges just didn’t look neat… it was bumpy, irregular. Time and time again( I pulled it off and did it again…. finally remembered that the pattern had said attach from the WS, but I was doing it from the RS. Hours wasted! But working from the WS made a nice neat i-cord even on the shaped edges.

To set up for adding the ruffle I threaded a length of waste yarn through the line of stitches I was going to use for the ruffle attachment. That helped me keep on the right path.
The pattern doesn’t indicate just how far from the shoulder edge the ruffle should be attached. I counted about 3 columns across and positioned the ruffle on the 4th column.
The first row after picking up the ruffle stitches was purled on the WS, rather than knitted as the pattern does. I wanted a smooth transition from ruffle to bodice.

Rather than pulling loops of yarn up from the knitted piece and putting on the needle to start the ruffle, I used this method. I felt it was better than distorting the knitted fabric to form the stitches. It was very easy.

I tacked down the ruffle to the bodice before picking up sts for the skirt. It made picking up in that area a little easier.

NOTES to self:

• Attach i-cord at neck and armholes from the WS
• Seam the shoulders BEFORE doing the neck i-cord. The pattern says to but I didn’t notice. That’s what having 4 hours sleep last night did for me!
• Check yarn colours. I’d attached the first ruffle and realised it looked a slightly different shade of pink from the rest. Then realised I had two lots of pink that were very similar, and I’d used the second pink for the ruffle. So had to re-do it.

This is not a difficult knit but it is labour intensive. :) :) !!!