FO Friday – Snowdrop Dress

I don’t get it.  I know it’s fall and the hours of daylight are diminishing, but it seems in general there are fewer spare hours left in the day.  I just don’t seem to be finishing projects as easily or as fast as I used to.  I did manage to finish this beauty recently.  I had hoped to take slightly better daytime pictures – which is why I didn’t post last week.  The weather, travel, life have all conspired against me so far so I’m just going to show off what I’ve got.

Frankly, we were both so excited that it was done and Little Chick wanted to try it on that it didn’t matter it was practically bedtime and she’d have to take it off again right away.

I felt it could have been a little bit longer; apparently, the designer said she made it so it would fall slightly above the knees.  The really scary part?  It’s not overly big.  It fits perfectly right now … but that means in a few months she’ll have outgrown it as a dress.  Hopefully, she can wear it as a tunic for a while to extend its life.

It has a unique construction in that you start at the waist and work to the bottom of the dress

Then you pick up stitches (made easier with a provisional cast-on) at the waist and work up to the shoulders.

I loved working on the mock-cable pattern on the top.  The bottom technically was even easier as it was just knits, purls, k2tog, and yarn overs … but for some reason, it Drove. Me. Crazy.  I can’t imagine it was the switching back and forth between stitches as I’ve done similar patterns and even more complex ones without issue.  The only thing I can blame at this point was the yarn and needle (bamboo) combination I chose because I could only work on it for about an hour before I’d get the heebie-jeebies and had to set it aside for a while. I would have set it aside more often except I was knitting it as a test for the designer and it had a deadline!

Pattern: Snowdrop Dress
Designer: Alla Saenko
Yarn: Berroco Comfort DK
Colorways: 2713 (grey) and 2707 (light blue)
Modeled by: my daughter
My Ravelry page

I finished a couple more squares for the Underground Crafter Sampler Mystery KAL.   And I got smart!  Finally.  I printed off the descriptions of each of the squares on card-stock, cut them out into strips, and attached them as labels to my existing squares.  No more wondering what I’ve completed or finding out that I made more than one of this square (happened with #8) and somehow skipped and misidentified another square (#10 / I originally thought #11 was that one).

I’m really glad I signed up for this KAL.  I’m practicing so many new stitches and each one seems prettier than the last!  I can’t wait until they’re all finished at the end of the year so I can put them together and see how it all looks.

Pattern: 2014 Sampler Mystery Knit-a-Long
Designer: Marie Segares (Underground Crafter)
Yarn: I Love This Yarn!
Colorways: 240 Linen
My Ravelry Page

I felt a little lost after finishing the dress … happens quite often when I complete big / stressful projects.  I needed the time to work on a few squares, and then wouldn’t you know it, I got my mojo back, abandoned the squares and went back to something else.

Actually, I’m designing again. When I can retain control of my hooks and needles, that is.

Not that I mind. I love seeing her attempt to use the tools. One of these days I might have to see if I can get her to try finger, spool, or loom knitting.

Remember the Elenka Dress I finished earlier this summer?  I still had some of the cotton blend yarn left over.  I had thought to make washcloths or something to use it up, but I started playing around with this crochet design.  I originally was aiming for a hat, but as I worked on the project decided to take a completely different turn.  Can you guess what it might be?