Fairytale Dress

Last night, I finally finished Baby Girl's Fairytale Dress. Actually, I finished it yesterday afternoon, except for the flower, but I had some flower issues. I finally appealed to my neighbor, and she quickly crocheted a flower for me. I sewed it on last night, and Baby Girl wore the dress today!

Not only do I love it, but so does Baby Girl! As of today, it fits her perfectly! (Which her big sister's flip flops do not!)





The yarn is Bristol Yarn Gallery Lyndon Hill. I love this fingering weight cotton/silk blend. It's a dream to work with in the summer, and it washed really nicely in the machine on gentle cycle. (I used this same yarn to knit up Little Sister's Shirt last summer). I did make a few modifications to the dress. I don't like knitting i-cord, so instead I picked up stitches around the armseyes and did a few rows of seed stitch. I also picked up three stitches on each corner of the dress, and knit seed stitch straps.

The pattern does state that the outfit can last for several years, going from a dress to a tank top. The pattern cleverly inserts ribbing along the side of the dress to help facilitate the multiple sizes. I think this is brilliant! However, I didn't check gauge, and right now, the ribbing is pretty much stretched to its limit. I'm not sure how long this dress will fit my fast growing girl (who has skipped size 2T altogether, and is quickly growing out of her 3T clothes. And she's not even two and a half yet!), but I'll make sure she wears it often in the next few weeks!

I've been carrying around my August Summer of Socks socks this week, and I finally pulled the Birthday Pi out of hibernation. I'd love to get both of these projects done by the end of September, but we'll see how it goes.

Happy knitting!

Waiting for Irene

We're hanging out inside today, periodically checking the basement for water, watching the wind, and waiting for the storm to blow over.

We spent most of yesterday getting ready for Irene - getting anything off the floor of the basement, stocking up on bread, peanut butter, and water. So far, it's rainy and windy, but all the trees are intact. We've had a little bit of water in the basement, but not much. Thankfully, the power is still on. We're hoping it stays that way!

Last night, I finished up the body of Baby Girl's Fairytale Dress, and today, I'm hoping to finish knitting the straps. I'm working on it now, while we watch The Sound of Music.

Happy knitting!

I'm an Idiot

I've been knitting the Fairytale Dress for the baby. Today, I bound off the front of the dress, four different times. I had various problems with the give of the bind off, dropping some stitches, and running out of yarn. I eventually solved all those problem and managed to knit the back and bind that off too.

And then I went and read the directions, and realized I had a skipped a whole part of the dress.

I've put the dress in timeout, and will rip it out tomorrow.

How's your knitting going?

Vacation

I know, I continue to be a bad blogger. But this time, my excuse is really good! We've been on vacation!

We headed up to my parents' house outside of Buffalo for a week. We went to the beach, visiting the county fair, and had a generally relaxing time as the kids ran around the yard. Even better though, DH and I left the kids with my parents for the weekend and headed to the Finger Lakes Wine Region.

We toured Fox Run Vineyards, during their annual garlic festival. Not only did we get to see how the grapes are grown
and how the wine is made,
we also got to taste some!Besides wine, we learned that there are a whole lot of garlic varieties, tasted some yummy maple sugar cotton candy, and I bought some really pretty beaded bracelets. In retrospect, we probably should have visited another vineyard, just to compare experiences. If you're really into wine and tastings, the Finger Lakes are a great place to go on the East Coast!

The weather wasn't the best, but didn't really interfere with our plans. We moved our picnic to the porch of our amazing Bed and Breakfast
and hiked Watkins Glen in the rain.
We also spent a lot of time on the porch playing Scrabble and Backgammon, walking around Geneva, and soaking in all the uninterrupted conversation time.

I can't say enough about what a treat our weekend was!

As an added treat, I won a contest over at Irisheyes Kathy's knitting blog! She sent me the most lovely skein of sock yarn! Thank you, Kathy!
I recently read something (on Knitting Daily maybe?) about pattern stitches designed specifically for self-striping yarn. Any ideas?

Happy Knitting!