Here's the dress! The one I finished in the wee hours before Adelaide's birthday. The one that miraculously fit without trying it on her as I went along. And the one she promptly put on first thing that morning, and has worn many times since, much to my delight. Ah, yes. The aptly named Jane Austen dress.
The pattern is from the newly published Mason Dixon Knitting Outside the Lines. It's been a while since I've been so excited about a new knitting book, but I'm pretty jazzed about this one. On first flip through, I think I bookmarked half of the projects to make...and it had me jumping up to the knitting needles to get started on this dress a mere 30 minutes after it arrived on my doorstep. Not to mention the yarn I immediately ordered for the next project in the book I'm most excited about (a linen knit table runner. Oh, yes). With their characteristic fun and funny style (their first rule of knitting, 'knitting is spoze to be fun!'), it's a pleasure to read just as much as the patterns have me itching to knit. Huge congrats on another beautiful, fun book, Kay and Ann!
The dress came together so smoothly. They estimated it as a 'weekend project' - and had I had a few less interruptions, I think that might have been just about right. I knit it up in some cotton yarn (which, tangentally, I found at a local thrift shop - as overstock from Silk City Fibers - for a whopping $1.99 for a gigantic cone-full. Thanks for the tip, Aprill!), in a color that will remind us of the ocean long after we're romping about by it in sleeveless dresses. I used the tutorial found on Ysolda to create the button loop in the back. And the skirt fabric is linen. (For anyone interested in making it yourself, I went with the 2-3 sizing, which I think it generous enough that she'll still wear it next summer.)
I think this might be only the second knit dress I've made for her (the first one here), and while, realistically speaking, they may be a little on the impractical side, I still love making them. There's something about all the extra work that goes into a handknit dress for me that makes it extra special. Thank goodness - for now, at least - she agrees with me on that one. She loves it.
