With my design finalised, samples produced and a rough pattern marked out on graph paper, it was time to begin the final making of the knitted shift dress.
So I started… not once, not twice… but five times. The dark blue area of the dress has been made and remade as I created mistakes in the pattern, different each time and with a different solution. The key things were using straight needles instead of circular needles, and stitch markers.
Once I got past the dark blue area I was on a roll, knitting for hours each night into the early morning to get the dress finished alongside full time work. I’d recently discovered the A Playful Day podcast and listened to most of Kate’s back catalogue while knitting the dress – not only did it give me something to listen to and keep me sane, it focussed me on my knitting task.
As I was knitting at night, I was often dressed in ‘night time attire’… so yes, that is a dressing gown sleeve you can see in one of the photos below!
I got there in the end; with the dress finished hours before it was due to go on display (with the ends being sewn in during the car journey to the exhibition venue!). Don’t you just love it when a plan comes together?!
seam 