Once I get a handle on knitting, I'll have to work on my photography skills

So...I don't know how to make this photo show up better, but the jist is I'm about 8 inches below the underarm on my dress.  The dress that is now going to be a two-piece.

After my cast-on issues detailed in my last post, I realized that the neckline of this thing was still going to flash my girls to the world, so I ripped back and cast on the front neck before finishing the raglan increases.  And I still reduced the increase rows by 3 because apparently I am a tiny, tiny person, and even the smallest size is too big for me (this is only true in Fitted Knits Land; in Real Life, I am medium-sized).

When I got close to the point where I'm supposed to start doing the faux-cable pattern all the way around, I tried it on again and realized that my patterned section had...uh...decorative holes.  I'm knitting this thing just as tight as I can, and using all sorts of twisted stitches and clockwise purl wraps, and this thing is just not tight.  I've decided the holey-ness is just part of the design, but I can't have such a lacy effect carrying down the front of the dress unless I want to show the general public what color underpants I'm wearing.  And I refuse to knit a garment that requires an undergarment (nude full slip in this case) that I don't already own.  So...

I'm going to continue the cable pattern just on the front panel and do the eyelet hem a hip level, binding off for a sweater.  Then, because I'm pretty sure I have plenty of yarn, I'm going to make a top-down, elastic waist skirt with the same shaping and eyelet hem as in the pattern.  Not what I thought I'd end up with, but this will be quite an adventure. I'm already imagining how I'll do the pocket for the elastic: start with a provisional cast-on and work flat for an inch or so, do a purled turning ridge, join in the round, knit another inch plus, fold over and knit my live stitches together with my now-loosed provisional cast-on, then continue on down the skirt.  In my head this makes sense, but we'll see.  The idea of starting working flat is so that there will be a vertical slit inside once it's folded over, and through that I can thread the elastic. At this point you are probably thinking, "how can someone who can't even execute a simple faux-cable pattern without it looking like a cockeyed spiderweb possibly figure out how to pull off a whole two piece suit thing without a proper pattern????" The answer is...I have no idea!  We'll see!

Comments

[kristina]

hi Hannah: look at it this way... you can then sell your pattern for the skirt once you have mastered it... ;)

Sorry to hear about your troubles with the fitted dress pattern... SIGH. I'm going through my own travails with the Goddess from Stitch Diva which by all accounts is a very simple pattern. For me it is a very complicated pattern, however, and worsened by the fact that I despise the ultra slippery yarn (which is, alas, virtually impossible to frog). SIGH.

Best of luck.