The Violet Gift Dress. Details.

Apr 12

Written By

FO - The Violet Gift dress. Machine knitting.

It was a long-playing project... I started it back in November, so it took me more than 4 months to finish! Mostly it was due to the fact that the Violet Gift was the first project on my post-hurricane knitting machine. I cleaned and oiled it before using, but as it turned out not good enough. After 50 or so rows I noticed oily spots on the fabric and had to take it off the machine. I did a thorough research and as it turned out I overoiled my machine and had to take the sponge bar and every single needle (150!!!) out, wash it with soup, dry it and put it back one by one. This YouTube video helped tremendously! And Ravelry Machine knitting group, of course. Guys, you are the best!!!I think it took me two full Woolful podcasts just to put each needle back into machine! But it was such a great experience, now I take a proper care of my machine and I am more aware how it works and where to look if something goes wrong. One more proof of not to be discouraged by mistakes and failures - they help you move forward.Anyway, the dress is off the machine, blocked and ready to be put on. Violet Gift, as you can guess, is a gift. For my dear friend Elena. We made some pictures of her wearing the dress and as soon as they are ready I am going to post about it. For now, I'll walk you through the details.

Project Notes

Ravelry page. The Violet Gift DressPattern. MineKnitting machine. The dress was knit on Silver Reed LK150, stitch dial for the hem - 3.5, stitch dial for the main body - 4.Yarn. Everything started with these beautiful skeins. Can you guess the fiber? Of course, it's cotton :) Armonia - local, 100%, mercerized. I can never get enough of it! I use the same yarn for my machine knitting that I use for hand knitting. Love this color! Fit. It's a classic double-tapered silhouette. It's basically a modification of my Marine Dress that I made for myself several months ago.Design details.Hem. I knit 20 rows, then turned the edge and put the cast on stitches with current stitches on the machine needles and knit them together. It gives you a very neat edge that doesn't roll up.Waist is accentuated by simple crochet ties. Just chain as many stitches as you need to get the proper length and single crochet one row. I used the contrasting ivory color.V-neck...is trimmed with beautiful reverse single crochet stitch. It's funny, in Russian it's called a "crayfish step stitch", because you go backwards with your hook. :) This YouTube video very clearly explains how to crochet it.Armholes are trimmed with basic single crochet.