My apologies for the complete disappearance; I was so tangled up in knitting, I didn’t have time to blog. Well, I might have if I didn’t also hold a full time job, but that’s a separate issue.

I’m back, and I have a finished object! Remember how, in my last <a href="https://antiquotidian.wordpress.com/2012/01/05/melvie/"most recent knitting-related post, I said that a little pattern tweaking was enough to give me my design fix? Yeah. That was the universe’s cue to make it necessary for me to rework the entire pattern I was knitting. Which pattern, you ask? Howzabout some specs!

Specs:
Pattern–Melvie, by Allyson Dykhuizen
Needles–US Size 10, circular and double-pointed
Yarn–Beaverslide Dry Goods Heavy Worsted in Mink (brown) and Vermont Grand View Farm Romney (cream) (held double to achieve same gauge as Beaverslide)
Mods–The only thing I did not change about this pattern was the shape and construction. Everything else, from the number of stitches I picked up and increased from the bottom band to the number of waist decreases to the number and placement of shoulder decreases was changed from the original after at least two rip-and-reknits and not a few tears.

For more detail on the redesign, you can check out the Rav page for my notes. In spite of the fact that I had such difficulties with redesigning to achieve the desired shape, the way Allyson wrote the pattern made it quite simple to figure out how the dress was put together and where I could place the changes I needed to make. Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou.

(An aside, yesterday, I came across this post from Kate Davies, containing extensive notes on how to design a nicely-fitting wool dress in bulky yarn. Yeah, that might have been nice to have in October.)

For all the angst, and the fact that my intensive modifications are not perfect, I am really happy with this dress. It is cozy without being overwarm, and incredibly comfortable. The lack of flowy parts means there is nothing to stick to tights, or get caught in car doors, or squinch around and leave your slip showing after getting up from your desk. Not that I’ve ever had any of those things happen with my knits… Erm.

Aside from my love of the design, Melvie is installment two of Knit American! The yarns are different breeds from opposite sides of the country, but both are naturally colored and super soft. The Beaverslide in particular held up admirably to four froggings and being lugged around in a backpack with my lunch and headphones for three months. I am very pleased to have leftovers of both, and am already contemplating possibilities for fingerless mitts.

Finally, thanks to Monita for taking the pictures! She was right; the pictures of me photographically decapitated are the better ones. Listen to the art major.