Rainbow Dress

So pleased to have finished this little dress for the rainbow child, fits perfectly and turned out even better than I had hoped! She loves it off course!

Pattern my own
Yarn 200grams of Four Bags Full Merino DK dyed by Elissa of the yarn cafe
Colourway Gradient dyed rainbow
Needles knit in the round on Knitpicks Options 4mm

Originally I started knitting this from the bottom up, but it wasn't working to my liking. After having it langushing in my stash for so long I was inspired to reknit top down and encouraged to develop my own pattern; so I did!

Pattern

This dress is knit totally in the round and thus requires no seaming.... gotta love that!

size 2

tension: 22 stitches and 30 rows per 10cm square/5.5 stitches per inch in stocking stitch
yarn: any 8ply/DK weight yarn approx. 200g
needles: 4mm circs in a range of size from 40cm up to 60 or 80cm, whatever you feel more comfortable with

Abbreviations used for increasing:
kfab: knit into the front and back of stitch
M1: make one, make sure you knit through the back loop of the made stitch.

Cast on 100 stitches using the long tail method, join for the round being careful not to twist the stitches.
Knit one round addding stitch markers every 25 stitches, a total of 4 markers.
Purl one round.
Round 3: kfab, k23, kfab, slip stitch marker (sm), kfab, k23, kfab, sm, continue with this until end of round having increased a total of 8 times. (108 stitches)
Round 4: Purl

Repeat rounds 3 and 4 until there are 45 stitches between each stitch marker (180 stitches in total)

Additional rounds and increasing at this stage can be made to increase the chest size of the dress to cater for bigger sizes, each addition increase row will add about 4cm to the chest measurement. This will also deepen the armholes.

You will now be casting off the stitches between each alternative set of stitch markers to create the armholes. Remove all except the first stitch marker as you do.
Cast off 45 stitches, knit 45, cast off 45, knit 45. (90 stitches)
The cast off stitches will become the edges of the shoulder straps.

Join in the round and purl a round. Make sure you retain the stitch marker to indicate the beginning of the round.

Work a further 10 rounds alternating between knit and purl finishing with a purl round.

If you wish to deepen the garter stitch bodice, you can work additional knit/purl rounds

Skirt shaping:
Round 1: K9, M1,place marker, K9, M1, K9, M1, K9, M1, place marker, K9, M1, K9, M1, place marker, K9, M1, K9, M1, K9, M1, place marker, K9, M1. (10 increases, 100 stitches)

Round 2-5: knit

Round 6: Knit to marker, slip marker, M1, knit to marker, M1, slip marker, knit to marker, slip marker, M1, knit to marker, M1, slip marker, knit to end of round.

Round 7-10: knit

Round 11: Knit to marker, slip marker, M1, knit to marker, M1, slip marker, knit to marker, slip marker, M1, knit to marker, M1, slip marker, knit to end of round.

Round 12-15: knit

Continue the shaping as outlined above repeating rounds 11-15, working the increases into the skirt every 5th round. Make sure the increases occur on the sides of the marker as set out, until about a cm less than desired length.

For the length shown in the picture I worked a total of 24 increase rounds, 24 sets of the 5 rounds.

Purl one round.
Knit one round.
Purl one round.
Knit one round.
Purl one round.

Cast off.

Weave in the two yarn ends.

I would suggest blocking the dress to get the garter hem to sit flat.


Please email me if you have any questions or find any errors in the pattern tikki@ozebaby.com.au


The copyright of this pattern remains with myself.  This pattern is provided free for personal use only. Commercial use of this pattern is a violation of the copyright.  Selling products made from this pattern is prohibited under the copyright unless express written permission has been granted by myself as of February 2009.