Monday, January 28, 2008

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!



PLEASE NOTE: The Rainbow Dress is no longer available as a free pattern.  You can purchase a copy of the very spiffy updated and immensely improved version of the Rainbow Dress from Ravelry, my ozebaby store or by clicking on the side bar.

happy knitting!!!

23 comments:

  1. What a beautiful dress and thanks for sharing the pattern too. Your daughter looks so sweet modelling away for you there too.

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  2. Thanks for posting the pattern, I love the dress! I have some gradual gradient I'd love to use for it, but can I ask, about how much yarn did you use?

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  3. What an adorable dress. Thanks for sharing the pattern.

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  4. thanks :)

    About 200grams Keely, I'll edit the pattern and add :)

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  5. WOW that is just perfect. Lily Rainbow is gorgeous :)

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  6. This is so lovely! I adore the shape.

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  7. What a gorgeous dress. Thank you for posting the pattern - bookmarked for when M will be big enough! :)

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  8. What a wonderful idea!! I have a 2 year old that squealed with delight when she saw your daughter's picture in this dress. I am a fairly new knitter but would love to make this dress for Miss Laura. I was looking over the pattern to be sure that I understood it all and I can't figure out how you formed the straps...maybe I am missing something. Like I said I am a rather new knitter so it may be there and I just over looked it I would really appreciate it if you have the time to explain the steps for making the straps. Thank you again for sharing a wonderful idea.

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  9. The straps are knitted in a circle. By working in the increases, it sort of squares it out so that you end up knitting a square shape from the inner of the square to the outer.

    Then basically the casting off, frees the shoulder straps from the square. You then continue knitting around the dress. It's hard to explain the way it works but it does! If you look at the dress you can see the way the increases create the angles to make the shoulder straps.

    Hope that helps :)

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  10. Wow such a pretty dress..loving it so much...and miss Lily is a star..Jennifer

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  11. Very beautiful dress.I would like to make one like this for my 2 yr old daughter. Please let me know where did you buy the yarn?

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  12. i love it...so pretty

    will this size fit a 2 year old?

    thanks so much for sharing teh pattern

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  13. nuthan, the yarn came from the yarn cafe (link at the top of pattern) she only does the gradient rainbow occasionally though.

    xois, yes it will fit a two year old; there is a great deal of stretch in the bodice :) It still fits my nearly four year old

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  14. Hi there, just found this lovely pattern wile looking for something to knit with my stash of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK. It looks to me like it's easy to modify and being knit topdown with no seaming is what appeals most to me.

    Just wanted to know what size 2 translate to. I mean how old was your daughter when you made this?

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  16. Jocelyn, my daughter was almost three when I made this, she is now nearly four and it still fits. She is quite petite though.

    I've based the measurements/sizes on the standard sizings but I suggest choosing the size based on chest measurement. :)

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  17. I love this dress! I made it for my almost 4-year old (with leftover yarn), and I can hardly do anything! It was so easy, what a wonderful pattern! I posted it and credited you, let me know if you don't like the way I posted it. Thank you so much for sharing this!

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  18. I have tried to use circular knitting needles in the past and have given up...

    is there a way to knit the dress with two needles?

    plus i intend on knitting it all white...

    can you help?

    :)

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  19. DO you have to use multiple colours of different yarn or is it rainbow yarn (1 ball)?

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  20. Can you or anyone! (!) please explain in more detail the kfab abbreviation and also M1- I am a fairly new knitter and wonder if you might explain it in simple terms for me who is not so experienced!!!

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  21. Is there a way to increase this pattern for an older girl? My daughter is ten and would love for me to try to make this dress for her. Thanks.

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  22. I've missed some of these comments, sorry.

    Debra-Dawn, you could probably knit it flat but seriously it is probably one of the easiest patterns to learn to knit circulars with. You begin with a 40cm circular which is really easy to handle.

    Lizzie, I used a gradient dyed yarn but you could certainly use multiple balls of different colours to get the same effect.

    Anne, the knitting help website has really excellent tutorials on both increases. www.knittinghelp.com

    Holly, I'm working on the sizes up to size 10 currently. They shouldn't be too far of release.

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  23. I love your dresses. I would like to knit tropical lily as a full dress in the round. How would I adust the stitches?

    Thanx.

    Faye

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