FOs! FOs! FOs!

As you may – or may not – know, we have been renovating our house for the past 18 months.

We were very lucky in that we (well, I) chose to employ the best building firm in the known universe. Gemma and Gareth are honest, talented, intelligent and certified perfectionists. They are also very close to me and the OH in age, which meant that they became more than just contractors as soon as I knew that I could trust them.

So when Gemma (who is a knitter too) asked me to help with her brother’s wedding I was more than happy to help dress her three daughters!

The tallest one is 11 and she will be wearing a mint-coloured dress and a cream shawl: It’s completely reversible (even the centre stitch is worked in garter stitch), it’s worked in Sirdar Country Style DK on 6mm needles and it’s a mixture of garter stitch and a lacy rib.
One day I will learn to block properly and have the centre stitch fall in a straight line.
Then again, them being builders I am sure they have a plumb line to sort that out.

Jokes aside, I think that might be down to my fixation with working increase stitches in pattern straight away. I’ll try and keep them in stockinette or garter in the future and see if that happens again. The other two, who are 10 and 6 respectively, will be wearing ivory-coloured dresses with mint capes. The capes are worked in Patons Diploma Gold 4Ply on 3 mm needles. The construction is completely seamless apart from the last half inch or so, where I cast off in garter stitch which I sewed later. They are both worked from the top down with raglan increases and feather and fan stitch, with varying lengths of stockinette between the “crimping” rows. Then I picked up the neck stitches and worked a border of lacy ribs on one and plain stockinette on the other one. Both have a set of ruffles at the neck, and I can safely say that in the future I will avoid knitting ruffles for as long I can. Out of the two, this one is probably my favourite.