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IT'S DONE. OH MY GOD… IT'S DONE.
An entire year of work was finally finished… the Helldress is complete. I sewed the sleeves on by machine on the evening of the 16th, and hand-stitched the collar that she picked out of Nicky Epstein's [ "Knitting Beyond the Edge" ] book (she selected the double picot eyelet collar from page 64, which I still need to buy a big floppy ribbon for).
Originally Tempest wanted me to wrap it back up and give it to her under the tree, but she changed her mind after seeing it done and decided it was too pretty to wait. I gave it to her alongside the raspberry Ally Girl pettiskirt I purchased to go with it over a year ago, [ available here ]. Together, the dress and skirt look absolutely fantastic, and I'm really happy with the result (for a while there I wasn't sure if I was even going to like it).
The pattern was filled with so many errors and so much bullshit that I ended up changing literally every single part of the dress with the exception of the lace inlay in the skirt.
1. The collar was changed from a pick-up p2k2 rib to a sewn on double picot with eyelets for a ribbon. I added a third extra stitches to the collar than the bodice neckline called for because I wanted it to sort of stretch out into a scoop-neck shape when sewn on. That worked beautifully.
2. The bodice was changed dramatically from the pattern instructions. I added an extra third to half stitches to the cast on to ensure it fit properly, extended the length by a few inches, extended the arm holes by an extra inch and used a provisional cast-on so I wouldn't have to pick up stitches for the skirt (seriously, why on earth would you do that when it's SO MUCH WORK!?). Picking up stitches for the skirt would also resulted in a hard, tight waistline where the cast-on edge was, and I really wanted to avoid that. I also knit it in the round, since blocking ribbed stitches doesn't do much for them (I did test this out first with one of my first attempts at the bodice… blocking flat left the measurements unchanged).
3. The cabling in the skirt should have gone on a reverse stockinette background, but the patten had a massive error in it calling for garter. I obeyed the pattern, so the cabling is on a garter stitch. In retrospect I wish I'd figured this out beforehand because it would have looked much nicer, in my humble opinion. By the time I figured out this additional mistake, I was too far into the skirt, and on the 10th attempt of it, and was unwilling to rip it all back and start all over a-fucking-gain just for that.
4. I extended the lacework in the arms by an extra inch and knit it in the round to save time. The decreases in the lacework have no accompanying instructions or chart, meaning that you have to do it completely on the fly; that makes this section extremely challenging to say the least. I managed to get through without too much problem (fortunately the complicated lacework hides mistakes well). I also removed one of the two selvage stitches to compensate for doing it in the round.
5. I added an extra one-to-one-and-a-half inches of MC extension to the sleeve above the CC banding, because when it was done as originally intended the band would ride up the shoulder and look kind of funny.
6. I used "Jenny's surprisingly stretchy bind off" from Knitty's Fall '09 issue [ link here ], for the sleeve caps to ensure they wouldn't be too tight. I also machine-sewed the sleeves in, which worked out beautifully.
7. The skirt was extended to her knees before adding the moss stitch edge. Now that it's done I don't like the way the trim tends to flip up when worn over the pettiskirt, so I may actually add an additional line of crochet ruffle (maybe 2-3 inches of it, standard double-crochet ruffles) to help weigh the edge down.
8. I'm also going to buy some more of the CC dark pink and sew a separate cabled "belt" or tie that I'll loosely stitch in place only on the sides (or maybe add two belt loops?). I think the solid light pink from collar to bottom is a little too much of a block and it needs a nice line through the middle to make it visually symmetrical. Plus, I think the belt/tie would help hide my rapid decrease round at the skirt and just look cute. I ran completely out of the dark pink CC though (save for about 5 yards) so this will have to wait until I can get back to the downtown yarn store for an additional ball.
I think that's it for my major adjustments. In the end almost nothing was left in tact. Fuck this pattern, seriously. I hate it so much and it is so riddled with errors, right down to the basic tools and the gauge swatch which calls for a tension of 4st/inch on DK weight yarn and size 7 needles. WHAT THE FUCK?! You can't even accomplish that with size 11 needles in that weight of yarn, believe me I tried.
Knowing what I do now, I think this pattern wouldn't take me more than a month to get through if I ever chose to make a second dress (and I may one day… have to make the money I paid for it worthwhile because seriously, seriously, it was not worth the five fucking dollars)… it just took me a year because I had to keep ripping the whole thing back and starting over again every time I ran into another major error. In the end I think I probably restarted this project a dozen times, maybe even more, and had to take several long breaks in-between massive errors so I wouldn't lose my shit every time I so much as glimpsed it.
In the end the dress is lovely and beautiful and I'm really happy with it. It's strong, and the yarn weight is heavy and secure. I think, if treated nicely, this dress may last a long time and through both Tempest and Zephyra when she gets old enough to grow into it. I hope it lasts long enough for them to pass it down to their own children.
And now what you've been waiting for… photos of the finished Helldress!
Skirt detail
Lace detail
In this image you can see where I rapidly decreased at the skirt because all the additional stitches I put in the bodice to ensure it fit ended up being more than the skirt called for by something like 25. In hindsight I probably would have done this a little cleaner, but it isn't too bad.
With arms out
Twirl!
Look at those scrawny little chicken legs. Ohmygod. She's just recently hit a growth spurt, and she always gets teeny tiny and shoots up like a bean. It's scary for a little while before she puts on the weight again… though I'm fairly certain she's just going to be one of those people that's designed to be tall, thin and willowy.
She's so big now! It makes me feel all sorts of conflicted things to look at these images. How did she get so… old?
PS. The Ravelry page for the project is [ here ], for fellow Ravelers.
I used Berroco Weekend yarn in soft pink and dark pink. The contrast colour used a hair under two complete skeins, and the main colour took about five and a half. I have quite a bit of the soft pink yarn leftover, almost an entire skein, so I may make something else out of it (like some gloves?) to go with the dress.
An entire year of work was finally finished… the Helldress is complete. I sewed the sleeves on by machine on the evening of the 16th, and hand-stitched the collar that she picked out of Nicky Epstein's [ "Knitting Beyond the Edge" ] book (she selected the double picot eyelet collar from page 64, which I still need to buy a big floppy ribbon for).
Originally Tempest wanted me to wrap it back up and give it to her under the tree, but she changed her mind after seeing it done and decided it was too pretty to wait. I gave it to her alongside the raspberry Ally Girl pettiskirt I purchased to go with it over a year ago, [ available here ]. Together, the dress and skirt look absolutely fantastic, and I'm really happy with the result (for a while there I wasn't sure if I was even going to like it).
The pattern was filled with so many errors and so much bullshit that I ended up changing literally every single part of the dress with the exception of the lace inlay in the skirt.
1. The collar was changed from a pick-up p2k2 rib to a sewn on double picot with eyelets for a ribbon. I added a third extra stitches to the collar than the bodice neckline called for because I wanted it to sort of stretch out into a scoop-neck shape when sewn on. That worked beautifully.
2. The bodice was changed dramatically from the pattern instructions. I added an extra third to half stitches to the cast on to ensure it fit properly, extended the length by a few inches, extended the arm holes by an extra inch and used a provisional cast-on so I wouldn't have to pick up stitches for the skirt (seriously, why on earth would you do that when it's SO MUCH WORK!?). Picking up stitches for the skirt would also resulted in a hard, tight waistline where the cast-on edge was, and I really wanted to avoid that. I also knit it in the round, since blocking ribbed stitches doesn't do much for them (I did test this out first with one of my first attempts at the bodice… blocking flat left the measurements unchanged).
3. The cabling in the skirt should have gone on a reverse stockinette background, but the patten had a massive error in it calling for garter. I obeyed the pattern, so the cabling is on a garter stitch. In retrospect I wish I'd figured this out beforehand because it would have looked much nicer, in my humble opinion. By the time I figured out this additional mistake, I was too far into the skirt, and on the 10th attempt of it, and was unwilling to rip it all back and start all over a-fucking-gain just for that.
4. I extended the lacework in the arms by an extra inch and knit it in the round to save time. The decreases in the lacework have no accompanying instructions or chart, meaning that you have to do it completely on the fly; that makes this section extremely challenging to say the least. I managed to get through without too much problem (fortunately the complicated lacework hides mistakes well). I also removed one of the two selvage stitches to compensate for doing it in the round.
5. I added an extra one-to-one-and-a-half inches of MC extension to the sleeve above the CC banding, because when it was done as originally intended the band would ride up the shoulder and look kind of funny.
6. I used "Jenny's surprisingly stretchy bind off" from Knitty's Fall '09 issue [ link here ], for the sleeve caps to ensure they wouldn't be too tight. I also machine-sewed the sleeves in, which worked out beautifully.
7. The skirt was extended to her knees before adding the moss stitch edge. Now that it's done I don't like the way the trim tends to flip up when worn over the pettiskirt, so I may actually add an additional line of crochet ruffle (maybe 2-3 inches of it, standard double-crochet ruffles) to help weigh the edge down.
8. I'm also going to buy some more of the CC dark pink and sew a separate cabled "belt" or tie that I'll loosely stitch in place only on the sides (or maybe add two belt loops?). I think the solid light pink from collar to bottom is a little too much of a block and it needs a nice line through the middle to make it visually symmetrical. Plus, I think the belt/tie would help hide my rapid decrease round at the skirt and just look cute. I ran completely out of the dark pink CC though (save for about 5 yards) so this will have to wait until I can get back to the downtown yarn store for an additional ball.
I think that's it for my major adjustments. In the end almost nothing was left in tact. Fuck this pattern, seriously. I hate it so much and it is so riddled with errors, right down to the basic tools and the gauge swatch which calls for a tension of 4st/inch on DK weight yarn and size 7 needles. WHAT THE FUCK?! You can't even accomplish that with size 11 needles in that weight of yarn, believe me I tried.
Knowing what I do now, I think this pattern wouldn't take me more than a month to get through if I ever chose to make a second dress (and I may one day… have to make the money I paid for it worthwhile because seriously, seriously, it was not worth the five fucking dollars)… it just took me a year because I had to keep ripping the whole thing back and starting over again every time I ran into another major error. In the end I think I probably restarted this project a dozen times, maybe even more, and had to take several long breaks in-between massive errors so I wouldn't lose my shit every time I so much as glimpsed it.
In the end the dress is lovely and beautiful and I'm really happy with it. It's strong, and the yarn weight is heavy and secure. I think, if treated nicely, this dress may last a long time and through both Tempest and Zephyra when she gets old enough to grow into it. I hope it lasts long enough for them to pass it down to their own children.
And now what you've been waiting for… photos of the finished Helldress!
Skirt detail
Lace detail
In this image you can see where I rapidly decreased at the skirt because all the additional stitches I put in the bodice to ensure it fit ended up being more than the skirt called for by something like 25. In hindsight I probably would have done this a little cleaner, but it isn't too bad.
With arms out
Twirl!
Look at those scrawny little chicken legs. Ohmygod. She's just recently hit a growth spurt, and she always gets teeny tiny and shoots up like a bean. It's scary for a little while before she puts on the weight again… though I'm fairly certain she's just going to be one of those people that's designed to be tall, thin and willowy.
She's so big now! It makes me feel all sorts of conflicted things to look at these images. How did she get so… old?
PS. The Ravelry page for the project is [ here ], for fellow Ravelers.
I used Berroco Weekend yarn in soft pink and dark pink. The contrast colour used a hair under two complete skeins, and the main colour took about five and a half. I have quite a bit of the soft pink yarn leftover, almost an entire skein, so I may make something else out of it (like some gloves?) to go with the dress.