Elizabeth's Ruffled Dress

Finally!

This dress has been a test of wills since before I started it, when the store that had the yarn I needed had just the amount the pattern called for. Not one extra skein.

And it turns out that whether you make a size four (like this dress) or a size ten (as Sallyknit did), there is barely enough yarn to make the dress. Actually there isn't enough yarn which is why Sallyknit and I both added stripes in the secondary color in order to make the main color go far enough. She had six inches of the main color left; I had a bit more remaining because I made the dress shorter in order to fit Elizabeth, who isn't quite into size four clothing yet.

Phew....

And Lucille, knitter and crocheter extraordinaire, made the beautiful flower and leaves for the dress and taught me how to do the crochet edging for it. Thank you Lucille!

So now off in the mail it goes, with a warning to my daughter. Be careful where Elizabeth wears it. It has to be washed by hand and laid flat to dry and it takes forever and a year to dry. Kind of a nuisance for a mom of four, I know, but I didn't know this before I made it. Sorry H!

The flower:

Ruffles

I have finished the first two of three ruffles for Elizabeth's dress---after a few problems, like making each of the ruffles an inch longer than the pattern calls for.  I don't know what I was thinking---or not thinking.

I spent Sunday un-knitting and then started over today.  I think the colors will work well together and now that I'm not making each ruffle one inch longer than called for, I won't run out of yarn, which was a definite possibility before I discovered my mistake.  Whew....

Shopping When Old

I am referring to myself.

Last week a J. Jill catalog arrived in the mail and I went through it, bending page corners back for all of the gorgeous things I just knew I wanted. And that I knew I would look wonderful in. No shorts---two knee surgeries on one knee have rendered that knee, um....unattractive. So dresses! Perfect solution! (Sorry for all the exclamation points---I was really, really excited to find these clothes.)

Look at this dress. Isn't it Gaw-Jus?!
And with this cropped sweater? Even GAW-JUS-ER!
And this dress! I must have it!!!
And this dress!
Look at the colors! I love the colors!!!
They would all look great on me. I just knew it.

And then I went to the store. And then I tried them all on. And OMG....not what I expected. AT. ALL.

They looked great on the models. They even looked great on the hangers. On me, they didn't look great. They didn't even look good. They looked awful. Can you say frumpy? Can you say dowdy? Can you say Old Lady in MuuMuu?

Oh, dear.

But I did buy two tops. Tops that are tunic length. Tops with sleeves. Long sleeves.

How to recover from the realization that I am not twenty years younger and twenty pounds lighter? How to stop the wailing, the gnashing of teeth, the moaning, the whining?

Thank goodness for knitting friends. SallyKnit called while I was still at the store to see if I wanted to join her and Lucille to go to a knit shop, not our LYS but a different one.

Perfect. So off we went and I bought yarn to make this dress for Elizabeth, my three-year old granddaughter.

She is young. She is slim.

The dress will look GREAT on her. And this time I know I'm right.