Sebright Bantam Dress

Sebright Bantam Dress in Einband

I finally finished this dress, which had been waiting for me to pick it back up again for a couple of months, and just in time for it to be the last FO of 2018! Looking back, I didn't actually do much knitting this year - according to ravelry, just over 4000 yards in 7 completed projects - and here's the breakdown:

• 2 of them were the same basic 2 x 2 rib hat (one for me, one for my mom, both of which I didn't take pictures of)
• 2 more were testknits (Satinel & rumo)
• 2 were gifts for my auntie Kit: chrysanthemum shawl by Francoise Danoy followed by a bolero she commissioned from me to wear to her son's wedding (for which I also forgot to take a finished photo of her wearing... I've really been falling off the wagon lately!)
• Which leaves this 1 project that I made 100% for me: this Sebright Bantam dress, which was inspired by the silver Sebright Bantam chickens I saw at Center Island way back in the summer. Here's a photo of a silver Sebright hen from Wikimedia Commons (attribution in caption), because I failed to take a picture of the ones on the island.

Taken by Mark Robinson from Wikimedia Commons under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. No changes made to the original image.

Aren't they sweet? And their plumage absolutely beautiful? So I decided to make a dress that was like their feathers. It came out more mermaid-like than I had envisioned, but I like the look of the mitered diamonds, and it's my first time working with this technique, so I'd say I did a pretty good job!

Which is not to say that there aren't a couple of things I would do differently next time, namely:

• It's a bit tighter than I'd like. The fit is actually perfect, but because of the yarn/needle/construction combo, the smallest diamonds aren't as stretchy as they could've been if I'd kept the smallest needle size a 4mm or even just maybe 3.75mm instead of the 3.5mm I went with. Which means the dress is a bit difficult to take off - it's a tight squeeze out even if I take the both arms over the head approach. It works. It's just a touch awkward.
• The Einband isn't great for next to skin wear, for me.
• I suspect this issue would be solved if I used a slightly larger needle size for the smallest diamonds though, because then I'd be able to comfortably wear a full slip under this dress. As it is, I can wear a half slip, which is still good because the lower/larger diamonds are a bit sheer.
• I underestimated how many rows of diamonds I'd need for the full length of the dress so that it would be long enough for my taste, so next time, maybe also knit a full row of diamonds more for both of the two larger needle sizes so that less of the dress is at the smallest diamond level.

That's basically it, though! Not too bad for a wildly experimental run where I had no idea what I was going to do for the neckline. I like the varied textures I ended up with, and I also used up some mystery mohair-like yarn I got from a stash swap - whoot! To be honest, I suppose the biggest issue right now as far as this dress goes is: where do I wear it?

I'm going for a haircut soon, I promise

I've also been working on what was originally supposed to be a really lacy baby pink dress, but just ripped back most of the skirt portion because it wasn't looking how I wanted it to look, so that'll have to wait till next year to be completed. I'm not even sure I like the bodice part of it, but it's a construction I wanted to try, and I had an idea in mind for how I wanted it to be, so I'm going to roll with it and see how it turns out once I finish the new skirt.

Here's to hoping I'll do more knitting in 2019! I'd really like to make some more comfortable dresses with some of my superwash merino stash (of which there is more than I'd like to admit), for soft, next-to-skin wear, so there's a mood going forward! I've also really been slacking with regards to keeping track of my reading & film-watching, so I want to get back on that.