Autumn Dress - Finished!

I finished this up this past Sunday.  I would have finished it last week, except that I was in Tucson all week for work.  I did take a small knitting project with me, but didn't pull it out at all while I was gone.  I did a lot of reading instead.  Before I left I had gotten this dress up to the point where I split it for the front and back of the bodice, so it didn't take me long to finish when I got home.  I did have some yarn usage figuring to do, though.  I put together a spreadsheet to get an idea of when I wanted to switch to the final skein.  With the addition of some hand-written notes I was able to use my spreadsheet as the shaping directions.

The pattern calls for a single crochet edging on the neck and armholes.  I did one on the neck, but didn't really like how it looked so I pulled it out and picked up and knitted around the openings instead.  For the neck I did two rounds of knitting before binding off and for the arm holes I did one round of knitting before binding off.

The finished dress comes down to mid-calf on me.  On the model in the magazine it only comes down to mid-thigh.  I'm thinking I would have to be a lot leggier and bustier to get it to do that on me.  The fit on my dress maker dummy is pretty much how it fits me, with the lace ending at my waist.  I thought about trying to shorten the next one that I make, but I would have to shorten it a lot, and I prefer longer dresses anyway, so I'm going to leave it as is.  I have also contemplated making a lining for it, just to give it a more finished appearance.

After I finished this one I immediately cast on my Winter Dress using the set of Silverlode on Luxe that I have had in my stash for a few years now.  I wound the first skein and weighed it and was shocked to discover that it was light, 4 grams light.  I don't think this has ever happened to me before with Unique Sheep yarns, usually they are heavy.  I hoped it was an anomaly and started knitting.  I got through most of the first skein on Sunday and went to wind the second skein, and it was also light, and once again by 4 grams.  Now I was really getting worried, so I wound and weighed the rest of the skeins and they were all light.  Instead of 300 grams I only had 280.  I need 288 grams for this dress.  Confronted with this situation I did the only sane thing, I ordered more yarn.  This time I ordered Winter Amethyst, which goes from purple to silver.  I thought it was even more appropriate than Silverlode.  It has "Winter" in the name, and it has purple, which is one of my favorite colors.  Keeping with this convention, the Spring Dress should be knit in Spring Grass, and the Summer Dress should be knit in Summer's End.

Project:  Alita Dress by Adrienne Larsen from Knitter's Magazine 116, Fall 2014
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Luxe in Autumn for Ana
Needles:  US 4 (3.5 mm)