At long last

A post and some pics to show of recent work. It's not an FO yet, but it's close.

Here's the unblocked, recently finished pinafore in 90% glory. I love this pattern, and so does DD who insisted it was hers. Because it's first a dress and then a tunic to get the most mileage out of a lovingly made handknit garment, I made the terrible mistake of trying it on DD to see how it would fit on a 2-year-old (I knit the 3 mo size). A terrible mistake because of course DD didn't want to take off the "purple dress." I wrenched it from her (intact) by promising to knit her a purple hat, which she wanted immediately. ~sigh~ I have a lot to learn as a parent. But when you're two, out of sight is out of mind: she hasn't seen the pinafore since.

Anyhoo, the dress knit up quickly. I knit both front and back on the same needles at the same time (thanks to long circular needles!). The pattern was relatively easy to follow, though I did have to pay attention. I also had to stop and devote some attention to deciphering the instructions along the shoulders and neckline, but that's not unusual. Believe it or not, this pattern had very little ripping, if any (yay me).

As you can see, the dress joins at one shoulder and is open at the other (wonderful to accommodate infants' large heads and small bodies). I modified the shoulder strap at the open end to allow a little more overlap for a button & button hole. BUT, I also decided to use a snap closure with a decorative button on top (as a parent I HATED clothing with actual buttons).

The only thing I have left are the pockets and the side tabs. The pockets are giving me some trouble. They are lovely pockets with cute flowers that "grow out of" the bottom grass of the dress. However, I've never done intarsia successfully nor have I ever knit and sewn on a pocket. I'm only so-so happy with this first pocket, and my first attempt to sew it on was a bomb.

As you can see, the underside is a bit of a mess. I'm not sure if this is what intarsia is supposed to look like or not, but the yarn carries over wide swatches. Maybe I shouldn't carry the yarn but weave in the ends, but the pocket is so small with only a few stitches (4-5 max) of color in between colors that it seemed silly to not carry it. It's not a functional pocket, so it won't matter what the underside looks like.

I tell myself all this, of course, but really I care (or else I wouldn't have the conversation). I want the underside to look neat and tidy. I want to learn how to do this the right way. The pocket isn't functional, really, but it doesn't matter - I want the knitting to be right. But I also want to finish the darn thing and get on with it. I've looked at some good online resources (How to be an expert knitter was REALLY helpful), but reading and looking at others doing it is a lot different than doing it yourself.

I'm thinking about skipping the pockets all together, but that blows the pretty green grass and violet edging at the top.

So, I have more work to do, but it's close. I can't wait to see the FO.